Second Marseille player criticises management of Tottenham’s Roberto De Zerbi

Second Marseille player criticises management of Tottenham’s Roberto De Zerbi After Amir Murillo last month, Neal Maupay has become the latest player to criticise Roberto De Zerbi’s man management during his time at Olympique de Marseille. De Zerbi managed Marseille for just one full season before leaving just over halfway through his second at the club. He left OM back in February and soon after took over at Tottenham Hotspur. The Italian succeeded in keeping Spurs in the Premier League last season, but his side have had a poor start to the current campaign. His man-management is now coming under increasing scrutiny. There was, of course, the infamous video of him shouting at Ismael Koné in Marseille training, telling the Canada international to “call [his] agent”. Murillo is another player that was ostracised. Initially a handy squad player, he was suddenly cast aside. Speaking in September, the Panama international, now at Besiktas, revisted his exit from OM. “Everyone saw that I’d had a problem with the manager, (De Zerbi) . It had nothing to do with the club, nor with the team. I think it was simply something personal on the manager’s part and that, in a way, I felt it was a lack of respect. They practically forced me to leave the club, and that’s how I ended up at Beşiktaş ,” he said. Maupay denies father-son relationship with De Zerbi Maupay, still at Marseille and given a route back into the first-team due to the club’s financial crisis, was asked by RMC Sport about a father-son relationship with De Zerbi, as the latter had previously described. “ In any case, I don’t treat my children like that . Then again, everyone has their own way of doing things, their own parenting methods ,” said Maupay. “When you turn up for training and your things are left in a portable cabin at the back of the training ground, when you’re on your own doing laps of the pitch and you don’t have access to your changing room, of course it gets to you,” added the Frenchman. “It would be a lie to say otherwise. But I don’t want to dwell on it; I need to move on.” Maupay insists that he bears no grudge against De Zerbi, but may have done if he were younger and earlier in his professional career. GFN | Luke Entwistle