Transfer speculation surrounding the future of Barcelona starlet Ousmane Dembele has been rife in recent days, and he has seemingly added fuel to the fire of a possible exit.
The 21-year-old joined the Catalan giants last summer, but through a combination of injuries and struggles in adapting to a new environment and teammates, he has found it difficult to prove his worth to this point.
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With just four goals and eight assists in 22 appearances, he hasn’t done enough to avoid being at the centre of transfer rumours it seems, with the Metro reporting this week that Barcelona are open to the idea of offloading him this summer.
The French international hasn’t done a great job of settling that talk down, as he took to Instagram stories on Thursday night and posted the image below of him reading a newspaper article on his former coach Thomas Tuchel.
Image courtesy of Ousmane Dembele, Instagram
Naturally, it led to more transfer talk. As noted by Mundo Deportivo, it has ended up being perceived as a ‘wink’ to Tuchel who was recently confirmed as the next Paris Saint-Germain boss, as noted by Sky Sports.
The pair have history of course as Tuchel was in charge at Dortmund when Dembele really burst onto the scene following his move to the Bundesliga giants from Rennes with 10 goals and 21 assists in 49 games last season.
The German tactician was then sacked in May 2017, but he will now be making plans for his next job when he replaces Unai Emery in the French capital at the end of the season.
Whether it’s merely an innocent post not aimed at anything to do with his future or not, the timing of Dembele’s post above has made this into a bigger talking point.
At a time when his future is under scrutiny and he’s being linked with an exit from Barcelona, he chose to drop what could be perceived as a hint about joining up with Tuchel again. Time will tell if that materialises.