That's not really the point though. They clearly said they wanted to renew him, that he was a top player and that they wanted him at the center of the project. Well, the player now asks a salary matching these statements. Of course he'll never get 40M/year anywhere but he didn't shoot himself in the face at all, he has total control over this situation and can lower his demandes if he doesn't get an interesting proposal. But Laporta and Xavi did cornered themselves with their statements : you want him at the center of the project, pay him as such. Dembele is an injury prone player who yet has to do something significant at Barcelona, why would you say something like that when you could have just played it cool, work quietly on a renewal without too much noise and without saying that he's a top player when he's obviously not.
That's the downfall of Laporta's "Barcelona is back" PR face. He wants to pretend that they'll be able to build a top team in no time, that they can have very high expectation, that they already have one of the best player in the world in Dembele etc. when any follower knows it's BS. Just manage the clubs finances properly and slowly rebuild instead of speaking nonsense or hugging Messi's shirt.
