Ousmane Dembele Presents : 2023 Summer Saga – PSG Bound?

A day after his stunning goal vs Real Madrid, the rumor is that PSG are pushing to sign Ousmane Dembele. PSG are in the middle of their own saga, with Mbappe rejecting their contract offer. Therefore, the Parisian club are looking at Dembele as a possible replacement. And for us Barcelona fans, it looks like for a 2nd summer in a row, we will have a saga with the Frenchman.

When he signed his new short-term contract last summer, Dembele received a release clause of 100 Million Euros. However, during the month of July, this clause is reduced to 50M. Moreover, in an event of a sale, Dembele and his agent will receive 50% of the amount.

Xavi did a great work with Ousmane Dembele, so losing him to PSG would be a blow for him. The coach would still like to convince Dembele and make him stay. However, when you think about it, Dembele leaving won’t be the end of the world. Let’s look at the pros and cons.

Pros

FFP boost

Of course it better to sell Dembele for the full 100m release clause. However, even selling him now will give the club a boost in the fair-play margin. It’s not yet known if the income would be 25M or 50M in the books. We’ll have to wait and see how the commissions will be written in the books. But even in the worst case scenario, when you add his salary, that’s 45M off the books. This amount can be crucial in bringing some players in. Suddenly a name like Bernardo Silva or Joao Felix won’t be totally impossible.

Avoid losing a player for free

Both Barcelona and Dembele’s agent theoretically want the Frenchman to stay and renew his contract. Meanwhile, he only has 1 year left in his contract. Therefore, the club risks losing him for free next summer. In that case, selling him now will help the club achieve income for a player that cost a lot of money.

Selling an unproven player

6 years after his arrival to Barcelona, and we can’t really say that he proved himself. Dembele arrived as a Ballon d’or potential, and so far he was no where near that. Although there is improvement under Xavi, we can’t really count on him to be healthy and perform on big occasions. Maybe selling him now would be the best thing for the club. Raphinha can play in his position. Also, Ferran and Lamine Yamal. And if the club manages to sign him, Bernardo will also be a great addition and can play him the right wing.

Cons

There are very few good right wingers out there. And there are very few players that unpredictable like Ousmane Dembele. That’s why it’s not surprising that someone like Luis Enrique believes that Dembele can be a prefect addition to his Project at PSG. Moreover, Raphinha might not be good enough to rely on for a full season, and Lamine Yamal is still very young. Even if you bring Bernardo, who is a world class player for sure, he doesn’t offer the same things as Dembele does.

Also, selling Dembele for 25M Euros is pretty laughable. It would be just another case of Barcelona underselling their players.

Bottom line

Selling Dembele to PSG would be an unfortunate thing, but not the end of the world for the club. It’s nothing like losing Neymar back then.

But Dembele really wants to leave, just wait 2 days. It would leave less bitter taste in the mouth of the fans that supported him for 6 years.

Marco