Ismael Bennacer forced a move away from AC Milan on the final day of the January mercato, and today, Marseille’s Sporting Director spoke about the move.
Throughout the season, Milan have awaited Bennacer’s return, believing that the Algerian would be effectively a new signing for the club when he returned after his time sidelined. However, he never really showed much upon his return, and then things reached a boiling point.
In the game against Inter, the midfielder clashed with Sergio Conceicao at half-time, which seemingly broke the relationship, and as a result, he forced a move away, something which reportedly greatly frustrated the management.
Marseille had previously been aware of his situation, and when they were given another chance to sign him, they took it. Now, Mehdi Benatia has spoken to L’Equipe about the player’s move to France and Bennacer’s wishes – the Director’s words have been relayed by Milan Press.
“He had lost some esteem, things were starting to change for him at AC Milan. He wanted to be treated differently and I jumped at the chance. With him, we remain on the level of character, temperament and sure-footedness.
“He is able to respond immediately to the pressure of the Vélodrome. He will bring us a lot and, with all the players at our disposal, we now have a Champions League midfield.”
Will always remember his contributions fondly and he’s gone to a place not chasing money but because he wants a central role, I respect that.
Just pay the buyout option in the summer and treat him anyway he wants. Don’t send him back.
The moment he got subbed off yesterday, Marseille scored 2 goals.
Oof that is a good look
We also scored 2 goals against Empoli the moment Reijnders was subbed off. Now what?
The guy is an idiot, you can’t expect something more of an idiotic comment from him.
Another donkey comment…from well, a Redbird Loving donkey. Who would have thought? 🤣🤣🤣
So we spent a quarter of his contract on doctor bills, and he wanted a different treatment?
He could have been a great player but constant injuries didn’t help. It’s an all too common story.
I’ll always remember him fondly in the Red and Black. People can comment all the cr+p they want to since it seems his chapter is done with us but truth be told, he’s been one of our better midfielders we’ve had over the past decade or so, close to the level of Jack in terms of impact over the years.
A class man and a class player.
I’m very dissapointed he is gone just when he was finding form/fitness
Everyone wants to go on about his injury record but thats not fair or accurate.
He didn’t have any breakdown of his body, he was subject to a tackle that injured him v Inter in CL, big difference.
Last season he was rushed back because of AFCON and our injury crisis which was the same for Kalulu, obviously that did not work.
I have no doubt he will do great with Marseille and we will be wishing we had a midfielder with his kind of quality and intelligence.
Conceicao has fallen out with some solid pro’s at Milan and that is no surprise as same happened in Porto.
Come CL and we get an injury or suspension or t Fofana/Tiji are tired in extra time, that 1m loan will seem like a very small amount of money.
Best of luck to him!
Hope this is not a recurring them from Sergio – Clashing will all players. Reports are he even clashed with Pulisic which is pretty funny and surprising all at the same time
Time will tell of Sergio wears out his welcome. Hope not cause I like him but there is a Fine balance between treating players fairly and treating players disrespectfully. Conte for example is a fiery character and demands excellence – but seems to have the respect of all his players. Hopefully Sergio does the same and this isn’t a negative patter. Like I said, Time will tell
I seriously doubt that Pulisic clashed with Conceicao or anybody. He is 100% not like that at all. I have never seen him get into any conflict with a coach or say anything negative to a coach, and I’ve followed his career since he first exploded onto the US sports news scene at age 17 with Dortmund.
That was absolutely positively a fake made up clickbait story from some reporter who didn’t have anything else to write. Every reporter in Italy knows that if they throw Pulisic’s name into a story with some controversy, it will get picked up across the Atlantic by the various US sports news agencies.
People on this forum really need to stop repeating this stupid fake story.