Deadline Day: Barcelona Are Furious With $170M Striker Who Refused To Join Manchester United

FC Barcelona reportedly are furious with Ousmane Dembele for not joining Manchester United this summer. Dembele's decision prevented the Catalans from signing their target, Memphis Depay before the summer transfer market ended Tuesday.

Dembele, who joined Barcelona from Dortmund at a hefty price of $170 million, was told by new head coach Ronald Koeman that he was no longer a priority at the Catalan club. Even after being informed that he had fallen in the attacking pecking order behind Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann, Philippe Coutinho, Ansu Fati, Francisco Trincao, and Pedri, Dembele chose not to accept Manchester United’s offer, as reported by Spanish publication Diario AS.

In three seasons with Barcelona since he arrived in 2017, Dembele has managed to make only 75 competitive appearances for the La Liga giants and that has been a concern for the club after it spent a heavy price for the 23-year-old French striker. Apart from being injury-prone, Dembele’s characteristics of being ill-disciplined and unpunctual have further added to his miseries at Nou Camp.

After going without a trophy for the first time since 2008, Barcelona wanted to strengthen their side at the 2020 summer transfer window. The club’s senior officials explained to Dembele that his departure to Man Utd would help the side financially to sign Depay from Olympique Lyonnais, but that did not change the forward’s mind. Apart from Dembele, Koeman has been waiting to off-load Samuel Umtiti as well. Barcelona are now aiming to get rid of the duo at the 2021 January transfer window, as reported by the Diario AS.

It was also understood that Lyon had dropped Depay’s transfer fee to $29 million on the deadline day (Oct. 5) to help him secure his dream move to Barcelona. However, due to Dembele’s decision to not leave, left Barcelona with no choice but to withdraw from Depay’s transfer. The 26-year-old Dutch forward had been Koeman’s top target since he took over Barcelona’s charge ahead of the 2020-21 season. Along with Depay, Koeman wanted to sign Liverpool’s midfielder Gini Wijnaldum, who recently said that his links with Barcelona were not serious.