When Barcelona sold Neymar to Paris Saint Germain for €216million (£198m) in 2017 several shrewd reporters in Spain voiced their concerns… not about the club missing the Brazilian on the pitch, more about the directors being let loose with so much money in the transfer market.
They spent the best part of €300m (£275m) on Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele in the following five months, and with the Brazilian already out on loan at Bayern Munich, it now seems Dembele, the other massive post-Neymar investment, is devaluing fast with every hapless episode of his so-far calamitous Nou Camp career.
His agent Moussa Sissoko said on Tuesday that his player was '1000 per cent staying at Barcelona'. He also said he had the desire to 'honour the colours'. It's not everyone at the club's wish that he stays. Some would like to recover the money spent on him as soon as possible. Others are showing more faith and patience but Dembele's first weekend of the season did little to support their case.
On Friday night he was one of Barcelona's worst performers as they lost their opening fixture to Athletic Bilbao.
He gave the ball away throughout and failed to track Athletic right-back Ander Capa as he crossed for the late winner. But worse was to come.
He had finished the game with a twinge in his left hamstring that the club wanted to scan the following morning. Dembele said he would arrive for the check up if the discomfort persisted. He never showed on Saturday instead making the most of two days off granted to the squad by Ernesto Valverde by flying abroad.
His agent had to speak out on Tuesday after several Spanish media claimed the player had flown to Senegal. 'It's not true,' said Sissoko. 'He did not go to Senegal he was in Rennes at his mother's house.'
Back from France on Monday, Dembele began training without complaining of any further problems with his hamstring but he felt discomfort in one of the passing drills and after a scan – the one which the club feel should have taken place on Saturday – a tear was confirmed and five weeks of rest prescribed.
Dembele has suffered seven injuries since joining Barcelona. Marca did the maths, calculating that he has played only 66 of a possible 120 games since joining, spending 228 days out injured.
Were it all just bad luck there might be more sympathy but there are people inside the club who believe the decision to take a flight rather than a scan on Saturday was typical of a lack of professionalism that is preventing him from fulfilling his potential.
Barcelona paid £96m to Borussia Dortmund in 2017 and are currently making their way though an additional £35m of add-on payments. Warning signs with injuries rang early when he pulled a hamstring and missed over three months of football in his first season.
But by his second season there were discipline concerns too. Valverde left him out of the squad on one occasion last season after he did not show up to training and the club could not track him down.
Eventually he was located at home and he excused himself for having missed the session complaining of a stomach bug. When asked why he had not called to inform the club he said his phone had no battery. A club doctor was sent to his home and according to Diario AS: 'the player had recovered significantly from his stomach problem' when the club official arrived.
France coach Didier Deschamps did him no favours at the time by saying that the player's tardiness was habitual.
The Barcelona dressing room tried to help the player get back on track. 'We have to help him realise that football is a 24-hour thing. And that sometimes it's not just about doing [your job] but also appearing to,' said Gerard Pique.
But they are becoming tired of repeating themselves. The defender was back on Dembele's case at the weekend for his sloppy display. Valverde has also spoken about his attitude when he is on the pitch: 'Everyone loses the ball, the question is what you do after you lose it,' he has said.
Dembele does not manage his media anywhere near as carefully, or with the same level of proactive participation of so many advisers and representatives as some players.
As a consequence the coverage is often negative and the rumours go undenied. When he first arrived at the club, Barcelona are reported to have sent him a personal chef to stop him eating junk food at home. He is supposed to have sent the cook packing, as well as being generally unresponsive in terms of taking greater care of his diet and lifestyle. He has also been accused of staying up late with his games consul instead making sure he gets the right amount of sleep.
The club had hoped that the introduction to the squad of France team-mate Antoine Griezmann would settle Dembele down. But the influence of team-mates can only go so far.
Barcelona look resigned to keeping him for now. The Premier League market is closed and for all that Jurgen Klopp has been linked with a player he just missed coinciding with at Borussia Dortmund, there will be no interest from anyone in the Premier League for as long as Barcelona are try to recoup all of their massive outlay on him.
Could he join PSG as part of the Neymar deal? Barcelona president Josep Bartomeu said several times this summer that he thought Dembele was better than Neymar. No one could quite work out if that was him ruling out Neymar's return or trying to to reel PSG into a swap deal. There is some suggestion they would take €100m (£91.5) and Dembele and Nelson Semedo but any chance of that happening seems to have been derailed by the latest injury.
Whatever happens to him, one thing is certain, his value has plummeted since he signed two years ago.
All of which proves those two cynical Catalan reporters right. They knew about the danger of Barcelona wasting the Neymar money because they had seen it all before.
In 2000 Barcelona were slightly embarrassed by Luis Figo running off to join Real Madrid but they did make around €62m (£57m) from the deal. That was huge money 17 years ago but the board blew most of it on Marc Overmars and Emmanuel Petit: good players but not right for the club at the time, and ultimately let go at a huge loss.
Fast-forward 19 years and the club finds itself staring in danger of repeating the same mistake. Their most expensive signing ever is already out on loan. Their second most expensive ever signing is fast-becoming a very expensive mistake.
Solomonjabateh
129
Money wasted for nothing
Athenkosi01
89
This is what I've been saying all along. Barcelona brought Dembele out of panic they wanted someone to quickly replace Neymar gap. Dembele is waste of money he is too fragile he gets injured without any tackles on him.
Peterbarcelona
81
Barcelona need to swap this guy with leroy sane of man city, the young guy is talented just like dembele and knwz how to respond wen duty calls, unlike dembele who doesn't care abt wats at stake. Barcelona plz the earlier the better, strike up a swap deal with man city we get sane we tired of the dembele news.
Tamkeen
70
See what happens when you pay so much for potential and not proven quality. It's a gamble and the odds are almost always going to be against you. They not players like Ronaldo who's had a great season after great season and worked for that evaluation. Right now, the transfer prices are on cloud nine. Players have one good season and all of a sudden they're worth over a 100m. Transfer prices need come back down to Earth...
Peterbarcelona
59
What dembele really needs is someone to put him on the bench, a young talent a player like D. Nerez and Brazilian Everton. His behavior wont change if there's no one to put pressure on him and making him being left in the starting eleven.
Justice Richie
58
He is very immature and unserious about his life on and off the pitch he doesn't have ambition for greatness I just hate more since he wasted the two chances Messi gave him against Liverpool first leg in the ucl that's the moment barca should have sold him and keep Malcom i don't know why they still keep this guy.. Barca has given him enough time to prove himself but he didn't utilize it.. If he is very ambitious mbape wouldn't have been ahead of him the world...
NaGodwin
44
Dembele is a good players the problems is all players on the field focus on Messi all passe goes to him and Neymar himself, psg spent 222 millions on him what better he did yet ?
AriyanSamad
43
Players are not the problem the main problem is Bartomeu who haven't yet understood that Valverde is not an ideal coach for Barca.Who given the idea of signing a standard player like Dembele and Coutinho at that amount of money.After Neymar departure we should not gone on a hurry to sign players we should try to get a pure talent who can be future of our club we should do a lot of research before buying someone.I would say this board is killing the identity of FC Barcelona. They don't have any intention to win trophies or UCL they just keep gonna work with Sir Valverde and keep bottling on UCL. So barca fans be calm we can't gonna win UCL under this coach and management.
Joemnoprz
35
but barca president can't see that