Ousmane Dembele is learning the hard way at Barcelona. The French forward is in the eye of storm at the Catalan club once again and was the victim of some unhelpful headlines on Saturday.

The 21-year-old has been warned by Barca before over his diet and his timekeeping since his €105 million move from Borussia Dortmund last year and is in trouble again after a fresh incident on Thursday.

Dembele did not show up for training and it took Barca an hour and a half to get hold of their player, who is supposed to advise the club if he is ill.

The winger missed Thursday’s session and also Friday’s, before training alone on Saturday following a bout of gastroenteritis and he was left out of the squad by coach Ernesto Valverde to face Betis in La Liga at Camp Nou on Sunday.

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That topic dominated Valverde’s pre-match press conference on Saturday, with a number of questions about the Frenchman’s absence and disciplinary issues, which was the front page story for Sport and Mundo Deportivo on Saturday morning with the same headline: Dembelío.

'Lío' in Spanish means ‘mess’ or ‘trouble’ and Valverde was asked if leaving out the Frenchman was a form of punishment.

“No,” he said. “Everyone can interpret it as they wish. This is a team. I try to do the best for the team and the club.”

Could his future be at risk? “I have nothing to say,” Valverde added. “Internal matters are internal. We want to help the players to be better.”

Later on, he elaborated. “We want our players to have the most positive impact possible. We want to help him in that respect. That’s the intention. He has incredible talent.”

Dembele started the season superbly and scored several important goals, but he has since found opportunities a little more infrequent and Valverde was unhappy he took so long to remove his tracksuit and tie his boots when Lionel Messi was injured against Sevilla last month.

There is also the feeling at Camp Not that he can be more professional after problems with his diet last season, when he also turned up late to training on a regular basis.

In Andres Iniesta’s farewell event at Camp Nou earlier this year, Gerard Pique revealed that the Barca players have a WhatsApp group in which they share information on training times.

“We have it to communicate the schedules,” he said. “It’s good because Dembele is always late!”

The concern at Barca is that such indiscipline off the pitch could also lead to a lack of focus on it, but the club remain convinced they have a special talent on their hands and there is no question the forward could be sold.

That the two Catalans sports papers should lead with the same story on Saturday is evidence that the club are not happy with their second-most expensive player (only Philippe Coutinho cost more) at the moment, although the reports do also seem unnecessarily malicious.

Dembele is a young man learning his trade and these situations are normal. His predecessor, Neymar, was a problematic player at a similar age, and the Brazilian was indulged by Barca.

For now, the Frenchman’s absence could represent another opportunity for Malcom, who scored Barca’s goal in the 1-1 draw against Inter Milan at San Siro in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

The Brazilian trains hard and could now get a run in the team, especially with Coutinho out injured this weekend. The former Bordeaux winger is not as talented as Dembele, but a short spell out of the side may help the Frenchman to improve his discipline and mature into the player Barca believe he can become – one of the very best in the world.