Chelsea have reportedly joined Manchester United and Juventus in the race to sign Barcelona superstar Ousmane Dembele this summer.
According to an exclusive report from Sport, FC Barcelona have stepped up their efforts to tie Ousmane Dembele down to a new contract. The club’s hierarchy has been impressed with the progress the winger has made under Ronald Koeman, but with his contract expiring in 2022, they are now desperate to extend his deal.
Dembele is happy in Catalonia as well, but has appeared reluctant to sign a new contract as he prefers a lucrative extension. It has put the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Juventus on red alert, knowing the player’s indecision could lead to Barcelona cashing in on him this summer.
Manchester United were primarily linked with a move for Dembele last summer as their desired alternative for top target Jadon Sancho. A move, though, failed to materialise with the attacker ending up remaining at Camp Nou.
However, we can expect the Red Devils to rekindle their interest in Dembele this summer, as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer continues his search for attacking reinforcements. The recent interest from Chelsea, though, could be a challenging one for Manchester United as the West London giants do have the cash to burn despite the spending spree last summer.
The Blues have enjoyed a lot of progress under Thomas Tuchel, which is sure to give additional inspiration to Roman Abramovich. From a sporting perspective, Chelsea do already have a packed attacking unit. But, they have had issues with Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner and Kai Havertz’s lack of form; and it won’t be surprising to see at least one of them leaving the club in the summer.
It could ideally pave the way for someone like Dembele to arrive at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea themselves could get a significant boost in his transfer pursuit as the player had initially made his Bundesliga breakthrough under Tuchel.
The Chelsea boss is well aware of the winger’s skill-set and knows how to extract the best out of him and it could potentially be enough to convince Dembele to switch to the Premier League in the summer and ahead of Manchester United, especially if Chelsea manage to offer a lucrative contract for the Barcelona superstar.
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Manchester United, though, won’t go down without a fight while Barcelona themselves will be trying their best in keeping hold of the Frenchman beyond this summer. The likely departure of Philippe Coutinho could greatly help them, in that regard, as the club seeks to balance the books following a disastrous financial year.
