Carrasco accused by coach of deliberate bookings and forcing return to Europe

Yannick Carrasco has been slammed for his attempts to force a return to Europe and accused of getting deliberately booked by his Dalian Yifang coach. Carrasco, 25, has been strongly linked with a move to Arsenal, having reportedly grown desperate to move back to Europe after just over a year in the Chinese Super League.

Dalian confirmed on Friday they had fined and suspended Carrasco from club activities as a result of missing training and a match without permission following the international break. That came after team-mate Yu Ziqian criticised Carrasco's efforts in training recently, with the Belgian later calling the attitude of his colleagues and the club's leaders towards him as "incomprehensible".

But the saga heated up another notch on Saturday, as coach Choi Kang-hee accused Carrasco of picking up a suspension on purpose and trying to force Dalian into letting him leave.

Speaking at a news conference, the coach said: "When I first saw Carrasco, it was in Spain during the [Chinese] winter training. At that time, he constantly mentioned his wish to return to Europe. He repeated his appeal after the start of the season. Last night [Friday] I also saw reports from his agent. When a player has a contract with a team and he still wants to force the club to let him leave, in my opinion this is very unprofessional.

 

June 21, 2019

"No one from our club promised that Carrasco can return to Europe in the [European] summer transfer window. We just told him that if he can help the team, then the team will support his way back to Europe. However, we also saw what happened in the previous game. The game against Shanghai Shenhua, we told him to be careful, do not be cautioned by referee. But he still deliberately delayed the restart of the game to get a yellow card, which led to the suspension in the next game.

"After the suspension, he wanted to return to Europe earlier. We didn't want to let him go, but for the sake of the player, we agreed. He also promised us to come back to play the next three games. However, after the international break he was late and even disappeared. He was also very negative in the training after his return. After Carrasco returned, we also tried to persuade him to play, but he constantly asked the club to issue a written commitment first to promise to let him go back to Europe in the winter, which is very unprofessional behaviour, I think.

"[Marek] Hamsik is also here. For professional players, they have to be loyal and they have to be responsible for their choices."