Chelsea Reportedly Close To Ousmane Dembele Signing

Ousmane Dembele is reportedly set to sign for Chelsea, ending months of speculation over the Barcelona player's immediate future.

Dembele is out of contract at the end of the month and talk about where he would be spending next year has been the hot topic since the January transfer window.

Back then the forward was told by Barca that he would be sold in the winter window, once they failed to agree a new deal with the former Borussia Dortmund player.

However, with no bids for the 25-year-old, he stayed and has been a big part in the club's turn around in the second half of the season, eventually finishing runner's up to Real Madrid.

Despite that, his future has never been likely to be at the Nou Camp, especially with the club still in need of saving money due to their financial problems.

That now looks to be the case, with Mundo Deportivo claiming that Dembele is close to agreeing a move to the Premier League, with Chelsea.

Dembele has been in superb form in recent months. Image: PA Images

The Blues have had their own crisis in recent months, due to the ongoing sale of the club, after Roman Abramovich put them up to buy in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

On Saturday the oligarch put out a statement after the club confirmed that the American consortium led by Todd Boehly would soon be announced as the new owners.

It is expected to officially go through at the beginning of next week, meaning that they would be allowed to enter the transfer market once again.

That could lead to Dembele's move becoming official pretty soon, especially with his contract very nearly finished, and make him the first signing of the new era.

Todd Boehly has been at recent Chelsea games and will soon be the new owner. Image: Alamy

Despite being linked with the Premier League in the past, the injury ravaged forward was expected to move to Paris Saint-Germain last week.

He was reportedly promised to Kylian Mbappe in a list of three things that the Ligue 1 champions told their star forward would happen, in order to convince him to sign.

Amongst those was also selling Neymar, which would have meant Dembele being brought in to replace the Brazilian for the second time, as was the case when he went to Barcelona.

Mbappe might be gutted his mate isn't joining him at the Parc des Princes. Image: Alamy

Tuchel is reportedly set to get £200 million to spend this summer, as the club look to try and compete with Manchester City and Liverpool at the top of the table.

Dembele wasn't named in their eight top targets, although Ivan Perisic was and the Croatian now looks set to join Tottenham Hotspur instead.

It could be an extremely busy summer at Stamford Bridge!