Former Jurgen Klopp Liverpool transfer target Ousmane Dembele has been offered a contract by Chelsea, according to a report.
French outlet L’Equipe is reporting that Thomas Tuchel’s side have made an offer worth £287,000 a week for the Barcelona winger, who has again been linked with Liverpool. Chelsea are looking to reshape their squad following the club's takeover by the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital consortium. They are also set to sign Raheem Sterling and rumoured Liverpool target Raphinha.
Dembele, a French international, joined Barcelona from Borussia Dortmund for €145m in 2017. He is set to leave the Catalan club once his contract expires at the end of June. Reports in Spain emerged that Barca manager Xavi was desperate to keep the 25-year-old. Dembele’s time at Camp Nou has been hampered by injuries, scoring 32 goals in 150 appearances over five seasons.
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Over recent months the Reds have also been credited with an interest in the player but the ECHO understands that wasn’t genuine. Dembele is someone, though, that the club has looked at over the years. According to Four Four Two, Liverpool tried to bring Dembele to Anfield back in 2016 after a breakout season for Rennes, but he chose Dortmund instead, where he excelled.
And Klopp has expressed his admiration for the 27-time French international before. In a press conference following a 1-0 defeat to Chelsea on the penultimate weekend of the 2017/18 Premier League season, the German jokingly admitted his interest.
While the post-match debate that day was mainly centred around the upcoming Champions League final in Kiev against Real Madrid and the Reds’ hopes of finishing in the top four, transfer speculation ahead of the summer window was also discussed. Klopp was asked about the reported agreement of a deal to sign Nabil Fekir but he remained tight-lipped. However, he was also questioned about a separate transfer rumour, linking Dembele with the club, just at the time he was coming to end of his debut season at Barcelona.
Klopp said: “What was the second name? Ousmane Dembele? Oooh, is he on the market? Now I am interested.” We will never know if Klopp was pulling the legs of reporters in the press conference, but the admiration for Dembele was true.
Speaking exclusively to FourFourTwo in April 2017, Dembele confirmed the links. He said: “I saw Klopp in Paris but I told him I’d made up my mind to sign for BVB.” That was when the Frenchman joined Klopp’s old club Dortmund, where he played under current Chelsea manager Tuchel. The duo are now set to be reunited if reports are to be believed.
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