Why are we always linked to injury prone players? Bale, now Dembele...
Because we have a history of signing them Hargreaves, Shweinsteiger, Rojo.
In Dembele's case though, I think he was offered to us by Barcelona. This is why the link came out of the blue and no notable journos were able to pick up on it.
The problem is that his contract runs up to 2022. If the club loans him out and he finds form, enjoys his time wherever he goes and wants to stay there... Barca will not be able to drive his price up with only one year remaining on his contract. That’s a worry for them.
On the other hand, if he stays and has another season like last ... Barca would have to write off most of his value. Who will pay any serious money for an injury plagued player, on high wages, on his last year of contract. Barca will have to either renew and hope he recovers or let him go for a fraction of what they paid for him.
The way I see it is a lose/lose for Barca. They can keep him and lose him as a free agent or they can sell/loan him out and cut their loses by getting him off the wage bill. And who knows and maybe even get a decent fee for him.
It worth remembering that Barca has the biggest wage budget in Europe and with the current economic climate, they are in a really vulnerable position. So selling Dembele makes way too much sense in these circumstances.
Barca would happily let him go in my opinion. He’s been nothing but a liability for them and it’s clear they’re not handling him well either.
Even if he does regain his fitness, he’d still be low in the pecking order. If Messi Suarez Griezzy are fit they all play. He’d also then have Fati to compete with.
Barca will most likely use this opportunity to trim their wage bill. Also, even if Barca did want to sell him, no one would buy him in his current situation. Not even us. A loan would be compulsory for Dembele to prove his worth. This strategy would also be more beneficial for Barca in my opinion. If they try to sell him now they know nobody will offer north of €50m approximately. But if he does prove his worth, he’ll obviously fetch a lot more and rightly so. If nobody’s willing to pay that they can just bring him back and by next summer Suarez will most likely be gone. Dembele Griezzy Messi would be a decent line up for them. Point is, if Barca did want to sell him, they’d want a substantial return on their initial investment when they bought Dembele and that won’t happen this summer for sure. I may be wording it wrong but I mean, they’ll want at least half or so back on the 150m just like you said. And not 50m.
As for his ‘serious attitude problems’, I think he’s past that phase now. Young players go through it but he obviously won’t stay immature forever. Pogba & Martial along with the young squad will have a positive effect on him.
Agreed.
At the end of the day, what's the worst that can happen if we manage to secure a loan with an option to buy?
He either:
- Is going to be injury prone and feature in around 20 games. Which means that he will be more of a rotational player and prevent us from over playing Greenwood. At the end of the loan we say thanks to Barca, but you guys can have him back.
or
- He is going to come good and solve a lot of our issues. And the great thing is that he is going to have only 1 year left on his contract. So we'll be able to sign him for a reduced fee.
Win/win if you ask me. As a mentioned in my previous post. He has that something about him that screams Man Utd player. Can be the muppet talking in me