Barcelona waste no time in finding Neymar replacement after making contact with £90m Ousmane Dembele of Borussia Dortmund- Barcelona have identified their desired Neymar replacement
- The Catalan giants have already made contact with Ousmane Dembele
- Barca could have moved for the youngster last summer, when he only cost ?15m
- Now Borussia Dortmund want ?100m (£90m) for the young Frenchman
Barcelona have three weeks left to find a replacement for Neymar and the club have wasted no time in establishing Ousmane Dembele as the preferred choice.There is already contact between the 20-year-old Borussia Dortmund winger and Barcelona technical secretary Robert Fernandez because they made a move for the France international last summer when he would have cost them just ?15m (£13.5m) from Stade Rennes.This summer, after a good season in Germany, his price had rocketed to ?90m.
And now that Barca have the Neymar money, another ?10m has been added, making it ?100m (£90m) for a talented prospect who has made seven appearances for his country, scoring one goal.That is not likely to put them off. Dembele is quick, two-footed and will be willing to work. He will have French team-mate Samuel Umtiti to take care of him as he settles and he will cost Barcelona less than half the wages it would have taken to keep Neymar.
The problem will be Dortmund’s reluctance to sell. Barcelona could offer them Gerard Deulofeu to sweeten the deal but if they did that they would have to pay a penalty fee to Everton after buying the winger back from them this summer on the basis that they would not sell him in the first year.
If Dembele doesn’t come off there is a fascinating plan B – buy Angel Di Maria now and get Antoine Griezmann in a year’s time. In many ways Griezmann is the gold-plated option as they peruse the market for a new Neymar. If Neymar is the No 3 player in the world then Griezmann is 3.5. The problem is his buy-out clause.
It was set at ?100m but has been bumped up to ?200m for this year’s transfer window while Atletico Madrid are banned from registering new signings.
Di Maria is potentially available from PSG. He is a likely victim of the reshuffle that needs to allow Neymar to play where he wants in a central role. Barcelona have looked at him before.
He has a reasonable relationship with Argentina team-mate Lionel Messi and he would be relatively cheap. The club could buy Di Maria now and make a ?100m move for Griezmann in 2018. Di Maria would also give them variation because – as he proved at Real Madrid – he can play in a midfield three.
Neither of these two options mean Barcelona have given up on Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho. He was always seen as a midfield purchase more than an attacking one with the original idea behind his mooted signing being that he would play behind Neymar.
Neymar is no longer at Barcelona to help persuade Coutinho to make the move but he does have an excellent relationship with Luis Suarez. Not that it is Coutinho who needs persuading. Liverpool’s total objection to a sale is the obstacle.
Both Paulo Dybala and Chelsea's Eden Hazard have been discussed but for now neither seem to be at the forefront of Barcelona's planning.
There is one more card that Barca could play and some of their supporters are beginning to wonder why they don’t play it. Just take the Neymar money, jet across to Monte Carlo and stick it all on red 10, in other words buy Kylian Mbappe.
They would be signing the player who most commentators believe will emerge as Neymar’s biggest competitor as the best in the world in the post Messi-Ronaldo era. And they would also be taking Real Madrid’s top summer target.
As of yet Barcelona do not seem keen. Mbappe is open to the idea. It’s no coincidence that confirmation emerged from Monaco that he wants to leave this summer on the same day Neymar’s departure was confirmed. But he is also a Madrid fan.
He had a trip to the training ground when he was only 14 and met his heroes Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo, and his father Wilfried met with the club in June. The problem with moving to Madrid is that, for now, they can’t sell any of their attacking stars and Mbappe is concerned he would not play regularly.
It’s a wild card Barcelona could play but as things stand it remains face down on the table while they concentrate on Dembele and Coutinho.
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[ 此帖被羅力亞在2017-08-26 03:39重新編輯 ]