Neymar to join Real Madrid on one condition, €220 million Barcelona duo set for shock exit and more: Transfer Roundup, 28 May 2019

By Shambhu Ajith

Modified May 28, 2019 15:27 GMT

Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele to leave Barcelona in the summer

Coutinho (left) and Ousmane Dembele (centre)

If you look back at Coutinho's decision to move to Barcelona and how he took to life initially at the Camp Nou, it looked like a wise decision. However, a year and a half later, Liverpool have made it to their second Champions League final in a row and Barcelona have just had to endure a terrible end to their season having lost out on the Copa Del Rey after crashing out of the Champions League.

Coutinho has been granted several chances to impress. However, the midfielder has only shone sporadically and at a club like Barcelona, it is simply inexcusable. Barcelona are keen on pressing the trigger and cashing in on the Brazilian while he's worth something around the initial sum that they had to pay for him and is all set to be sold this summer.

Ousmane Dembele will join Coutinho on his way out. Dembele was bought as a like-for-like replacement for Neymar. However, Dembele's fitness and indiscipline has cast a shadow over his spell at the club and the Barcelona top brass have decided to call it a day on his life at the Nou Camp.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad