Barcelona attacker Ousmane Dembele has been holding out to receive an offer from Chelsea, according to reports.
The 25-year-old winger is out of contract with Barcelona this summer, allowing him to leave Camp Nou as a free agent.
Chelsea, meanwhile, have been unable to offer any new contracts to players due to the restrictions on the club after Roman Abramovich’s sanction by the government in March.
But now that the Todd Boehly/Clearlake consortium officially completed its takeover this week, the Blues are now finally free to sign players.
Dembele has held discussions with Barcelona over a new contract, but according to PA news agency, the Frenchman has been waiting on Chelsea’s ownership situation to be resolved before making a decision over his future.
And Chelsea could also have an advantage during talks as Thomas Tuchel already has a positive relationship with Dembele from their time together at Dortmund.
‘He’s a very good player, and I am very fortunate to have trained him in my time at Dortmund,’ Tuchel said of Dembele earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Barcelona president Joan Laporta said last week that Dembele has been set a deadline to decide whether he will sign a new deal with the club.
‘He has our proposal and a date to decide, because there is no more room [to improve the offer],’ Laporta said.
‘We have been preparing for next season for some time and it is an issue that we are stuck, because the agent does not respond to our offer. It looks like they are making a counter-proposal.
‘There is a priority right now, which is to get our finances back on track. There are a lot of players that we are speaking with and operations that are pending, but La Liga is not helping us. The criteria is very restrictive.’
