'You can't get into a physical assault!' - Jonathan Rowe and Adrien Rabiot caused 'chaos' in Marseille dressing room as director Medhi Benatia explains decision to sell pair

Marseille’s season has exploded into chaos just one match in, as tempers flared inside the dressing room  following their 1-0 defeat to Rennes in the Ligue 1 opener. What started as angry words over the team’s performance spiralled into a violent altercation between Rabiot an Rowe. According to witnesses, punches were thrown, security had to step in, and one young player even collapsed amid the tension.

The fallout was immediate. Within days, Rabiot was informed he has no future at the club and England U21 winger Rowe is being sold to Serie A. It was a drastic but decisive move from Marseille’s hierarchy to re-establish control after what sporting director Benatia described as a “scene of chaos” rarely seen in football.

Instead of focusing on late-window reinforcements, Marseille now find themselves forced into damage control, negotiating exits for two players they expected to rely on this season. With Rowe already close to Bologna and Rabiot attracting Serie A interest, OM’s market plans may be reshaped entirely. And with Champions League qualification a priority, losing squad depth to internal conflict could prove disastrous.

Speaking to RMC Sport, Marseille’s football director Benatia didn’t hold back when recounting the extraordinary events: "There are key players who came back frustrated, who started to make comments to the whole team, about the defeat, about the behavior, that we have to do more, we're at Olympique de Marseille, you can't afford to go and lose like that against a team that's been 10 against 11 for an hour, etc. So until then, well, it was just words and then it started to get a bit heated, it got up... You know how it goes in a locker room, people get up, they shout, there are always normally two, three guys who come, who separate.

"I was there, normally you calm down. There are still matches left and the season has just started. Not here, we got into physical confrontations, punches. We had a kid (Bakola) who at that moment had a kind of vagal malaise, who fell to the ground, and all that in a locker room... A scene of chaos, I've never seen that. I spent, I don't know, 17-18 years in a locker room, I argued as captain. In clubs, we can sometimes have heated exchanges. Reflections that maybe you can take a little badly after a defeat, it happens... It's the truth, but that said, it can get a little heated. But you can't get to a physical assault, a punch in the mouth and stuff, and security coming to separate you, but where are we? We're here to play football."

The priority now for Marseille is restoring order, Roberto De Zerbi must steady the ship quickly to prevent the locker room’s combustible atmosphere from wrecking the season. At the same time, the club faces a tight transfer deadline.