After a crazy last 48 hours in the January transfer window, Ousmane Dembele has stayed put in Barcelona amid late deadline day interest from Chelsea.
Who would have thought that the west Londoners would have been contemplating a move for the wide man this month when it was believed their sole focus was to sign a temporary Ben Chilwell replacement?
However, Marina Granovskaia and co failed in their attempts to recall Emerson Palmieri from his Lyon loan meaning that Tuchel was forced to make do with what he had in his armoury.
With a large abundance of time left since the final Emerson blow, all the talk then turned towards a potential Ousmane Dembele reunion for Tuchel in west London.
Some media outlets reported on Monday that a deal was incredibly close but this was far from being the case, football.london understands.
football.london also understands that Thomas Tuchel likes Dembele a lot having worked with him at Dortmund. Chelsea are interested and could move for him in the summer when he’ll be on a free. But will need to shift out an attacker (or two) already on their books.
Could this mean someone like Christian Pulisic or potentially Hakim Ziyech leaves the Blues in the summer?
Well, Chelsea are certainly poised to make their move again in the summer when there is more time to get over the potential wage stumbling block.
In January however, a potential deal was pretty much a non-starter because of having too many attackers.
On top of this, Marina Granovskaia, knowing her shrewd nature in transfer negotiations, would realise that less money would be involved at the end of the season for the once £100m rated winger.
So, that's it for now regarding Dembele to Chelsea. Or is it?
Well, minutes after the deadline passed by at 11pm on Monday night, big developments came out in Spain suggesting that Barcelona and specifically Xavi may take some radical action against a player who they told to pack up and vacate Catalunya.
His agent's inability to secure a move away may have some consequences with Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo reporting that there will be a meeting on Tuesday where an agreement could be made by all parties to terminate the 24-year-old's contract by mutual consent, which would then make him a free agent.
Therefore, Chelsea could then sign him up sooner than expected if this scenario was to play out, so developments in the next few days are certainly something to keep an eye out for as the club from SW6 could still yet complete some significant business in February.
