Ousmane Dembélé

MichaelBBack

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A lot of teams are in for Dembélé, City included. As I live in Rennes and watch the team each week, I thought I might as well start the thread.

To the uninitiated, Dembélé is an 18 year old winger. He broke into the Rennes first team earlier this season and has been one of the club's standout performers by far. To be honest, we rely on him to win us games. Just the other week, in a match against Lille, we got a penalty and Ousmane was the one to step up and bury it. There were lots of other, much more experienced players on the pitch, but he did what needed to be done. That statement sort of sums up the player, really. He plays with confidence and never seems to be afraid of big matches or high pressure situations. He always looks like he's just playing with some mates.

He can play on either wing and has even been tested up front, but he's most effective on the right. I believe, according to some stats tables I saw recently, he has the best dribble success rating out of any u21 player in Europe, which isn't bad at all. It's not surprising either. He loves to have the ball and he loves to storm down the wing and then cut inside and smash it with his left foot. One problem Rennes fans have with him is his selfishness. He often tries to do a bit too much, take on one player too many, or go for the shot when he'd be better off crossing. Still, the lad's only 18 years old so that sort of thing is to be expected really. There's a little video in the link below of one of his most impressive little moments of the season so far.

https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CZWYV5zWEAAJwoB.mp4

He's scored 5 goals and nabbed 2 assists in 14 appearances so far this season. In a league as defensive as Ligue 1, those are very good stats, especially for a kid. Allegedly, Rennes have been asking for 30 million euros for him. Over on our Rennes forums, some of the more optimistic fans want 50 million. Personally, I don't think he's worth anything like that just yet, but that's how modern football is going. He could easily go on to become an excellent player, but it would still be a bit of a risk to spend such a huge amount on an 18 year old with less than a full season under his belt. Unfortunately, United have gone and messed things up quite a bit thanks to the Martial signing. French media and clubs are now constantly expecting clubs like City and Chelsea to come in with 50 or 60 million for kids who have barely done anything.

Last summer, Ousmane came very close to leaving the club. It was quite a high profile dispute and most fans were quite pissed off with him. It seemed like he was pushing for more money and a spot in the first team squad, with most people thinking he was pushing well above his weight. Luckily, he stuck around and has now proven that he was right to be so annoyed. He's clearly got the talent and has been one of the highlights of Rennes' season so far. Still, some people still worry that he isn't massively attached to the club or its fans, and would probably jump at the first opportunity to move to a big club. I hope he sticks around for another season, but if City's interest does ramp up then he's certainly got the potential to be a big player for the future.
 
He's fucking sick. 2 goals and 1 assist in the first half so far from him. He's absolute crazy for his age.
 
MCFC Info ‏@MCFClnfo Feb 13
City are interested in signing one France’s most promising youngsters, Ousmane Dembélé, who is rated at €30m by his club Rennes [Le10 Sport]

MCFC Info ‏@MCFClnfo 18 Nov 2015
City have been linked with Rennes winger Ousmane Dembele (18). They rejected a bid of £1.7m for him last year from RB Salzburg. [MEN]

City Watch ‏@City_Watch 9 Jul 2015
L'Equipe: City have offered £1.3m for Rennes & France U18 winger Ousmane Dembélé (18), £0.3m less than RB Salzburg.
 
Sorry for the lack of replies.

Is he as good as Martial? For me, he's better. I don't know how many people took the time to watch the Rennes-Nantes derby last night, but he was absolutely incredible. Scored a hat-trick in the first half. He's having a way better season than Martial had last year. His stats are even better than guys like Ronaldo at the same age. Currently the top scorer aged under 20 in Europe. All the French media are calling for him to be included in the Euro squad, saying he's the biggest star they've seen in years. The same sort of fuss wasn't even made about Martial until after his transfer was finished. If you want a very rough comparison, Dembélé plays like Neymar. He's one of the best dribblers I've ever seen and seems to hit the sweet spot of the ball with every single strike.

Apparently we had Barcelona scouts in the crowd, and a lot of other big teams have been sending people to watch him as well. Can see a big bidding war erupting for him over the summer. I imagine Pep is certainly aware of him and would probably really appreciate a player with his skillset. We know that Pep appreciates Kinglsey Coman and took him to Bayern. It's only my opinion but Dembélé is a bloody huge upgrade over Coman. I feel like Pep would love to work with him and help him become one of the biggest stars in the game, but time will tell.

I still reckon he's a bit too skinny to cope with the PL, but he could prove me wrong. Last night, he was up against some massive defenders and just ran rings around them. The confidence he has is incredible for a kid of his age. The Rennes/Nantes derby is the biggest game on our calendar. The stadium was sold out for the first time all season and the pressure on the players was huge. Nantes were on a 13-game unbeaten streak and there was so much riding on the game for both teams. Dembélé walked out there and owned the whole pitch. With 9 games left in the season, he's on course to finish as the top scorer for Rennes and is easily the best young player in France. Obviously, questions still remain about whether he can do it against the bigger teams. We've got to play Lyon, Marseille, Monaco and PSG over the next couple of months, so it'll be interesting to see how he does.
 

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