Everton manager Rafael Benitez speaks about Lucas Digne transfer saga
Rafael Benitez has spoken about the ongoing transfer saga involving Everton full-back Lucas Digne.
The 28-year-old is widely thought to have fallen out with the Madrid-born Toffees manager and is now pushing for a move away from Merseyside.
Benitez spoke in his press conference on Friday about Digne’s reasons for wanting to leave the club and indicated that modern football has changed.
As quoted by Richard Buxton on Twitter, Benitez said: “I have no explanation. We are professionals, we are paid big money to do our job… In modern football, maybe the priorities have changed & people think about themselves ahead of the team”
No more holding back
With Digne looking more likely to leave with every passing hour, there’s no need for Benitez to hold back anymore.
While he doesn’t directly reference the Frenchman in his reply, there is a hint of back-handed criticism of his choices and his professionalism, more so than his on-pitch performances.
Too often in football, you find managers that don’t want to say what they are really thinking and go for a more diplomatic answer instead, not here.
Benitez has obviously had enough of Digne’s disruptive behaviour and has decided he needs to call it out, even if he hasn’t explicitly mentioned him here.
Not only does this send a message to Digne himself about his actions, but to the rest of the Everton squad that disruption won’t be tolerated and a united squad is required if they are going to get themselves out of trouble.
A player is completely entitled to want a transfer, for a variety of reasons, but there is a right and wrong way of going about asking for one, and it seems fairly clear how Rafa has taken Digne’s attempts.
In other Everton news, hear which TalkSPORT pundit claimed Digne “can’t defend”.