Chelsea target Ousmane Dembélé is understood to be close to signing a new contract with Barcelona until 2024 as Todd Boehly and Thomas Tuchel are now forced to look elsewhere amid a double transfer blow, including the Raphinha situation.
For such a long time, is was projected that the futures of Dembele and Raphinha would be intertwined with each other - if one was to arrive or leave the Camp Nou, the other's future would be affected as a result. This scenario has given new owner Boehly the hope that he could at least sign one of the aforementioned pair but in a cruel twist of fate, the first economic lever being activated by Barca has seemingly ruined the current World Champions in two senses.
The first being that Raphinha and his agent Deco have now had the ability to work around Barca's tight financial restraints to formulate a dream move to Spain for the Leeds winger, who reportedly always had Xavi's side as his ideal destination for 2022/23.
