Our inform midfielder Mousa Dembele will not be included in France’s World Cup squad – and it left Joey Barton temporarily bemused.
The former Manchester City man Barton suggested on talkSPORT’s Alan Brazil Breakfast Show that our all-action midfielder should be a shoe-in in Didier Deschamps’ 23-man party to Russia.However as we know Dembele already has 70 caps for Belgium.
Barton, of course, soon realised the error of his ways and corrected his gaffe “He’s top drawer,” Barton started on talkSPORT.”A lot of things are levelled at him, like he doesn’t score enough goals – which I don’t think he does – but on the flip side of that is role in the team is the first receiver. I think he’s shown incredible composure. Barton added: “Not an international? Not capped by France?”
“Nope,” said presenter Alan Brazil who appeared to have clocked onto Barton’s faux pas.Barton then queried: “Can he get in the French World Cup squad?”
“I don’t see why not,” Brazil as he proved he had no grasp on the embarrassing conversation and Barton, who by this stage had been given the facts by a producer, backtracked: “Oh, sorry, he’s Belgian, isn’t he? What am I on about?”
“Of course he is,” Brazil said, before adding the immortal line. “There are so many Dembeles about now”.
Barton’s faux pas is not the first time in recent memory that it has happened. Our former manager Harry Redknapp questioned why Jamaica’s Wes Morgan hadn’t been given an England call-up, and the former Portsmouth chief did a similar routine for Chelsea and Nigeria’s Victor Moses. Harry wasn’t alone as the French manager Didier Deschamps is no stranger to mistakenly attaching the wrong nationality to a player with the 1998 World Cup winner wanting to include Napoli’s Senegal international Kalidou Koulibaly in a squad.
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