In 2024, Marseille cannot do it. OM have only won one match this year, in all competitions. Only 8th in Ligue 1, the Marseillais have gone from average to worst this season. They also experienced a complicated winter transfer window, particularly with the case of French international Jonathan Clauss. The latter had been pushed towards the exit. Benatia explains: “I arrived in November. I was warned about players whose behavior was sometimes borderline. Jonathan was one of these players. I know that he was received in the coach’s office so that we could explain to him what was expected of him as an executive and as a French international in his behavior. We thought the message had gotten through, unfortunately it wasn’t.”
Mehdi Benatia returned to this episode, giving the reasons which pushed the Marseille leaders to want to make him leave. “We arrive against Monaco, Jo asks for a change. He’s an executive, we asked him not to give up because we were missing 10 or 12 guys. When we learned from the medical staff that the player had nothing special when he was released, not all the staff were happy. We wonder what the problem is, if he wants to leave. The club asks me to call their coach after this match. I leave him a voice note and tell him if he can call me back so we can move forward quickly on our end. When I made the message, fortunately there were people next to me. There were no threats. We are in football. If the player has desires elsewhere, it was better that we listen. There were no offers, he stayed, he is playing and we will see at the end of the season.
Before adding: “Clauss? We had a problem but it’s back. He has a contract for another year and a half. We didn’t want to take him out for the sake of taking him out, that’s not it at all, we noted that he wasn’t playing at his level, he was received several times by the coach about behavioral problems, he knows why, we expect a lot from him, he is an important player who will make the Euro at the end of the year and above all group cohesion will always come before any player, that is clear and clear “.
