Chelsea’s Tiemoue Bakayoko has run out of time at Milan after a falling out with Gennaro Gattuso. It has been a strange season for the Frenchman.
Tiemoue Bakayoko was simply amazing at Monaco. He missed the end of that season with injury as Manchester United and Chelsea seemed to fight forever over him. Eventually, Chelsea won out on the hobbled Frenchman.
But Chelsea also sold Nemanja Matic out from under Antonio Conte. He had wanted Matic to remain a starter as Bakayoko recovered and acclimated to England. With no other option, Bakayoko was thrown into the deep in. Though he had flashes of brilliance, he had a mostly poor season.
Maurizio Sarri came in at this point, immediately decided not to give Bakayoko a chance, and the Frenchman was loaned to AC Milan with a buy clause. Seemingly, his time at Chelsea was done.
Bakayoko again started poorly. He seemingly could not get anything right under Gennaro Gattuso. Winter had not yet arrived but it looked as though Bakayoko would be returning to Chelsea in January in disgrace.
But then something clicked. Bakayoko became his Monaco self once again. He was playing with confidence and the manager and the fans began to love him. With a low buy clause, his Milan future seemed concrete.
As Milan fought for the Champions League, they were matched against Lazio frequently. Bakayoko was abused for his race by Lazio and fans. Bakayoko stood up to them and was offered little support. That detail is important because it is hard not to draw lines to that and what happened next.
Shortly after those incidents, Bakayoko was late to training. Players are often late to training (N’Golo Kante a repeat offender apparently). But this blew up into an event. Gattuso was furious and had a bust up with the Frenchman. He was dropped despite being a key cog in the Milan midfield.
An early injury in that match prompted Gattuso to tell Bakayoko to warm up. The Italian media said Bakayoko refused to play. Gattuso’s story is that Bakayoko took too long. Bakayoko’s story is that he took barley any time at all before being told to return to the bench. Regardless of which side of the story is true, the world saw their exchange on camera as they traded curses.
That brings everything to the current. Italian crowds will continue to barb Bakakyoko, just as they did Antonio Rudiger before he departed. Gattuso and Bakayoko are unlikely to reconcile. And the first narrative is always the strongest; in this case the narrative that Bakayoko refused to play. That will stick in the minds of many.
Where does that leave Bakayoko now? A Milan move, so long as Gattuso remains at least, is seemingly impossible. Sarri gave him no chance last summer, but could this summer. Even still, “being technical enough” was never quite Bakayoko’s skill set.
There are more questions than answers after this season with Bakayoko. There is a good player in there, but how to get to that remains to be seen. He could be of use to Chelsea, but a way has to be found.