It appears that Rafa Benitez has his first big locker room fiasco with his new side behind him now. The former Liverpool boss reportedly got into a heated dispute with Sulley Muntari prior to this weekend’s match with Juventus and the Ghana national team midfielder stormed out of the locker room and went home before the first whistle of the rivalry match.
Derby d’Italia has reported that Muntari was enraged that he was neglected from the starting eleven of this weekend’s fixture and refused to join his side on the bench for the match. Instead the midfielder elected to leave the locker room after venting his frustrations and supposedly watched the match from home instead. The alleged act would likely confirm Muntari’s expect this January and his behavior likely will not grant any more consideration for time on the pitch.
Rafa made the following statement regarding the feud:
A player who is not in the squad can’t be happy, but each of us do things that we consider to be right. Sulley must understand that there are others and that the others are important.
And Muntari has yet to start in a single match this season and was linked to a move to Liverpool for Dirk Kuyt this summer, but that deal fell through and Rafa was forced to keep the displeased African footballer. This is only Muntari’s third season with the Serie A giants and last year the player only started in 16 matches. It appears he and Rafa are one of this toxic player-coach relationships and it appears that his actions will likely mean that he will be forced to quit the squad.
Following their scoreless draw with Juve, Inter’s next match will be on the road against Cagliari on Oct. 17th. No word yet on if Muntari will be joining the squad on the trip.
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