Unaccountable Dembélé refuses to discuss sending off
The French player refuses to discuss his sending off in the LaLiga game against Sevilla with team-mates, club staff and directors.
Ousmane Dembélé had never been sent off in all his 147 games wearing the Rennes, Borussia Dortmund or Barça shirt. His 43 appearances for the French national team too have never seen the winger being sent for an early bath and in his 66 games in the Barcelona shirt, the 22-year-old has only been awarded three yellow cards. Things changed at Camp Nou on Sunday night after Mateu Lahoz handed Ronald Araujo his marching orders with the French player then approaching the official and stating "eres muy malo" (you are very bad) to the referee which saw Mateu issue the player a straight red.
No-one knows what prompted this outburst from Ousmane Dembélé with the French player refusing to talk about the matter later with his colleagues. Valverde was asked in the post match press conference and jokingly claimed: "I'm not sure what he would have said as it's difficult to get him to speak in Spanish. It's a mystery and I'm sure it was not a long sentence...". The Basque coach was not wrong with the referee report showing that the player approached the official remonstrating and claiming that he was "very bad".
Major El Cláscio doubt
Everything points to the player being handed a two match ban which would rule him out of he first Clásico of the season in a fortnight as Barcelona face Real Madrid at Camp Nou though Barcelona's legal team will launch an appeal hoping to reduce the punishment.
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The Frenchman's possible absence comes at a time when Valverde had given the player another vote of confidence selecting him ahead of big summer signing Antoine Griezmann for the Sevilla game. The 22-year-old was instrumental in Suárez's opener and bagged the third goal of the evening as Barça ran out 4-0 winners.
With the player still recovering from recent injury French national team coach Didier Deschamps decided not to call him up for the forthcoming Euro 2020 games against Iceland and Turkey which would have allowed the player regain optimum fitness ahead of the Clásico. The player will now rue his "you are very bad" comment as Barcelona will now have to plan for the October 26 showdown without their mercurial French star.