Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly both giving consideration to a January approach for Paris Saint-Germain's Ousmane Dembele.
The France international returned to his homeland in the summer transfer window after PSG triggered the €50m (£43.6m) release clause in his Barcelona contract.
Dembele became a free agent for a couple of weeks in 2022 before agreeing to a renewal with Barcelona, but those terms would have expired at the end of the current campaign.
The two parties were believed to have been in talks over a renewal, but Barca were powerless to prevent Dembele leaving once PSG activated his buyout option, and he has featured regularly for Luis Enrique in the early stages of the 2023-24 season.
The 26-year-old had started three of his side's five Ligue 1 contests and played the full 90 against former club Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League in midweek, but he is yet to register a goal or assist for the French champions.
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Should Dembele's fortunes not improve in the coming months, Enrique would not be short of options on the right-hand side to replace him, having also brought in Marco Asensio, Lee Kang-in and Bradley Barcola this summer.
The former Barcelona man is contracted to Les Parisiens until the summer of 2028, but according to The Mirror, PSG could sanction a loan exit to the Premier League during the winter window.
The report claims that both Arsenal and Tottenham have been alerted to the possibility of signing Dembele in January, while West Ham United are also attentive to the situation.
PSG boss Enrique has already faced calls from disgruntled supporters to drop Dembele, who is yet to complete a full 90 minutes for the French champions in the current Ligue 1 campaign.
However, the Spaniard recently launched an impassioned defence of the under-fire Frenchman and insisted that he would pay to watch the winger play if he was a Parisien supporter.
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"If I were a supporter of a team, I would pay to see Ousmane Dembele. He's a totally different player. He is unpredictable, overflows, [and] works magic," Enrique told the media after his side's Champions League win over Dortmund.
"It's true that he may have missed things and didn't score his first goal, but the day that happens, I'm sure he'll score a lot later. This happens to all attackers. It's wonderful for a coach to have a player of this quality and level available."
Prior to returning to the top flight of French football, Dembele scored 40 goals and set up 43 more in 185 games for Barcelona, but he was hampered by injuries in Catalonia following his £117.7m arrival.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta gave the green light to a contract termination for Nicolas Pepe over the summer, and the Gunners are thought to be considering a move for a right-winger in January to compete with Bukayo Saka, Reiss Nelson and Fabio Vieira.
Meanwhile, Tottenham added Brennan Johnson and Manor Solomon to their wide ranks this summer, but the Lilywhites could now be without Ivan Perisic for the rest of the season owing to an ACL injury that the Croatian suffered in training.
Ben Knapton
