DONE DEAL – Chelsea completes first signing of Barcelona star Dembele with three other deals to be announce by weekend

Barcelona officially revealed today that they intend to transfer Dembele before the end of January, with the France international’s future in doubt for some time due to the player’s contract expiring at the Nou Camp.

Chelsea appears to be cooking up an offer for Dembele, with writer Pedro Almeida tweeting that the Blues are preparing an offer of roughly €15 million for the 24-year-old, with this news coming not long after Mateu Alemany’s announcement on Dembele, as quoted by Goal.

Dembele may be a perfect signing for Chelsea right now, with Thomas Tuchel’s team not looking especially impressive, particularly in attack.

Romelu Lukaku has been a letdown, and last season’s big-name additions like Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, and Hakim Ziyech have yet to settle at Stamford Bridge.

Dembele’s availability may make him very appealing to Chelsea, as it is evident that Barcelona will accept a cheap bid for the player owing to his status as a free agent in the summer.

“With Ousmane and his representatives, we started negotiations around the month of July,” Alemany said of Dembele’s future.

“We have talked for about seven months, Barca has made several offers, we have attempted to find a way for the player to continue with us, and those offers have been consistently rejected by his agents.”

“It appears to us that the player does not want to stay at Barcelona and is not committed to the club’s future plans.”

“We told him and his agents that he needed to leave the club right now because we needed players dedicated to the initiative.”

“We anticipate a transfer before January 31.” The sports implication is that we don’t want players who don’t want to be at Barcelona.

“The fact that he was not on the [squad] roster for today is a result of the entire process.” We fully support the coach; it’s a continuous mentality.”