A few links in last couple of days with Dembele as his contract expires with Barcelona in the summer. 

He is very talented, and he was fantastic under Tuchel, so i can see why the links are there. Also no transfer fee could make it an attactive option. 

Only negative for me, and its a massive negative, is his fitness record and professionalism. 

As a free transfer, do the negatives outweigh the potential positives? 

16 minutes ago, big blue said:

A few links in last couple of days with Dembele as his contract expires with Barcelona in the summer. 

He is very talented, and he was fantastic under Tuchel, so i can see why the links are there. Also no transfer fee could make it an attactive option. 

Only negative for me, and its a massive negative, is his fitness record and professionalism. 

As a free transfer, do the negatives outweigh the potential positives? 

I'd say that's two very big negatives. It's like hiring someone knowing in advance he has a bad attitude and isn't going to be at work half the time.

He's a very talented player, better technically than probably anyone in our current squad, but he's got a lot of baggage.

No thanks, attitude and injury prone. Even on a freebie he’d still take up a space in the squad. Avoid.

1 minute ago, dansubrosa said:

No thanks, attitude and injury prone. Even on a freebie he’d still take up a space in the squad. Avoid.

 

And a hefty wage.....hard pass

We need an inside forward that can score goals. The problem is that Dembele isn't really scoring goals.

I say we go for Marco Asensio and Adama Traore.

2 hours ago, Gol15 said:

We need an inside forward that can score goals. The problem is that Dembele isn't really scoring goals.

I say we go for Marco Asensio and Adama Traore.

Marco Asensio and Adama Traore don't score many goals either. If we go for Dembele it will be purely down to Tuchel's experience with him at Dortmund. However I suspect that connection is driving the rumours more than anything. I doubt this will happen

1 hour ago, forbzy said:

Marco Asensio and Adama Traore don't score many goals either. If we go for Dembele it will be purely down to Tuchel's experience with him at Dortmund. However I suspect that connection is driving the rumours more than anything. I doubt this will happen

Tuchel reunited with Pulisic already so that alone doesn't say much.

Adama Traore's goal scoring records are laughable.

As is the idea that Ousmane Dembele is a serious footballer or anywhere near the the right player for us, be that physically (made of glass) or mentally (total clown). 

He was a top prospect for France but right now I wouldn't go in if he played for free. Bad apples ruin the lot. 

2 hours ago, BordeauxBlue said:

Adama Traore's goal scoring records are laughable.

As is the idea that Ousmane Dembele is a serious footballer or anywhere near the the right player for us, be that physically (made of glass) or mentally (total clown). 

He was a top prospect for France but right now I wouldn't go in if he played for free. Bad apples ruin the lot. 

But he has 5 skill stars on Fifa! 

We should not look for players like this.

Dembele is a real talent and his days at Dortmund under Tuchel were great. But then I look at his career at Barcelona so far, it seems like he's very average. 

 

If we are looking for a good winger who can be a reliable source of goals we could probably get Jarrod Bowen at a decent price.

On 11/01/2022 at 10:05, big blue said:

A few links in last couple of days with Dembele as his contract expires with Barcelona in the summer. 

He is very talented, and he was fantastic under Tuchel, so i can see why the links are there. Also no transfer fee could make it an attactive option. 

Only negative for me, and its a massive negative, is his fitness record and professionalism. 

As a free transfer, do the negatives outweigh the potential positives? 

It can be a problem if he consistently underperforms and still gets game time all the time when there are better options available. With it being a free, maybe it would work. But with the wages he'd probably want, I'd be cautious. The upside is we know what he can do when he is healthy and in a good situation. The professionalism thing can be a two sided thing, but once again his professionalism would make me cautious. 

How common are incentive based contracts in football? In the US, its pretty common practice to include incentives for players to hit to get more money. If that is something that is possible, then an incentive based contact of playing x% of minutes, or averaging a goal every x minutes or whatever. Not perfect, but an idea that wouldn't completely hamstring the club, but might motivate the player to push himself.

