Are they reading too much into this?
Probably. But can you blame them?
Ousmane Dembélé only joined Barcelona last summer as a direct replacement for Neymar after the Brazilian left to join Paris Saint-Germain for a world record fee.
But after a difficult first season ravaged by injury, the winger could potentially be moving on. Dembélé was
reportedly angry that Barcelona signed a direct competitor for his place in the team, Malcom. Admittedly, the signing isn't exactly a vote of confidence for Dembélé.
One of his potential suitors is Arsenal. The north London club have been loosely linked with the mercurial attacker all summer but fans believe a move could be close after a photo posted on Instagram by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's father showed Dembélé hanging out with four Arsenal players: Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Matteo Guendouzi.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl_TlhRH78B/?hl=en&taken-by=aubameyang.papa
The caption translates to: "Very happy to be with family and surrounded by our guys."
It could of course mean nothing bar the fact that Dembélé is still friends with his former teammates from his days at Borussia Dortmund. He has also played with Lacazette for the French national team.
But you'd imagine the Arsenal players will be doing everything they can to persuade him to push for a move to the Emirates. Arsenal are crying out for a new winger and given that he is already friendly with half the squad, he wouldn't take long to bed in.
Arsenal fans are certainly getting excited about the photo, which they may be reading too much into, but can you blame them?
https://twitter.com/dan595c/status/1025262219087437824
https://twitter.com/PatrickTimmons1/status/1025117557269901316
https://twitter.com/Touchofozil/status/1025111836067328000
On their pre-season tour, regular contributor to Arsenal Fan TV, 'Troopz', asked Arsenal's head of recruitment Sven Mislintat whether they would be signing Dembélé, to which Mislintat repsonded by laughing off the question, not wanting to give anything away.
Stranger things have happened, although it would require Barcelona to be willing to sell for significantly less than the player's release clause, which is €400m.
