Ousmane Dembele is back on Newcastle’s wish list for the summer

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Newcastle United were heavily linked with a move for Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele in the summer but the Frenchman opted to stay in Spain.

Dembele has a year left on his Barcelona contract and Newcastle are willing to once again try and convince the winger to join the project in the summer after being consistently linked with a move last year.

The Magpies made contact with the 25-year-old’s representatives when the winger was in England, according to 90mins, when he was as guest of… *check’s notes*… Sunderland? Yes, Ousmane Dembele of Barcelona was spotted in the “crowd” at the Stadium of Light recently as a guest of the owner, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus.

Newcastle seized the opportunity and sent a delegation to have a chat with his people while he was here to get the ball rolling on a potential summer transfer.

Dembele is a phenomenal winger, no doubt about that, but his injury record is a huge cause for concern. He’s been at the Catalan giants for nearly six years and in that time has made just 120 La Liga appearances. In fact he’s still sidelined with a hamstring injury which has kept him out of contention since January.

There’s no way you can really predict if someone’s going to get injured, but if Newcastle are seriously contemplating a move for Dembele they need to protect themselves against these long lay-offs either with a clause in his contract, using his injury record as a strong bargaining chip in price negotiations with Barcelona. Otherwise it’s just too risky.

He’s still relatively young, so he’s got plenty of years ahead of him, at 25 he’s yet to hit his peak and if Eddie Howe could protect him from injury by not using him in every game, he’d be a superb addition to the squad. If we qualify for the Champions League, Dembele would be a perfect addition to the team.

The Frenchman had to fight to win over the Barcelona crowd this season after refusing to sign a new deal, but his performances got them back onside, a feat which amazed Thierry Henry who hailed him as ‘magnificent‘.

This move is such a tough one to call. There’s no question that he’d add much needed quality to our attack, but that injury record scares the bejesus out of me. Given his contract situation though, we should be able to acquire him for a reasonable fee which should go someway to offset the injury anxiety.