AC Milan midfielder Tiemoune Bakayoko has denied claims that he refused to come on as a substitute in the team’s Monday night fixture against Bologna.
Bakayoko, who is currently on loan from Chelsea, was caught on TV cameras mouthing “f*** off” as he sat down on the substitutes’ bench, shortly after Gattuso had asked him to warm up.
Thats not what happened. Gattuso was mad he was still warming up, so he put on Mauri. Then he walk over to Bakayoko and said something disrespectful. Dudes need to stop spreading lies when there is footage.pic.twitter.com/uwr2nECzsT
— kase (@kase_kubrick) May 6, 2019
In a statement on Twitter, the midfielder – who was fined a hefty €90,000 by the club last week after showing up one hour late for training – said that he had simply repeated Gattuso’s words back at him.
“I was called back to the bench,” he wrote. “When I sat down, the manager spoke to me using words I did not expect, and I just repeated his words. That’s all,” he wrote.
“I never refused to play or to warm up,” he wrote. “A lot has been written about me and I’ve remained quiet, but what happened tonight (against Bologna) demands an immediate reaction. I won’t allow people to portray me as a player who refuses to come when his manager asks him to, or who does not respect his club or teammates”.
— T.Bakayoko14 (@TimoeB08) May 7, 2019
In post-match interviews following Milan’s 2-1 win, Gattuso told journalists that he was angry that Bakayoko took an age to begin warming up.
“I waited seven or eight minutes and he hadn’t even put his shin-pads on,” he said.
Neverthless, he added, the two of them would sort out the issues behind closed doors “using my language”.
“We’ll meet in a room eye-to-eye and see,” he said.