It would be fair to say that Franck Kessie has struggled so far at FC Barcelona as he has not been given much opportunity by new head coach Xavi.
Calciomercato.com report that Kessie ‘expected a very different start’ to life with Barcelona, whom he decided to sign with as a free agent, leaving Milan after over half a decade in search of a new stimulating project in a new country and league.
The fact Barca went for him aggressively suggested that Xavi would very much find a spot for him in his plans, but the Ivorian seems to be behind Sergio Busquets, Gavi, Pedri but also Frankie de Jong and at the moment even Miralem Pjanic.
Kessie has collected just 37 minutes across 3 appearances and in the Champions League he is not expected to start in the match against Viktoria Plzen.
The former Atalanta man earns €7m net per season with the Blaugrana but is seemingly at the bottom of the hierarchy for now as the fifth choice for Xavi, who has always favoured the technical qualities over the physical ones.
There were also some problems surrounding his registration by the Nou Camp club because of financial regulations. However, Kessie is not one to give up and will try to carve out space.
He should be able to find a role in Barca’s 4-3-3 given Pioli used him both as a defensive midfielder in the double pivot and as an attacking midfielder, but he must tactically integrate and only in time will we know if his choice to leave a club where he was deeply valued was the right one.
In my opinion this was a bad choice by Kessie, he should’ve joined a prem club (with his physicality) not Barca where you need to be extremely technical
Agree. Kessie was also never convincing in a 3-man midfield, so I’m not surprised with his difficulty.
I think Kessie to Xavi is like Krunic and Meite to Pioli: A fringe player for a specific purpose.
To keep it brief….f@&k him
Well, he could be a leader at AC Milan but went for 5th choice for Barcelona. From El Presidente to backup plan!
More like El Backupe
LOL!
Serves him right for being greedy.
forza milan forza El Presidente ,
after they renew gavi he will be a starter over him they just don’t want to loose gavi barcelona play in different system then milan but i won’t blame him for with disrespectful offers he got from the club
He decieved himself expecting to curb out a place in barca team. He is never my type back at milan. And I bet he would not be starter at barca
i won’t blame him for leaving with disrespectful offers he got from the club
Disrespectful offer? Milan offered him €5 million + bonus /year and Tonali took his place because he plays inconsistent. €5 million + bonus is a fair offer for a player who only played well for 1 1/2 season from 5 season.
1st of all , unless you were part of the negotiations, you have no clue what Milan offered him
2nd. Who took Kessie’s place?
Kessie was a starter the whole 2 years Tonali was a Milan player. Tonali took Bennacer’s place.
Just because Kessie left doesn’t mean you have to act like a dumped girlfriend and badmouth him and talk like he wasn’t good
He made his choice, thankful for everything he did for Milan and good luck to him
Exactly!
Kessie is in fact a good player so the usual badmouthing doesnt stick when these so called toxic people want to save their pride.
1. Doesn’t matter if i’m not part of the negotiations. This isn’t about me you dumbfvck.
2. Tonali replace Kessie like did you even watched last season matches?
Sure he’s a starter for the last two season but what about the other three season when he plays badly like a headless chicken? Those bad three seasons doesn’t magically disappear just because he played well for one and a half season!
And again, who said i didn’t grateful for his contributions?
We’re here talking about how much salary he deserves and Milan offered was fair. Period.
You are wrong. Stop talking like. Kessie replaced Diaz in the Attacking midfielder position. Bennacer was in and out of the first team cos of injuries, but when fit. Kessie, tonali, bennacer played and diaz was benched.
I hate kessie too for leaving, even more than calhanoglu, because of the Olympics lies he told the fans. I’m happy he’s been benched at Barca and I hope it continues to be like that and all Barca midfielders remain fit so there’s no chance for him.
However, he was a 100% starter at milan. No lies there. El presidente because he was always present in the team sheet, and in control of the midfield
Kessie passar aldrig i en hög teknisk lag så jag tror att Barca tog chansen att skriva på en free agent som kan sälja vidare för minst 20 mil
“Kessie passar aldrig i en hög teknisk lag”
Det är sant.
Kessie don`t know the meaning of being a 1st class player of a F.C (milan). So he as gone to (barca) where there see him as a 2th class class player in there culd.
I want to feel sympathy because he brings Scudetto for Milan and keeps being professional until the end of his contract.
But he choose Barca over Milan so i can only say good luck to him. And if he wants to comeback to Milan, well too late cause there’s no place for him in here with Bennacer, Tonali, Pobega, Vranckx, and Krunic already fill the slot.
Right, as if those players have his type of strength in midfield.
