Barca ´not a millimetre closer´ to signing Dembele – Watzke

Claims Ousmane Dembele is close to joining Barcelona have been emphatically rejected by Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke.

In the wake of their 2-0 defeat to Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu, which saw the capital club complete a 5-1 aggregate win in the Supercopa de Espana, Barca general manager Pep Segura said they are close clinching deals for Dembele and Liverpool forward Philippe Coutinho.

However, Watzke has been quick to dismiss those suggestions, telling Kicker: “Barcelona has not moved a millimetre closer to finishing the Dembele transfer.

“What he [Segura] talks about, I cannot explain. Only explanation is that Real Madrid made Barcelona dizzy during the Supercup matches.”

Barca on Thursday completed the signing of Paulinho from Guangzhou Evergrande Taboao, while Dembele and Coutinho have been identified as targets following Neymar’s world-record move to Paris Saint-Germain.

Dortmund turned down an offer reported to be in the region of €100million from Barca last Thursday, with Dembele then suspended for missing training.

The France international is not under consideration for selection for Dortmund’s Bundesliga opener at Wolfsburg on Saturday.