Antonetti mentions the “dark forces” again

During his press conference yesterday, Frédéric Antonetti hit out at the journalists. The Rennes coach did not like the way his midfielder Stéphane Dalmat his being treated in the press. “I don’t think this is completely honest”, the Corsican manager explained, having a go at the notes awarded by some medias. “Sometimes, I feel like there is exaggeration. I don’t want to sound obsessive, but when I see the ratings, according to the origin and where they (ed.: the players) come from, some are starting from 5, others from 2”, lequipe.frreports.

While he had already used the same words to qualify pressure “coming from outside” inflicted to his players last season, Antonetti mentioned once again the “dark forces” that disturb him, this afternoon. “There always are dark forces in the clubs. Here, they are sometimes influent. They will easily know who they are and one day or the other I’ll speak out and expose everything ». This time, the Corsican was talking about « people in the first circle around the club, not internal, who spill oil on the fire » when it comes to Stéphane Dalmat. “He is an introverted guy and a great professional, as opposed to what people seem to think.”

Antonetti aslo indicated that the press was wrong in thinking Stade Rennes were targeting Fabrice Abriel "because Dalmat doesn’t give satisfaction. It is not the case. Abriel doesn’t want to come to Rennes and it suits us very well, as we don’t want him either” lequipe.fr. also reports. A possible exchange of Fanni and Abriel had been mentioned by L’Équipe earlier this week .