Arsenal: And that is why Ousmane Dembele will never happen

Arsenal have been tied to Ousmane Dembele for awhile now, but we all know that as soon as a price was dropped, things would change.

There was awhile there when Ousmane Dembele was arguably the most sought after name in all of world football. His performances at Borussia Dortmund were so top-notch that even a club like Arsenal could only sit by and watch as Barcelona did their usual thing and forked up all the money needed to land the prolific young talent.

£94m, they paid. More than the Gunners have ever spent on anyone. Almost twice as much, in fact, had it not been for Aubameyang costing about £50m. And even that fee was remarkable, given the transfer history of the club.

It was this unfortunate truth that kept a significant distance between the transfer rumors of Dembele coming to Arsenal, and actual believe that he would come. I shouldn’t have to say this, but this club will not spent that much money on a single player.

However, he won’t cost that much money, according to reports. No, according to reports, he is going to cost… £89m (was that a cruel joke?).

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Which obviously makes no difference whatsoever. The fact of the matter is that Barcelona paid way too much money for a kid (stop me if you’ve heard that before), and now they want to recoup their losses, as he hasn’t panned out as expected.

Then there comes the fact that someone out there will pay it. Someone out there, with unlimited funds (and there are plenty of those) will come swooping in and stump up either that exact amount, or a little less. But still, it’s all out of the price range of the Gunners, who have that same limited budget that isn’t supposed to end until the new contracts kick in next summer.

It’s not the end of the world though. While a 21-year-old super starlet like Dembele would obviously be the ideal solution to so many of the club’s wants and needs going forward, there are options out there like Nicolas Pepe, who make things more approachable. No doubt Dembele is the bigger name, and will attract more attention, so maybe the Gunners can sneak in under the Dembele rumors and pluck Pepe out of the transfer market while the vulture squabble over Dembele.

That first transfer window is fast approaching, so it will be interesting to see what approach is taken.