Ousmane Dembele Breaks Unwanted Club Record After Arriving Late for Training on Sunday
Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele has allegedly been cumulatively fined at least €50,000 since his arrival at Camp Nou 18 months ago, with the player seemingly struggling to meet the professional standards expected at the club after yet more questions about poor timekeeping.
It follows news that Dembele was two hours late for training on Sunday following the city derby against Espanyol the day before, arriving at 1pm when the scheduled session began at 11am.
The claim appears to have come from a conversation on Catalunya Radio, in which journalist Xavi Campos seemed to declare that Dembele had already broken the club record for player fines by the end of October: "Now it's more than €50,000."
Dembele, who was described as 'always late' by Gerard Pique at the end of last season, was in trouble for lateness in November and appeared to have finally stepped up his behaviour after his agent was reportedly called in for a meeting with Barcelona officials.
There had seemingly been no more incidents since then and the World Cup winner was playing well and contributing to the team. But the weekend has brought it all back to the fore and has people once again questioning Dembele's Camp Nou future.
Coach Ernesto Valverde was faced with a barrage of questions about the 21-year-old Frenchman when he appeared for the pre-match press conference ahead of this week's Champions League clash with Tottenham and refused to throw Dembele under the bus.
"I had no feeling. A circumstance has occurred and we will look to resolve it internally. It's not a new situation and we'll try to resolve it. He has talent and we will try to help him," Valverde is quoted as saying by the Evening Standard.
"They are internal questions and we will try to resolve them in the best way possible. He gives us a lot on the pitch, but we have a way of behaving here and our aim is for everyone to be well behaved here," he added as the questions continued.
"I don't know what to say. Across a season, things happen. If things happen once, it is not important. What we want is to help the players and for them to help us."
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According to Mundo Deportivo (MD), Barça officials Pep Segura and Eric Abidal will seek a meeting directly with Dembele this time around, instead of simply talking to his representatives.
A separate MD report seems to suggest the club has little intention of cutting their losses on the €145m player and would only sell should someone trigger his €400m buyout clause.
