Newcastle United’s chances of signing Ousmane Dembele may have been handed a blow as he nears closer to a contract renewal with Barcelona.
A report last week stated that Newcastle were in talks with the Frenchman, whose contract at the Nou Camp is set to expire next summer.
That claimed that they were willing to pay €15m to sign Dembele and even match his wages demands, something Barcelona aren’t willing to do at this moment in time.
Since then, there have been various reports backing up the claims, with it even stated that Dembele’s agent had been in talks about a possible move to St James’ Park.
Their hopes of a deal may be diminishing, though, with Sport reporting that Barcelona and Dembele are ‘moving closer together’.
They explain that the two parties have ‘come closer in recent days’, and the Catalan giants now ‘hope to reach an agreement‘ on an extension to his contract.
The sporting directors believe that, after the latest round of talks, the player wants to stay at the Nou Camp, and they are much more ‘optimistic’ than they were about the situation a few weeks ago.
That would suggest a move to Newcastle is on the backburner, although Barcelona do acknowledge that the talks will be neither ‘short nor easy’ because they can only offer Dembele a ‘downward contract’.
In other words, they can’t match Dembele’s desires or increase his current deal, which could be a problem. His agent, Moussa Sissoko, is ‘expected‘ to visit Barcelona soon for further talks.
At the minute, though, it seems there is growing confidence from Barcelona that they can get their man to sign a new deal and stop the big-money move to Newcastle that has been suggested.
