With news that Ousmane Dembélé wants to continue at Barcelona, the chances of Adama Traoré playing regularly there going forward have dwindled.
After all, the Wolves man was brought back to the Catalan side at a time when it seemed almost certain that the Frenchman would be leaving, but a renewed form following the arrival of his good friend Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang appears to have changed everything.
Dembélé has picked up seven assists and a goal in the last five league games, starting four of those, while the Spain international, who kicked off his return by being thrown in the deep end, has seen his name appear just once in the first XI in that time.
Mundo Deportivo have the France international telling his teammates: “I want to continue at Barça. I’m very happy here and I believe in this project. In addition, I’m very happy with Xavi.”
With that in mind, AS explain Dembélé’s stay would force Barcelona into changing their plan, meaning ‘it would not consider making a powerful investment in a player who would be Ousmane’s substitute’, and thhat would likely rule out the Raphinha idea.
Instead, should he remain at Camp Nou, ‘the club would be willing to find a formula that would allow Adama Traoré to continue for another year, with some barter with footballers or other imaginative solutions with Wolverhampton Wanderers’.
We’ll have to see what that is, but it sounds more like Barcelona would rather want to keep the Wolves man on loan for another year than pay money to the Premier League club to make the move permanent.
The issue with that, however, is Traoré’s contractual situation at Molineux, since his deal there expires in 2023, meaning some sort of extension would be needed before an agreement of a loan extension is struck.
