it's almost always end up with the club trying to facilitate an exit because it's in their interest to sell a player rather than keeping him while he's unhappy. Dortmund can get a lot of money here, but they want to milk Barca to the maximum.
BBZ asked me the other day to name players that asked to be transferred but were blocked by their club, and I admit they are not numerous.
Actually 2 cases came to mind at that time.
- Verratti. PSG is PSG, they don't sell their best players that still have a long contract (4 years in his case). That said, main reason Verratti wanted to leave is that he was sure PSG were incapable of recruiting world class player, then he's been told that Neymar would arraive, and we know the rest of the story...
- De Gea. One of the cases that go against what you said. Manchester didn't facilitate anything. They did all they can to make the situation as bad as possible. If you remember, De Gea wasn't even on the bench during pre season, it was like he was punished. Then they just played the waiting game with Real, and used that awful fax tactic to say "oh we tried but we were 10 second late lulz".
Just to say, I doubt Dortmund has the balls to do what PSG, and Manchester did. Manchester suffered from Ronaldo's loss, and since, they real hard to deal with. PSG is PSG, and I hope we won't ever again try to get a player from them, it's a waste of time.
As you said, if Dortmund really refused to sell Dembele, they would have pulled a PSG. They would not even reply to phone call. Remember, early this summer, catalan medias said Bartomeu even tried to go to Paris to talk directly to Nasser, and Parisian medias reported PSG people didn't even let any barca people talk with them. That's how you refuse things I guess. No discussions, and no doubt about what you want.
Dortmund did not do that. It means they are open to negociations.
I defended them 2 days ago, but now asking 150m feels just like trying to rob Barca. Dembele is not worth that much.
That said, that's also Barca's fault, let's be honest. Neymar having a release clause too low. Bartomeu not reacting when he was told Neymar was acting strange. Etc. In the end, we can't just accuse others. Barca put itself in a difficult position, not because of others, but because of a mismanaged board.