Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund have rubbished Barcelona’s claims that they are on the verge of completing a deal for Ousmane Dembele by stating that transfer talks have not advanced “even by a millimetre”.
Dortmund have suspended the French youngster for failing to report to training after the Bundesliga club turned down a bid from Barcelona.
Barcelona general manager Pep Segura had claimed that their £180million pursuit of Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele is on the verge of completion.
After suffering a humiliating 5-1 defeat against arch rivals Real Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup, Segura had revealed deals for Coutinho and Dembele are ‘close’.
But Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke has hit out at such claims and insisted that there has been no progress in talks between the two clubs.
He told Kicker: “I don’t know why he (Segura) said that. Barcelona is not one step closer to signing Dembele.”
“I cannot explain what he is telling me. Maybe it’s because Real played his team dizzy in the Super Cup.”
“Nothing has advanced, not even by a millimetre.”
The Catalan giants desperately want to strengthen their squad after suffering an embarrassing 5-1 on aggregate defeat to arch rivals Real Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup.
Barca are facing the heat and are finding an escape route to deal with the loss of Neymar, who moved to PSG this summer on a world-record move.
The La Liga club now wants to spend all the money that they received after selling Neymar, on roping in replacements.
And Liverpool star Coutinho and Dortmund winger Dembele are at the top of their wish-list.
Segura’s comments had suggested that Barca are closing in on deals for Dembele and Coutinho.
He told Spanish television channel TV3: “Coutinho and Dembele are both close.”
“We are hopeful that they will end up wearing the Barca shirt.”
“Until deals are closed I can’t say anything. We know we have to help the team and reinforce it and that’s what we are doing.”
But after Watzke rubbished such claims, it seems that a deal for Dembele is still a long way off.
Barcelona are now desperate to add more reinforcements in the attacking department as quickly as possible following Luis Suarez’s knee injury in the Super Cup defeat to Real Madrid. The Uruguayan forward will be sidelined for four to five weeks.