Ousmane Dembele is a player that Barcelona are determined to tie down to a new contract, but the Frenchman and his camp have not shown the same desire and that could lead to him departing the club in the January transfer window.
The 24-year-old is in the last year of his deal at Barcelona and can start talking to other clubs from January 1 about signing a pre-contract agreement, with the situation becoming more worrying for the Blaugrana by the day.
Strategy not to renew
Barcelona feared from the start of talks that Dembele may look to run down his contract in order to secure a more lucrative deal elsewhere, with the possibility of a hefty signing-on fee and wages that the club cannot match.Newcastle United are interested in the French winger and are willing to pay him 15 million euros per season, plus a signing-on fee worth the same value.Laporta's assessment
Barcelona president Joan Laporta, like new head coach Xavi Hernandez, is keen to see Dembele put pen to paper on a new contract at the Camp Nou, but he admits that things are not progressing as quickly as he would have liked."The negotiation process is slower than we would have liked, and we are working on it. I can't say anything specific because we're still in the middle of it," Laporta said at an event on Wednesday, December 1."Dembele is a very important player for us and he can give us much more than he has given us, he can be a key player if we manage to keep him. We are still trying to get him to stay.
"The contractual situation is what it is and what we have found, but our challenge is for him to stay."