No from me. Can’t forgive him for his semi final sub performance against Liverpool. In three minutes he managed to miss 3 golden opportunities to totally bury Liverpool out of sight. We know what happened after that. 
This shows two of the chances but another one he was going through against the keeper and failed to control the through ball. 
For all the hype about him at the time it should have been bread and butter. 
I remember thinking at the time that those misses could cost them.

w**ker, still raises the blood pressure just thinking about it.

 

I have a sweet spot for Dembele eversince I watched him play for Dortmund. There is a reason Barca bought him for an absurd amount of money. Haven't seen anybody like him really afterwards. Pure technical brilliance with both feet. Also think his "personal" issues are way blown outta proportion since Dortmund and the German boulevard ran an completely ad hominem (scapegoat) campaign against him (imho bordeline racist by the boulevard). Sure, he fell on his nose with his strike but there were also believable rumours that he got a verbal agreement to join a AAA once asked before he signed with Dortmund - who stepped back on this gentlemens agreement (at least in public - maybe they just wanted to cheat Barca outta more money which they did in the end).

 

That said - his injuries are not just a concern but a plain no-go.

If he'd stayed fit in his career I'd put him alongside Mbappé talent level wise but that's just not the case. He'd get murdered in the EPL - just like Coman who nobody in his right mind should sign for the EPL.

If we are going for a winger with injury issues, plus a dodgy track record in La Liga, then I'd rather bring Eden back LOL.

He's leaving Barcelona this month. Confirmed by the club itself

Think we need to have a look here. We are desperate for quality in forward areas and Dembele would be our best attacker. And Tuchel absolutely loves him and we'd get him for a great deal with six months left on his contract.

34 minutes ago, Sindre said:

He's leaving Barcelona this month. Confirmed by the club itself

Think we need to have a look here. We are desperate for quality in forward areas and Dembele would be our best attacker. And Tuchel absolutely loves him and we'd get him for a great deal with six months left on his contract.

Good player...when fit! Astronomical wage demands!

Would depend on the fee that Barca are asking for but if he's available for say £30m and the wage demands aren't too high you could definately see the club taking a punt on him, especailly if Tuchel wants him. 

Given how poor our attacking players have been this season I really don't think you coud rule it out. 

Used to really like this player but I haven't seen that much of him recently to see what his current form is like.

Saying that, he's much more direct and dangerous than anything we have currently, so if Tuchel wants him and the finances make sense then it would make a nice change for a manger to get in his own transfer target.

We should absolutely be in for him, the price tag and injury issues have definitely hindered him but he’s still a top class player and with Barca desperate to get some return on him we could get a bargain. Not to mention Tuchel has already worked with him. Of course if it was Fifa/FM I’d try and swap him for Ziyech but probably not likely in real life 😄

Just what we need, another light weight attacker, I`m sure he`ll love playing passes backwards constantly.

1 minute ago, dkw said:

Just what we need, another light weight attacker, I`m sure he`ll love playing passes backwards constantly.

That's why we need him. He'll actually take someone on instead of whatever the hell Hudson Odoi, Ziyech and the others are doing currently.

I saw him v Real Madrid a couple of weeks ago. He was very good and looked better than most of our attackers ever have here with us.

 

He wont because our wingers arent allowed to take people on, their job is to turn round and pass it back to the midfielders/defenders.

1 minute ago, dkw said:

He wont because our wingers arent allowed to take people on, their job is to turn round and pass it back to the midfielders/defenders.

Right. Our wingers aren't doing this for fun. They are coached to play this way. Even Reece started doing this. He used to take players on and whip in early crosses but that stopped.

13 minutes ago, dkw said:

He wont because our wingers arent allowed to take people on, their job is to turn round and pass it back to the midfielders/defenders.

You don't really believe that, that's just stupid.