Club announce former Spurs midfielder will train on his own from now on
It appears that disciplinary issues are continuing to hamper the career of former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Nabil Bentaleb, who has now been asked to train on his own by Schalke.
Bentaleb was rated very highly while coming through the Tottenham academy and made an immediate impact when he was handed his debut by Tim Sherwood in his first game in charge as interim boss.
The Algerian international made another huge step forward in Mauricio Pochettino’s first season at White Hart Lane but quite puzzlingly, the club decided to let the midfielder leave in 2016 (initially on a loan deal to Schalke, before the switch was made permanent).
He has since admitted that he was too hasty and demanded to leave Spurs after falling down the pecking order.
However, Spurs and Pochettino have arguably been proven right in their judgement as the 26-year-old’s career has been blighted with controversy since leaving North London.
Bentaleb was dropped from the first-team squad last year and trained with Schalke’s Under-23s due to disciplinary issues, before being loaned out to Newcastle for the second half of last season.
After the Magpies chose not to make the loan deal permeant, it looked like the midfielder had worked his way back into the first-team picture for Die Konigsblauen.
Although the club are having a campaign to forget, currently languishing at the bottom of the Bundesliga, the former Spurs man has made eight appearances until now, including coming on as a substitute in the 2-0 defeat against Wolfsburg on Saturday (transfermarkt.com).
However, the club revealed on Tuesday that Bentaleb will be training on his own from now on and will leave by the end of this season at the latest.
Schalke’s head of sport and communication, Jochen Schneider, said regarding the midfielder: “There’s no question that he’s a great footballer. But, we have established that Schalke and Nabil Bentaleb clearly aren’t a good fit.
“There’s nothing in this moment that has led to this, but rather, it was part of a process. We will part ways by summer 2021 at the latest.”
The club’s head coach Manuel Baum has now shed more light on the controversy by indicating that the decision was made as a result of ‘discussions’ after Schalke’s defeat on Saturday.
Baum said: “It was important that we dealt with the Wolfsburg game properly. We held a lot of discussions and thoughts before making considered decisions about personnel.
“Nobody can put their ego ahead of the team. Anyone who does that will not walk out onto the pitch for Schalke. We have enough good players who play with their heart and soul, and who want to give back to the fans.”
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