Dortmund CEO: Barcelona manipulated Dembele

Berlin - Borussia Dortmund's CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke on Sunday accused Barcelona of manipulating Ousmane Dembele in a bid to force the German club to sell the wantaway winger to the Spanish giants.

Dortmund suspended Dembele indefinitely a week ago when the 20-year-old boycotted training after the German club rejected an initial bid from Barcelona.

Watzke has accused the Spanish giants of influencing the France international to force Borussia's hand.

Barcelona want to sign Dembele and Liverpool's Philippe Coutinho to replace Neymar, who left for Paris Saint-Germain, but Dembele has a contract until 2021 with Dortmund.

Reports claim the Germans want €130 million for the player they paid Rennes €15 million for last year.

Dortmund have made it clear they will only sell Dembele if their price is met and Watzke is less than impressed with the role Barcelona are playing in the transfer saga.

"You have to talk about the role of the 'glorious' club Barcelona," Watzke told Sky.

"We met with their representatives, which commanded the respect, which I still had back then a few weeks ago, of such a big and serious club.

"In doing so, we found out that our ideas (over the price) are very far apart and therefore such a big gap could not be crossed.

"Then completely out of the blue, he didn't come to training.

"Do you honestly believe that a 20-year-old, without the benvolence of a new club, says, 'I'm not coming to training.'

"Ousmane wouldn't have done that for any other club in the world - we know that now."

Watzke says the chance of Dembele leaving is less than '50 percent' and if he stays, the winger will have to apologise to the Dortmund squad, some of whom have been highly critical of the Frenchman.

Dembele has already packed up his house in Dortmund and moved back to France.