The ONLY good thing about kessie leaving is saving on wages and reminding everyone they can leave the club by negotiating higher, so Leao might have ideas soon.
Those players definitely have good strength + brain which unlike Kessie who only used his muscles.
This is bad business by barca paying 7m for a backup. i prefere milan strategy. Foza Gazidis, Forza Maldini, Forza Massara
say good bye to Rafael Leao and Fikayo Tomori and Ismael Bennacer and Mike Maignan and any players that get desired by other big clubs , if the milan keep think that way we won’t be consider a big club for much longer ,
f gazidis f eliot forza milan
Shut up you fool
keep sucking to the management but please don’t cry when players leave for a better salary you are the real fool ,
a real milan fan will see the problem in the hope that the club fix their mistakes a fan like you get fooled in thinking players fault for leaving like that
Bayern München said goodbye to Lewandowski. Barca said goodbye to their beloved Messi. Mane left Liverpool.
Your point? I dunno. But mine is that even big starts leave big clubs.
Its a shame he is going through this. All Milan fans should love the guy since he were professional to the very end and never talked any bad of Milan. That said, Tonali and Benaccer are much better together. To be honest he will not be missed at the moment. Maybe when the boys need some rest we will miss him. Other than that good luck to you Kessie. Barca seems fun
He never fit in our 433 system we played before, idk why he thought he would fit in barca’s 433 🤌
He was part of the group that brought us the title. He left us with good memories and a worm heart. He thought he was making a good choice and I wish him the very best. My only remark is that our offer to him was very close to what he got, so why bother leaving.
He is a snake that lied so that we would not sell him so his contract would run out and his agent could get paid.
Yeah it’s a shame to see him wasted like that. Barcelona always seemed like an odd choice give La Ligas lack of physicality (softness). I don’t watch the Spanish league because of how boring it is so I can’t really assess the tactical fit but without doubt Kessie looked like a PL player while at Milan. The type of player Man U or even Conti would be able to utilize to great effect.
I think it is a wasted opportunity for Man U and Kessie. He would have fit in perfectly, maybe not as good as Casemiro, but would not have cost 70M
Some people don’t know what a million is, so 5 million is way above their understanding. Calling 5 million disrespectful is actually being disrespectful yourself. That’s what happens with people who only know Playstation money.
Fully agreed with you 🤝
Kessie previous salary is around €2 million /year and Milan offered him €5 million + bonus /year which is a big increase. So no way in fking hell €5 million is a disrespectful offer.
5M€ would have made him the biggest earner. Was he the best player? Heck no! Disrespectful my a$$!
The problem with Jessie is that he likes playing back passes n horizontal passes.. Bennacer plays vertical passes, outting the ball in dangerous opponents zones.
Very sad actually. I wish him the best of luck (and he will need it).
Mediocre Player finding out the reality that Serie A and Italian teams makes him useful/Important.
The dude is not even regarded in Africa.
Well he got what he deserves for deceiving himself
That will be bad for him , not for playing time . Barca are always cut their bench warmer salary every year. If he stay like that 5th choice until last season ,barca will cut his salary next season . He should move to EPL club not barca. I respect him due to his contribution scudetto but now i think he will strugle on tiki taka system that xavi deploy
As soon as he joined Barca I said he’ll hardly play, not when they have Busquets and De Jong plus those two fantastic generational talents Pedri and Gavi.
Other than the odd game here or there, a few minutes at the end of the matches to help close them down is all he can hope for.
I expect he was told de Jong would be moving on, because he makes a lot less sense in a team that has those choices.
TBH, it’s the same issue de Jong had when he moved there; a midfield built around Busquets.
Seems like they try to sign the ideal replacement for him every year or two but he keeps getting played due to his consistency and tactical understanding.
Barcelona use 3-men CM, and Kessie shine brightly when used as a pivot in 2-men CM. When Kessie at AC Milan use 3-men CM, he dont look spectacular especially when attacking phase. He just make simple passes & making shots. Paqueta even better than Kessie in 3-men CM.
So what can Kessie expect ? I dont think Xavi will go for pivots because Barcelona have many technical-gifted midfielders & their MC should go forward often & making key passes. If Kessie want to replace Busquet, he need to be a bit better at playmaking & dont just making simple passes. Well, i think even Tiemoue Bakayoko was better than Kessie when in 3-men MC.
But at least Kessie get the 7Mill euros per year as he want, everybody win.
Some people actually prefer getting good money for very little effort. Castillejo was happy to stay and not play while getting millions for it. I bet Cashie is lovin’ it in Barcelona as well.
Then there are players ready to cut their salaries to stay in the club the love and get playing time there. Should not be hard to figure out which of the two types of players are more respected by the fans.