Ousmane Dembélé

[jamrock]

Had the chance to buy Mbappé instead of him, backnin August 2017, when Neymar money had filled up our coffers...

Instead, Barto ignored Mbappé's public interest, and signed Ousmane and Coutinho instead....Money well spent 🤬

Wrong almost everyone involved in Barca wanted dembele, in hindsight it didn't workout with all the injuries, but coming from durtmond he was class & looked like he had a bright future, a talent just a step below mbappe.

This wasn't like coutinho where there was some who were iffy on the signing.

 

[slicknick]

Wrong almost everyone involved in Barca wanted dembele .

I know...and "almost everyone " made a mistake. That's what I was referring to...As you said , though, it's easy to judge on hindsight, perhaps they all thought he would fit into the Barça style of play better

 

[FCBarca]

I know...and "almost everyone " made a mistake. That's what I was referring to...As you said , though, it's easy to judge on hindsight, perhaps they all thought he would fit into the Barça style of play better

I thought it was patently obvious but the only question of fit is related to not being fit, not a question of fitting the style of play - you actually have to be fit to play, which he hasn't been

 

[Ritchie]

He was the right target at the time and if we had it to do all over again, he'd still be the ideal profile of player to sign - whether it's simply down to bad luck, poor professionalism, being injury prone or some combination of all of those factors it is what it is now. A failure, accept it and move on

He'll be 23 and contracted thru 2022, if he recovers well from his surgery and is able to be integrated into the squad for next season then we'll have until summer 2021 to decide whether to extend or sell even at a loss. Just handcuffs a board that cannot really unload his salary at this point

There's a lot to criticize the board for but his signature is not one of them IMHO. Perhaps the manner in which he was signed & how he has been managed & coached but not targeting him in the first place. He was the only player in world football I desired after Neymar

No, the right time to sign him was when Dortmund did and then allow him to settle and develop without the massive pressure of the price tag and replacing Neymar.. Barca are never on the ball, miss out and then go for the player when he costs the earth.

Personally, at the time, I wanted Hazard to replace Neymar and would have gone for Firmino rather than Coutinho but he hasn't worked out yet at Real. Messi, Firmino, Hazard as the front 3.

 

[MagIX]

Hazard for me too, without any doubt.

 

[FCBarca]

No, the right time to sign him was when Dortmund did and then allow him to settle and develop without the massive pressure of the price tag and replacing Neymar.. Barca are never on the ball, miss out and then go for the player when he costs the earth.

Personally, at the time, I wanted Hazard to replace Neymar and would have gone for Firmino rather than Coutinho but he hasn't worked out yet at Real. Messi, Firmino, Hazard as the front 3.

No, since the player himself has since commented on the decision to go to Dortmund from Rennes, that he was not ready for the jump to Barcelona at that time - turns out he wasn't ready professionally even after Dortmund. Does make you wonder what exactly were they doing in Germany that no one picked up on his poor approach to training & taking care of himself

Hazard for me too, without any doubt.

Same Hazard not having an impact at RM? We were never in for him anyway, he always preferred the capital club

 

[khaled_a_d]

He was the right target at the time and if we had it to do all over again, he'd still be the ideal profile of player to sign - whether it's simply down to bad luck, poor professionalism, being injury prone or some combination of all of those factors it is what it is now. A failure, accept it and move on

Mpabbe was available and there was a debate wo should we go for.
http://www.barcaforum.com/showthrea...Neymar-would-you-rather-buy-Mbappe-or-Dembele
One third of people thought it should be Mpabbe,

http://www.barcaforum.com/showthread.php/14547-How-far-would-you-stretch-to-buy-Dembele
40% didn't want to pay more than 100M for him.

http://www.barcaforum.com/showthread.php/14501-Break-the-bank-or-keep-the-money
There were a question whether we should break the bank for someone at all.

And this is forums, people who discus football for fun and not highly paid to not waste the club money.

