The Daily Bee (August 25th, 2017): Expect a Dembélé-announcement soon

• Ousmane Dembélé

Every single outlet out there reported an agreement between Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona in the Dembélé transfer saga, however Watzke denied an agreement twice(!) before and after the CL-draw in a live interview with Sky Germany.

Nevertheless he confirmed that they will talk to Barca and it looks increasingly likely that they will reach an agreement soon, maybe even today. The assumption right now is that Barca caved and paid BVB’s asking price of 120€ million plus another 30€ million in variables. Personally I would have liked to have Ous for another season but with his behavior he made it virtually impossible for Dortmund to keep him and honestly 150€ million is more than enough money for him.

Now Michael Zorc will be tasked with finding a replacement. Dortmund will have to give 20€ million to Stade Rennes which was part of a sell-on clause, agreed upon when he joined BVB last summer. This leaves Zorc with 100€ million to play with, looking at his track record with transfers, I’m inclined to say we’re going to be just fine.

With that kind of money a Toljan-transfer seems likely to happen, which would give us some much needed depth at both fullback positions. As for a new winger, Ruhr Nachrichten report that Malcom from Girondins Bordeaux is the front runner to replace Dembélé. The 20-year-old Brazilian has a similar skill set to Dembélé, he is quick, has excellent technique and likes one-on-one situations. Malcom wouldn’t come cheap with a rumored asking price of 40€ million but he would be a good choice for Dortmund.

• CL draw

Welp, the draw was not kind to us. We got the group of death with Real, Tottenham and APOEL. If you want to hear the good news, it’s that Dele Alli will be suspended for the first three games for the Spurs and we have been in a group with Real twice recently and on both occasions we have won said group sooo....

Looking at these fixtures, a start away at Tottenham followed by a home game to Real is crucial. We’ll probably have to win at least one of those games if we want to survive the group stage. It will surely be an interesting stretch of games.

Daily Buzz: What do you think of the rest of the draw?