Marseille had not even dried off from a season opening loss when its dressing room became the story of the week. Roberto De Zerbi called it what it looked like to him, “two employees fighting like in an English pub, with a teammate on the ground because he had lost consciousness.” He added a simple question, what should an employer do in France. “There are two solutions, either suspension or dismissal,” he said in the post-match press conference.
The clash between Adrien Rabiot and Jonathan Rowe erupted after a 1–0 defeat at Rennes, a game the hosts finished with ten men. Club president Pablo Longoria relayed what his staff told him, an incident that was “incredible, violent and aggressive.” Security stepped in. One player fainted on the floor as the doctor tried to revive him. “It’s the only time I’ve seen that,” De Zerbi said. “I come from the streets, I’m used to this kind of thing. But to see bodyguards defending us…” He also recalled, “I saw the doctor trying to wake up the other player on the ground.”
Marseille’s response was immediate. The club removed both players from first-team activities and placed them on the transfer list for “unacceptable behaviour” after Rennes. De Zerbi confirmed neither would feature in the next match. Longoria framed the decision as a matter of basic workplace rules, not football etiquette.
De Zerbi bristled at criticism from Rabiot’s mother and agent, Véronique, who publicly questioned the stance. “No one can walk all over me, or the club,” he said, reminding that he had made Rabiot captain and treated the player with care. The coach also widened the lens. “It was a fight, a brawl, the likes of which I’d never seen in all the years of my career.”
A line in the sand for Marseille
In practical terms, the fallout moved quickly. Rowe completed a transfer to Bologna, with Italian reports placing the fee near 22.8 million dollars for a four year deal. Rabiot, a France international with suitors in Italy and England, remains on the market while he trains away from the group.
That speed matters. Marseille returns to the Champions League soon and began the league campaign counting on both players. Removing them now is a competitive risk, though De Zerbi has framed it as a cultural reset. “In a football club, as everywhere else, there must be a hierarchy. The club comes first.”
The deeper question is what message this sets inside a club that has lived with turbulence. Longoria, who said he had “never seen anything like it,” has tried to make the response as clear as the incident was chaotic. Fans will judge whether the line holds when results wobble, but the bar has been set in public, not behind closed doors.
For now, Marseille’s season will be measured by more than a league table. It will be judged by whether the team that walks back into the tunnel looks like a group that understands where the limits are. De Zerbi’s language was blunt, and it was deliberate. You cannot preach standards on the pitch if you do not enforce them in the locker room.
