During the presentation of the conclusions of the Forensic in which alleged criminal matters of the previous Board of Directors chaired by Josep Maria Bartomeu are investigated, Joan Laporta was asked about the position in which Ousmane Dembélé remains, who neither renewed nor left, the only two scenarios that fit according to Laporta, Rafa Yuste, Mateu Alemany and Xavi. Frustrated, Laporta fired a shot at the French player and slipped that he will never wear the Barça shirt again.
“This (Dembélé’s) was one of the cases we had on the table. A high investment was made in his day and the player had a significant salary. The Dembélé thing has been one of those situations.. We made him a good offer and he said that he considered it a good one, that the problem was not financial… And it turned out that in the end it was a financial issue. When we told him that the offer was good enough, the subject became entrenched and the agent took a position on not saying anything. Not saying anything has consequences for the interests of the club. We have done what we could. We have presented him with two good offers and he has not wanted to accept them. We are surprised that he did not want to accept them, especially the second one, which was an English club where he could have developed his qualities. And he didn’t want to. He has preferred to stay here these six months. It doesn’t make sense because it’s not good for him or for the club. His renewal was going to give us a salary margin and it was going to allow us peace of mind. The truth is that the Dembélé thing is difficult to understand. Now we have him in the squad and Xavi is working on the immediate present and the mid-term. If he is a player that we will not have next season, he will tell me. It seems that he has an agreement with another club and I don’t know what they think, but we will look at the interest of the club”, Laporta has sentenced.
