A report in the print edition of Spanish newspaper AS this morning [via Sport Witness] claimed that Liverpool are keen on signing Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele, who is apparently keen on a move to England.
According to AS [via Sport Witness], the 22-year-old has an asking price of €80m (£72m) from the La Liga outfit, who are reportedly so keen to sell him that one of the club’s doctors was sardonically asked when he would be fit again so that he could be placed on the transfer market.
Ousmane Dembele’s abortive Barcelona career
Dembele became one of the most expensive signings of all time when he joined Barcelona for a fee of €105m (£96.83m) plus add-ons in August 2017, despite a modest tally of 10 goals in 50 appearances for selling club Borussia Dortmund. He started only 12 La Liga matches in his first season at Camp Nou, a figure which rose to 20 last term but has dipped to just three in the current campaign (as per WhoScored).
In 74 appearances for Barcelona totalling 4,125 minutes, the France winger has scored 19 goals, one fewer than Liverpool’s top scorer Mohamed Salah has managed in 3,423 minutes of game-time this season. The Egyptian has struck one goal per 171.15 minutes in 2019/20 alone, whereas Dembele has averaged a goal every 217.1 minutes in just over two-and-a-half years in La Liga.
The 22-year-old has had his involvement at Barcelona restricted not necessarily by indifferent form but by a horrific injury record. A hamstring injury did for half of his first season at the club, with a series of minor knocks affecting him in the early months of 2019. Another hamstring problem kept him out for the first month of the current campaign before a more severe injury to the same part of the body struck four months ago, keeping him out ever since and expected to sideline him until August. [via TransferMarkt]
Liverpool do not need yet another expensive injury-plagued signing
In August 2009, Liverpool splashed out £20m on Roma midfielder Alberto Aquilani, even though he had an ankle injury at the time which was projected to keep him out until October (as per The Telegraph). He would have to wait a further two months before making his first Premier League start for the Reds midway through the season. He would manage just nine top-flight starts in his first year at Anfield.
The following summer, he incurred a knee injury just four minutes into a pre-season friendly and was duly dispatched on loan to Juventus and then AC Milan until, in 2012, he was sold to Fiorentina for a measly £1.8m (as per TransferMarkt), with a sum total of 28 appearances for the Reds.
Fast forward to 2018 and the Anfield club parted with £52.75m (as per Sky Sports) for midfielder Naby Keita from RB Leipzig. A succession of injuries curtailed his involvement in the latter weeks of last season, aside from a promising three-goal flurry between absences in April, and he has again been beset by fitness problems this term. The Guinean has so far managed only six goals in 51 appearances for the club and a report from Foot 224 [via Sport Witness and @AnfieldEdition on Twitter] earlier this month claimed that he had been omitted by Jurgen Klopp from the Champions League home defeat to Atletico Madrid through choice rather than injury enforcement.
Liverpool have already had their share of expensive, injury-plagued acquisitions, so they do not need another one in Dembele, especially with fellow right winger Salah scoring so abundantly during his time at Anfield.
Do you think Liverpool should steer clear of Dembele given his worrying injury record or would you be confident that such problems could become a thing of the past? Join in the discussion by commenting below!
