Ousmane Dembele Will Be Borussia Dortmund's Player to Watch in Pre-Season

Borussia Dortmund's 2016 summer transfer window has been marked primarily by their sales, with superstars Ilkay Gundogan, Mats Hummels and Henrikh Mkhitaryan leaving Signal Iduna Park for fortune and fame elsewhere.

Yet for all the massive quality that has left the Ruhr side, this summer could well be remembered as one of sound business and some excellent moves. It all depends on how their signings fare.

BVB have lacked the funds to pay sky-high wages to established superstars, in some cases their own: One factor that may have influenced Mkhitaryan in his move is that Dortmund's contract offer was in the amount of €7 million per year, per German tabloid Bild, with the same publication later reporting (h/t Goal) Manchester United offered him a €12.5 million salary with an €8 million sign-on bonus.

Accordingly, BVB's policy with regard to signings this summer has been to pursue overlooked bench-warmers like Sebastian Rode and Marc Bartra, and rising talents like Emre Mor, Mikel Merino, Raphael Guerreiro and Ousmane Dembele.

If the club can stem the tide of departures that has left the club with what chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke recently labeled a "Sisyphean" task (per Die Welt, in German), they'll be a force to be reckoned with in a few years.

As always, however, there's never any guarantee that a rising talent will become a world-class hero at all, let alone within a certain period of time.

At this stage, Dortmund know what they have in players like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Shinji Kagawa and Sokratis Papastathopoulos: They've been around for a while, and Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel should have a reasonable estimate of what to expect from them in terms of productivity.

What isn't known just yet is what will come of the squad's younger players. Julian Weigl, for example, stepped up to the challenge immediately after his arrival last season and defied the odds, earning a starting role early in the campaign and adding unexpected quality to the team.

The biggest hope for BVB if they are to stand a chance at contending for titles in 2016-17 is that one or two of their newcomers step up to the challenge and develop into a real star as Weigl did. And as their pre-season progresses, the man to watch will be Dembele.

This isn't to belittle players like Mor, Felix Passlack or Christian Pulisic. But given their ages—the latter is just 17, the others are 18—it's hard to expect much of them just yet. Mario Gotze was perhaps the most talented player to emerge from the Dortmund academy, and even he was 18 before he made a meaningful impact on the club's success.

More significantly, among Dortmund's aforementioned teenagers, only Passlack (who played as a full-back with the senior team last season) and Dembele will have the full pre-season.

Mor and Pulisic are on extended leave due to participation in Euro 2016 and the Copa America Centenario, respectively. Dembele will not be at the UEFA European Under-19 Championship with France, and he will be fresh and well acquainted with Tuchel's methods by the time the season begins.

Dembele has a year's worth of experience playing in Ligue 1 and was already a star by the time he left. His record of 12 goals and five assists during the campaign was outstanding for a player who didn't turn 19 years of age until after his last game of the season.

While at Rennes, he became a hot topic in the international press, with Watzke noting he had snubbed "numerous high-quality offers from all over Europe" in order to move to Signal Iduna Park, per ESPN's Stephan Uersfeld.

Dortmund will have a serious void to fill in terms of creativity in midfield, with Mkhitaryan having led all of Europe with 32 assists in all competitions last season and Gundogan being a capable playmaker in his own right.

Marco Reus will be expected to step up and deliver, but after a difficult season and nasty injury, it's anything but certain that he'll be able to fill the void. As well, he's as much a scorer as he is a creator and will benefit from having another man to carry the ball into the attacking third as Mkhitaryan and Gotze before him did.

Dembele is a magnificent dribbler even at his young age, although he'll have to work on his passing if he is to fit into Tuchel's system and develop into a world superstar.

Still, as a creator of chances in one-on-one situations, he could be huge to the Dortmund team even in the coming season. He already proved to be well on his way at Rennes, and although there will be a boost in the quality of competition in his move to Germany, being a year older and working with Tuchel could make all the difference.

As it stands, Dortmund are desperate to add quality to their attack following Mkhitaryan's sale, and their approach to the remainder of the transfer window could well depend on how things go with Dembele during the next few weeks.

If he's ready, the Weigl precedent is clear evidence that Tuchel will trust Dembele. If not, though, Dortmund may be more willing to invest heavily in a more established player. 

@Mr_Bundesiga