Adrien departure left a massive void at the club over a year ago when Medhi Benatia watched his closest dressing-room ally exit following a training-ground altercation, Foot Mercato reported.
« Je le suis tous les week-ends, je regarde tous ses matchs », said Medhi Benatia, former football director, describing how he watches the midfielder who departed for AC Milan in the summer of 2025.
The relationship between the executive and the player had been remarkably tight throughout the campaign. « Il n’y a un match dans la saison où on ne s’est pas eu au téléphone », Benatia told Canal+, adding that Rabiot would often approach him before kickoff with playful bravado.
« Ah, mon directeur est tendu. Ne t’inquiète pas, ce soir, je te fais gagner le match », recalled Benatia of the player’s typical pre-match remarks.
Months before the eventual breakdown, the leadership structure had pushed aggressively to secure the Frenchman’s long-term future. During a June 2025 meeting with club owner Frank McCourt in Miami, Benatia designated the midfielder as the club’s absolute top priority, according to RMC Sport reporting.
« Je lui ai je te demande une chose, c’est Adrien Rabiot, il faut qu’on arrive à le garder », Benatia recounted telling the American businessman, as detailed by Le Phocéen.
The player himself had expressed a clear desire to remain on the Mediterranean coast, provided the sporting project matched his ambitions. « Moi je veux rester ici, je te le dis dans les yeux, je veux rester ici. Juste, il faut qu’on fasse une équipe compétitive », Rabiot told the director, emphasizing a goal of challenging Paris Saint-Germain and returning to the UEFA Champions League.
Everything unraveled on August 15, 2025, at Roazhon Park following a 1–0 defeat away to Rennes, when a physical confrontation erupted in the locker room between Rabiot and teammate Jonathan Rowe, as outlined by RMC Sport.
Head coach Roberto De Zerbi found himself entirely unable to regain control of the situation as the altercation escalated out of bounds. « Le coach me dit : “Je fais quoi moi? Trois fois je dis stop, les mecs se mettent dessus! C’est comme si je ne suis pas là, comme si j’étais une merde” », Benatia explained, conveying the manager’s immense frustration and sense of lost authority.
While Benatia favored internal fines and a managed reconciliation, the total breakdown in discipline forced a rapid reassessment from club president Pablo Longoria and ownership.
The director admitted that a swift apology could have saved the relationship from total destruction in the immediate aftermath of the Rennes fixture. Instead, forty-eight critical hours ticked by without a single word of contrition from the midfielder.
« Deux jours se sont passés et j’espérais qu’il me fasse un message. Chaque fois que ça sonnait, je me disais que c’était lui. Mais il n’y a rien, pas d’excuse », Benatia stated, noting that formal expressions of regret only materialized much later during an official disciplinary hearing.
« L’excuse n’arrive qu’après, à la réunion, quand on a dit qu’il y aurait des sanctions », concluded the former director, marking the definitive end of an alliance that had defined the club’s sporting direction.
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