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OPINION: Dembele has been a disaster at Barca who wasted Neymar money on him

  /  autty

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.

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