Rennes' Ousmane Dembele Fails to Impress PSG Ahead of Potential Summer Move
Paris Saint-Germain moved a provisional 30 points clear at the top of Ligue 1 with a 4-0 thrashing of Stade Rennais in front of a sparse Parc des Princes crowd on Friday.
After a dull first half that finished goalless, Laurent Blanc’s men put on a show in the capital for the following 45 minutes and stuck four goals past their hapless Breton visitors.
Maxwell opened the scoring in spectacular fashion five minutes into the second half and two Zlatan Ibrahimovic efforts and an Edinson Cavani beauty followed the Brazilian’s strike.
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Although the final score was 4-0, it was a poor spectacle. PSG sleepwalked through another trouncing, while the lack of ambition Rolland Courbis’ men showed rendered teenage sensation Ousmane Dembele—who was the focus of much of the pre-match chatter—more or less anonymous.
Les Parisiens’ coach, Blanc, praised his players for equalling their 2013-14 Ligue 1 record points total of 89, with three matches left to better it, when he addressed the press after the final whistle.
The French tactician also insisted that he has seen his team play worse at Parc des Princes—although you would be hard pushed to find a more turgid opening 45 minutes from the 50-year-old’s tenure so far:
"89 points is a record equalled which means we have been on form from the beginning to the end. We have three matches left to beat the record. I hope that this will happen.
Is it difficult to stay focused? Many would like to be in our position. Tonight we were motivated and organised. We have played worse than this at the Parc des Princes!
We wanted to find some new solutions and it was good. We tried David Luiz in front of the defence, which we have done before. It was a chance to rest (Thiago) Motta, who returned from injury and played a very good game. We tried Luiz in midfield from the bench in the Coupe de la Ligue final (PSG won their first silverware of the season last Saturday, beating LOSC Lille 2-1 in the final).
Ibrahimovic has three games to beat (Carlos) Bianchi's goal record (Bianchi scored 37 goals for PSG in the 1977/78 Ligue 1 campaign). That is fun for him. We saw the team having fun today. The players celebrated the goals together. This is the best answer.
"
Coming into the match, much of the focus was on Rennes’ Dembele. The prodigiously talented 18-year-old had scored 12 goals and assisted five more in just 24 Ligue 1 appearances, and big things were expected of him after a few quiet recent outings.
However, another 90 minutes passed Les Rouges et Noirs’ No. 23 by here and those who bothered to turn up at Parc des Princes to run the rule over Le Championnat’s latest sensation will have left disappointed.
Speaking with beIN Sports France pre-match, per French football expert Matt Spiro’s tweet, Dembele admitted that he would prefer a move to Germany over a transfer to England. However, he also revealed that the recent avalanche of transfer speculation has unsettled him.
That was clear for all to see in Paris on Friday as the teenager appeared to once again be struggling under the weight of expectation that has come with his meteoric rise.
The fact that he is already seen as Rennes’ talisman, despite not even playing a full season for the club yet, speaks volumes about the speed of his explosion onto the scene.
Rumours linking him with a move to German Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund, such as this story from Bild (via ESPN FC’s Mark Rodden), have been rife.
Dembele’s agent even had to deny that his client’s contract includes a minimum fee release clause of €5 million to 20 Minutes (h/t ESPN FC’s Rodden again).
PSG are reaching the end of a cycle and need new blood to replace the likes of Ibrahimovic—should he decide to leave—Maxwell and Thiago Motta, no matter how evergreen some of those figures still appear to be domestically.
Acquiring a potential superstar of the future, particularly one as versatile as Dembele, from within Ligue 1 would be a good move from the French giants.
However, in order to splash out the estimated €35 million that it would take to get Rennes to part with their prized asset, the capital club must be convinced by his talent.
If PSG have been watching Dembele’s development this season, there is no doubt that they will have already taken note of his strengths and weaknesses. Les Parisiens were probably waiting for his visit to Parc des Princes before truly running the rule over him, though.
That will have happened on Friday night, and the Ligue 1 champions’ verdict on the promising Rennes starlet will probably have been that he is not yet ready to handle the pressure that will greet him—and any other potential new signing—in Paris.
Dembele’s form has dropped noticeably in recent weeks and the polyvalent attacking talent was not helped by his team’s unambitious approach to the match and their inability to create anything going forward. Because of coach Courbis’ tactics, he barely saw any of the ball in the final third.
With the exception of one burst of searing pace in the first half, which took him past Marquinhos and to the edge of the PSG box, there was little that will have aroused PSG’s interest long-term.
Instead, the kings of Le Championnat are more likely to look into signing a more established star name instead this summer—especially if Ibrahimovic chooses to leave as is expected.
However, a good performance from Javier Pastore suggested that new arrivals in attack might not be needed next season and that instead, Blanc—or whoever coaches PSG next campaign—should make the most of what they already have at their disposal before adding another star name to the mix.
Regardless of what the financial heavyweights decide to do on the transfer market before next term, it looks unlikely that Dembele will be high on their list of priorities.
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