Barcelona’s Director of Football Mateu Alemany is leaving the club this summer in order to join Aston Villa, but he has a number of issues to sort out before he does so. One of those tasks involves Ousmane Dembele.
The Frenchman and Alemany have not always seen eye-to-eye in recent years, with the latter previously declaring Dembele persona non grata in January of last year, asking him to leave the club if he wasn’t going to sign a renewal.
A deal was eventually done in July last year, with the two parties managing to negotiate, and as per Sport, Alemany wants to secure the renewal of Dembele before he departs Camp Nou.
The club is keen not to place themselves in a similar situation to last time, although the relationship between all parties is much better than before. Another short-term contract is likely, with a further two years planned. It allows Barcelona to keep the cost relatively low, and Dembele control over his future. Dembele is keen on renewing.
Dembele has been joined at the hip with manager Xavi Hernandez since he came to the club, who has been his biggest backer. It implies that Dembele would likely want the power to decide his future if Xavi should leave.
Good decision.