Ousmane Dembele has been left underwhelmed by Chelsea’s contract proposal and could reconsider the offer on the table from Barcelona, according to reports.
The France international is out of contract at the end of the month, when he becomes a free agent, and has been sounded out by some of Europe’s biggest clubs, including Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain.
Ideally, Barca would like to keep the winger at Camp Nou and Dembele’s preference is to extend his contract, but in a meeting last week Xavi reiterated that the club would not be upping its offer.
That salary proposal – which is less than what he currently earns – has been on the table since December, but the World Cup winner and his representatives feel they can get a better deal elsewhere.
However, Chelsea have now submitted their contract offer to Dembele and, according to Sport, it is considerably less than he was expecting.
The 25-year-old and his team are said to be ‘disappointed’ with the financial terms and there is a feeling that the west London club’s pursuit of Raheem Sterling has resulted in a reduced offer for the Frenchman.
Chelsea are simultaneously pursuing a deal for the Manchester City star, who could be available for around £50million, and Thomas Tuchel would ideally like to have both players in his ranks next season.
But Sterling is on enormous wages and that has meant Chelsea have not been able to make as lucrative an offer for Dembele as he had been hoping for – though it is still more than Barcelona are prepared to pay him.
Chelsea could also add some extra incentive with a big signing bonus – something Barca are unwilling to pay – but even that is lower than what Dembele’s team had been demanding.
The winger has not given a definitive answer one way or the other to Chelsea and is now once again considering the possibility of remaining at Camp Nou.
Dembele is hoping Barcelona will up their offer so it is slightly closer to Chelsea’s, but even if they do not he will now need to weigh up whether the salary on offer at Stamford Bridge is significant enough to convince him to leave Catalunya.
Both Barca and Chelsea have asked for Dembele to make up his mind relatively quickly as they would like to pursue Leeds star Raphinha as an alternative.
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