The Lowdown on Chelsea Target Ousmane Dembele

There’s no doubt Chelsea have had a positive start to their season on all fronts; being heavily involved in the race for the Premier League title and in their Champions League campaign, Thomas Tuchel’s side have also been impressive albeit being pipped to top stop in their group by Juventus. However, they’re looking to add to their squad to push their ambitions even higher when the transfer window reopens in January.

It’s now widely rumoured that The Blues are focusing their sights on Barcelona’s French attacker, Ousmane Dembele, to give them even more firepower upfront. The 24-year-old has found himself out of favour with the Spanish club, who are going through a transitional period as they struggle financially.

Dembele has only made a handful of appearances this season, which has led to the increasing speculation around his potential departure from the Camp Nou. However, his quality is undoubted, in his time with the Catalan club,

Dembele’s currently averaging a goal in just over every four games and has created over 20 goals for others to date. Those figures would have undoubtedly been much higher but for an injury, he picked up shortly after moving to Spain.

The Chelsea manager has long been an admirer of Dembele, who knows him well from their time together at Borussia Dortmund, the club who Barca paid over £100million to acquire his services.

Back in 2019, when the German was in charge of PSG, Tuchel was asked about the Frenchman, and he said: “Ousmane is an incredible player, he’s really talented. I could watch his amazing skills in every training session.”

Those positive feelings are also mutual, with Dembele being reported in this article by the Daily Express as saying that that the German is his favourite manager he’s played for, and he’s also admitted to journalists he wouldn’t have Dortmund if the coach hadn’t been relieved of his duties at Signal Iduna Park in May 2017.

So, it could be that the pair are to finally be reunited just as the Champions League heads towards its knockout stage, and if it is to be the case, it would definitely strengthen the Blues’ position in the competition, where they’re already attracting attention. The Blues are amongst the favourites to retain the trophy in the current Champions League betting odds with Coral, and that could be a big factor in attracting Dembele. The top players want to play in the big tournaments, and other clubs chasing him, such as Newcastle, can’t offer that.

While his current club Barcelona struggle in European competition this season, it’s also looking like they will struggle to qualify for the competition next season too, which could be a further influence on Dembele choosing to make Chelsea his next destination.

Barcelona have given the attacker a deadline of Dec 31st to decide on his future, with their new head coach, Xavi, stating openly he’s trying hard to convince him to stay: he has been said to have made assurances to the player.

At the same time, other reports in Spain are that Dembele has made up his mind already and will leave. Considering all options, it looks more likely that he will leave Spain, but it remains to be seen if that transpires in January to help boost the finances at Barca or he makes a free transfer move in the summer when his contract expires.