Koeman confirms Dest medical and insists he has faith in Man Utd-linked Dembele

Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman has confirmed Sergino Dest is having a medical with the club ahead of a potential move from Ajax.

The 19-year-old United States international has been strongly linked with a €25million move to either Barca or Bayern Munich, but it appears the Catalan club have won the race.

Dest, an attack-minded right-back, was spotted arriving in Barcelona on Tuesday, giving rise to increased speculation that the deal was practically closed.

And Koeman, who tried to persuade Dest to represent the Netherlands when he coached the Oranje, confirmed the teenager is having a medical as he plans to take the well-trodden path from Ajax to Camp Nou.

“Dest is doing his medical, we still have to sign [the contracts],” Koeman told reporters in his news conference on Wednesday. “Until he signs I will not comment

“We are going to have a young full-back – it is a matter of changing things and having young players for the future of the club is important.

“It is good because he has played in the Champions League and I am sure that, when all the contracts are signed, he will be very useful for Barca.”

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One player strongly linked with leaving Barca is Ousmane Dembele, who is reportedly being lined up by Manchester United as an alternative to Jadon Sancho.

The French winger has only been able to show glimpses of his ability since joining from Borussia Dortmund in 2017 due to injuries – in 2019-20 he featured just five times in LaLiga.

While Koeman claimed no knowledge of any potential transfer for Dembele, he insisted that he sees a future for him at Barca.

“Those decisions are made by the club and the player. As we have seen, I am going to count on him,” Koeman added.

“He did not play from the start [against Villarreal] because there are more players and Ansu [Fati] has proven to be very good for this team.

“He was better physically the first few weeks, but today he trained well and I’m going to count on him.”

Dembele’s future could be tied to that of Memphis Depay, who is said to be Barca’s primary target in attack, and while Koeman would not specifically name his compatriot when asked about signings, he made no secret of his desire to add options in that department.

“We have to analyse the squad, analyse what we lack,” he continued. “We know that financially the club has its problems, like everyone else.

“There are one or two positions where we need to improve, and I’m not going to lie to you, we are working.

“There are options but it is very unsafe. The club is going to work hard. If not, we will use our players because I have no complaints with the ones we have.

“We want to have two or three players per position. We have put Leo [Lionel Messi] as a nine, [Antoine] Griezmann can play there, but they are different players. Martin [Braithwaite] is more than a nine and will have his chances but we want one more.”