Now, I agree we should move on, but we also need to learn the lesson. Dembele lacked things that was even clear during his bvb, he never had tight dribbling ability and always made loosey passes. 2 things that are unforgivable for a team that has possession most of the time. In teams playing with space those things won't cost much. Few members here has actually pointed to that before we signed him.

Failing to realize the differences that make a player successfully makes the jump between 2 different styles is what landed us Griezmann/Arda/Dembele etc.
At some point we will need to understand those differences when we want a successful rebuild

 

[Andresito]

Well I guess the tipping point for Dembélé was that he was a winger and a more natural replacement for Neymar compared to Mbappé.

 

[jamrock]

Mbappe was never really available he wanted to go to psg, Madrid try & didn't bet him, dembele was the best young talent in the world not name mbappe at that time, which was not available, if he was available we all would want him. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see who was going to be the better player.

No one wanted to pay more than 100m because we all knew he wasn't valued that high but due to Neymar leaving us will little time to react & 220 burning in our pocket durtmond was always going to take us for every we got, which they did, it was a seller's market at that point.

As someone said we could have bought him before he want to durtmond as we apparently had eyes on him, but Barca being Barca we had to wait until he went somewhere else and proved himself.

The signing was the one available & that everyone wanted, he was one of the most sort after young player in the world not name mbappe at the time & he only wanted to play for us.

The fact that he could only manage 74 games for us in his time here requires a proper deep dive by the powers that be.

Coutinho was always a big IF tho, griezmann was also a big IF, which is why for me those 2 are bigger waste than dembele because from the jump there fit was highly questionable.

 

[MagIX]

Same Hazard not having an impact at RM? We were never in for him anyway, he always preferred the capital club

Hazard has to prove absolutely nothing, he's a strong player since years.

Dembele was and is nobody, he did not prove absolutely nothing, a pretty good season at Dortmund means nothing.
We spent 105mio (+add-ons 40Mio) for him.

 

[Tackle]

[tw]1227615446079279109[/tw]

I feel like we've heard this before...

 

[ronniecro]

[tw]1227615446079279109[/tw]

I feel like we've heard this before...

i'd laugh but i just can't,counting on a guy who can't link up 3 good games,is unprofessional and injured 80% of the time...no wonder he wants to stay at all costs because no where else he could be contributing to nothing and still get support. we can expect contract extension soon

 

[khaled_a_d]

Mbappe was never really available he wanted to go to psg, Madrid try & didn't bet him, dembele was the best young talent in the world not name mbappe at that time, which was not available, if he was available we all would want him. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see who was going to be the better player..

We never know if we didn't try. We never went for Mpabbe and from first day we were on Dembele or bust ride.

No one wanted to pay more than 100m because we all knew he wasn't valued that high but due to Neymar leaving us will little time to react & 220 burning in our pocket durtmond was always going to take us for every we got, which they did, it was a seller's market at that point.

100M thing was after Neymar got sold and we had the money, knew BVB demands.

As someone said we could have bought him before he want to durtmond as we apparently had eyes on him, but Barca being Barca we had to wait until he went somewhere else and proved himself..

We made a better offer for him and his club. He rejected us because he thought he had no chance of getting minutes from MSN

The signing was the one available & that everyone wanted

Again, not everyone.

 

[KingLeo10]

We never know if we didn't try. We never went for Mpabbe and from first day we were on Dembele or bust ride.



100M thing was after Neymar got sold and we had the money, knew BVB demands.



We made a better offer for him and his club. He rejected us because he thought he had no chance of getting minutes from MSN



Again, not everyone.

Weren't there stories/reports that Mbappe knew of Ney Ney's decision beforehand. And that this played a part in him rejecting RM (and us).

I think there's 0 chance he would sign for us. We gambled on the 'best' available option and it's been a bust so far. Like Coutinho too who was supposedly proven.

 

[Xaviniesta]

I knew that giving the 20 year old dumbele a 15m/year salary was gonna backfire