Ousmane Dembélé waiting on Chelsea before deciding his future — report

Few things are more en vogue in football these days than players running down their contracts and raking in that sweet free agency cash money — finally starting to catch up with their counterparts in other professional sports, especially over in the USA. Our own Antonio Rüdiger and Andreas Christensen are two among the many, though one of the biggest names to do so this year is Barcelona’s Ousmane Dembélé, who was once the subject of the second most expensive transfer ever, but could be leaving Barca for absolutely nothing in return just five years later. Ouch.

Dembélé was dramatically linked with Chelsea in January, and while that was never going to happen then, and he had seemingly managed to turn his fortunes around in the second half of the season under new manager Xavi, his future is still very much undecided — and increasingly unlikely to involve the Blaugrana, with their president recently admitting to the player being tempted by the fruit of others.

The cream of Europe’s footballing crop are all probably keeping an eye out, with Bayern Munich the latest big name linked, but as per PA Sport’s Nick Purewal, it’s in fact Chelsea whom Dembélé’s waiting on — at least to make his decision, if not to actually join us. This is in line with the resolution of the January storyline, which claimed that we would be his preference, if things came to that.

Now that Chelsea’s sanctions have been lifted and we can get down to business as usual, perhaps we can put together an offer for Dembélé to mull over as well? A reunion with his former coach Thomas Tuchel is an easy story for the rumor mill, but that doesn’t necessarily make it without any merit.