Ousmane Dembélé

[the yid]

Pretty amazing Barca spent over 400M on this guy, Coutinho and Greizeman. No wonder they are bankrupt.

Trying to portray an image of being a European powerhouse when they can't afford to be! Like the bloke who lives in a 1 bed council flat but drives a brand new state of the art Mercedes-Benz

 

[paulcumpstone]

Look awful every time ive watched him. Very fast but awful first touch

 

[Cochise]

Far too injury prone to spend any money on. He's one of those that you'd only want to pay on incentive based targets.

 

[yawa]

Very good player if he could actually stay fit just sadly thats not going to happen as some players just dont have it in them.

 

[The Opinionated Lurker]

Pretty amazing Barca spent over 400M on this guy, Coutinho and Greizeman. No wonder they are bankrupt.

This is true but it’s such an ‘in hindsight’ opinion, all three at the time they were bought were some of the most coveted players in their position in the world. Failed massively though.

 

[JR1994]

Pretty amazing Barca spent over 400M on this guy, Coutinho and Greizeman. No wonder they are bankrupt.

Take into account that they did get 150m for neymar though. And at the time nobody expected any to fail let alone all 3..

 

[yankspurs]

Take into account that they did get 150m for neymar though. And at the time nobody expected any to fail let alone all 3..

They spent 400m on fees alone. Then gave them astronomical wages. And even if they were all successfull & Barca won CL x3, it wouldnt have saved them from the financial calamity they had coming

 

[Nice One Cyril]

He is reported to wanting an insane amount of wages, and considers himself one of the worlds best. Yeah, no thanks...

'considers himself'... Arrogant players we don't need... Good post.

 

[Hakkz]

Not defending him on this but he was a 19 year old. Pretty sure we all did stupid shit like this at that age and he's probably been too sheltered to know any better. Having worked in the UK rentals business in the past you'd be surprised how many tenants don't clean on vacating as they just assume it will be taken from the deposit regardless. We all know how quickly signings can happen, it could just be a case that one day he's a dortmund player and next day he's on his way to Barca and doesn't go back to the house. Messi lived for 6 months in a hotel in Barca when he arrived, the move happened too quickly for him to sort our proper accommodation. On a side note you can rent out the "Messi Suite" at that hotel at a surprisingly affordable rate.

Not making excuses for him, sounds like a shitty thing to do, but not sure this is the best example of poor attitude or discipline. I'd much rather judge him based on poor discipline on the pitch or in training, which may also be the case.

And yet you never hear such stories of other 19 year old footballers. He's just an idiot.

 

[JCRD]

Why do I feel like this is an Ars signing

 

[sidford]

This lad has been in dog house loads of times at Barca for being unprofessional including small inexcusable bits like consistently late. Even Messi was said to have had words with him, if you can't do the basic professional stuff while working with some of the best players in world then you ain't doing it anywhere.

Lads who are unprofessional and don't look after themselves also tend to pick up a lot of injuries & his career to date has been blighted by them - might be putting 2&2 together and getting 5 but it ain't out of the question the 2 are linked.

I doubt we would actually get him if we.tried but hopefully this is just paper/agent talk.

 

[brasil_spur]

And yet you never hear such stories of other 19 year old footballers. He's just an idiot.

I mean there's plenty stories of 19 year old footballers getting into all kinds of trouble, some of it actually criminal, like speeding, getting into fights, taking drugs and a number of rapes. I'm not saying I condone his behaviour and there may well be other better examples, but leaving his house in a mess isn't really a massive thing is it? Also the "dustbin" comment was what his landlord quoted to Bild. I'm not sure i'm going to come down on the side of the landlord automatically based on his pre-court quote to a newspaper. Initially the money being sought was €21,000 for unpaid rent and damages to the property. The court awarded only €10,000 to the landlord, so clearly he was trying it on a bit.

 

[dirtydave]

Playing Devil's advocate here.

He has so much talent. Dembele>Coutinho for example.

I've no idea whether there are any underlying behavioural issues, but Barca are currently broke, they know how much is being wasted on him and, above all, they know they can reinvest the money in excellent talent as they are Barcelona and still attract big names. I see Barca as in a phase of rebuilding but with some common sense for the first time in years.

We are in a different place. We'll often gamble on youth, tie players to long but low contracts and generally hope we get lucky. I personally would be for taking a punt on Dembele. Keep him fit and christ on a bike he's dynamite. No one will ever pay him £600k pw, but if we gave him the same as Harry but on a very short contract with a extension option, would it be so bad?

Injury prone players are a concern, but the reason why people can ignore it more with a player like Ledley King than, say, Christian Pulisic, is because the former maintains a high level when he’s fit. The same could be argued for Dembele who puts in solid performances when he is fit. We need some quality in our rotation and he would certainly tick that box.

 

[Johno1470]

Strange that he’s turning down a mega contract at Barca. Who in the PL would be willing to match or come close to this wages on a player with his injury record?

 

[sausage]

 

[EastUpperDK82]

No thanks !! ... Dembele is nothing but trouble, injuries and bad attitude... we need to move away from these kind of players. I don't care how talented he is.

 

[sidford]

Strange that he’s turning down a mega contract at Barca. Who in the PL would be willing to match or come close to this wages on a player with his injury record?

Mix of a few bits:
There is a lot of uncertainty regarding what a player might now be able to earn when on a free as the market is shifting after Covid so appears that agent is over estimating what player can earn
Agent over playing strength of hand in negotiations. Barca were thought to need him to agree to a contract with reduced wages in first 2 years with bulk of wage paid in last few years much like they did with other players so they could register Torres but they agreed deal with Umtiti so don't need the wage room as badly
Always wary when wage figures are stated for free transfers because it could well be a combination of wages plus signing on fee divided by length of contract
Potential Greed
Agent demanding wages so big that Barca wouldn't agree so he could move dembele on to get a hefty signing on fee for himself from another club

 

[Neon_Knight_]

Take into account that they did get 150m for neymar though. And at the time nobody expected any to fail let alone all 3..

I expected Coutinho to fail to live up to his transfer fee and find himself as a rotation player. I felt he was more of a £40-50m player at the time, as he didn't do enough out of possession. "No.10" AMs have to contribute more than goals and assists in the current era, unlike 15 years ago when Kaka won the Ballon d'Or (confirmed by the amount of criticism Eriksen used to get on SC for not being able to tackle).

At the end of the day, Barca paid inflated fees to pull-off marquee signings, which is always a risky approach unless you have deep pockets (e.g. Chelsea pre-UEFA Fair Play).

 

[archiewasking]

Numbers, numbers everywhere. All that's missing is Rachel Riley. Where are all these figures being plucked from ??

Vlahovic supposedly 350k wasn't it, Dembele now 600k

Johnny Ball...Think of a number.

 

[Rob]

I suspect me might need this thread shortly.