Barcelona Manager Xavi Hernandez has confirmed that French winger Ousmane Dembele will indeed join Paris Saint-Germain this summer.
PSG appear to have reached a deal with Barcelona for Dembele, who will bring to an end six years in Catalonia. The fee is believed to be in the region of €50m.
Dembele travelled with the Barcelona side to Las Vegas for their final friendly of their US preseason tour, but did not feature for Barcelona as they beat Milan 1-0. Xavi spoke to Relevo after the match.
“I will be very clear, he has told he wans to leave, he has a proposal from PSG and we can’t do anything.”
“It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth because we have taken care of him so that he is happy here. A little disappointed, yes I am.”
“We cannot compete with the proposal that they’ve made to him, it’s out of our reach.”
He went on to say that by the time the deal reached him, it appeared to already be done.
“It’s simple. He came to me with a proposal from PSG. Said that he wanted to leave, that he had spoken with Luis Enrique, with Nasser and has a proposal with which we cannot compete. We have asked him the reason and he has not been able to answer. I sense that it will be something personal. Disappointed? Yes. The important thing is that he has been clear. I wish him luck”.
“He looked so happy to me, I did not expect it. That is the market. Whoever doesn’t want to be at Barca, you have to let him go.”
He also made it clear that Barcelona would have to bring in a replacement for Dembele, a question which has been exercising fans over the last few days.
“Dembele’s loss weakens us, but we were already prepared for this scenario and we knew that the clause could happen. We have to strengthen.”
“The objective does not change. You have to go for all of it. But I already said that I think we have to reinforce ourselves. We are all aligned [on that], it is not that I am sending a message now at a press conference.”
If Barcelona do indeed strengthen in the form of a replacement for Dembele, it could have consequences elsewhere. Moroccan winger Ez Abde appears to be keeping a close eye on the situation, and if Barcelona do sign another wide player, then he is likely to depart in search of more game time.
