Dembele Responds After Being Told By Barcelona to Leave the Club

Barcelona director of football Mateu Alemany made the club’s position on the French winger, Ousmanne Dembele clear after he was not included to face Athletic Club.

Alemany said at a press conference ahead of the Copa del Rey meeting with Athletic Club: “With Ousmane and his agents we started conversations around the month of July. In all this time, almost seven months, we have talked, Barca has made different offers, we have tried to find a way for the player to continue with us and those offers have been continuously rejected by his agents.

“It seems obvious to us that the player does not want to continue at Barcelona and is not committed to Barca’s future project.

“We told him and his agents that he must leave the club immediately because we want to have players committed to the project. We expect a transfer to take place before January 31. The sporting consequence is that we don’t want to have players who don’t want to be at Barca.

In his own lengthy statement posted in French and Spanish on his social media feeds, the winger argued that his future lies in the hands of his agent and that he just wishes to play, insinuating his relationship with Barca is “a kind of blackmail”.

“I forbid anyone to speak in my place, in place of my agent, who I have complete confidence in,” Dembele wrote on Instagram. “I am still under contract. I am fully at the disposal of my club and my coach.

“I am not a man who cheats and even less a man who has a habit of giving in to blackmail. Surely, love is a kind of blackmail. There are negotiations. I let my agent handle it, it is his turf.

“My field is football, simply playing football, sharing moments of joy with my team-mates, our supporters. Let’s focus on the essentials – winning.”