Transfer Centre

Manchester United 'agreed deal for Ousmane Dembele before deadline'

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 20 October 2020

Man Utd 'agreed deal for Dembele before deadline'

Manchester United reportedly agreed terms with Barcelona and had the paperwork in place to sign Ousmane Dembele this summer, only for the player to backtrack on the deal.

Manchester United had reportedly agreed a deal to sign Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele before this summer's transfer deadline, only for the player to backtrack on a move at the 11th hour.

The Red Devils were heavily linked with a deadline-day transfer for the Frenchman, having missed out on their top target Jadon Sancho.

France Football claims that United had agreed terms with Barcelona over a switch and sent all of the relevant documents to the players by 6pm on October 5.

The agreement would have allowed a domino effect of other transfers to take place, with Barcelona set to replace Dembele with Memphis Depay and Lyon to replace Memphis with Leicester City's Islam Slimani.

All of the paperwork for those deals was also reportedly in place by 6pm, but they collapsed due to Dembele's refusal to leave Barcelona.

The 23-year-old informed the Spanish giants that he had no intention of leaving at 8pm on October 5, just three hours before the deadline.

United ended up having a busy deadline day even without Dembele's arrival, with Edinson Cavani, Alex Telles and Facundo Pellistri joining.