Benito Carbone made a surprise move to Sheffield Wednesday from Inter Milan in the summer of 1996, also playing for Aston Villa, Bradford City, Derby County and Middlesbrough before returning to Italy to join Como in 2002.

Carbone left Wednesday for Villa in 1999, but after his relationship with his Owls team-mates had soured in quite a horrible way.

The 51-year-old opened up on the events that led to his departure from the Owls in speaking to William Hill.

He said: "In my last season, I had a little bit of a problem with my Sheffield Wednesday team-mates in that time.

"Maybe it was my fault, maybe not…

"I am sure of just one thing – I remember with manager Danny Wilson, before we left to play in London, the day before I went and asked him for permission to go to Italy after the game to see my family.

"He said to me, ‘You can go, but listen, Benni, you know that you are one of the best players we have in the team, it’s very important tomorrow that we don’t lose the game, it’s very important you play well.’

"Anyway, we arrived in the dressing room for the game, and he says the formation, and I wasn’t in the line-up! I was angry and asked him, ‘why did you tell me yesterday I was the most important player, and now I’m not in the team?!’ But I was really stupid, I was young. I understand now what I did, I left the dressing room and my team-mates and I went home.

"But when I was back in Sheffield, one of my team-mates – I don’t know who, and I don’t ever want to know – wrote on my towels on my seat in the dressing room, ‘R.I.P. Bella Italia Benito Carbone.’

"That was the thing that destroyed the relationship between me and the dressing room, between me and my team-mates in the last season.

"It’s why I left Sheffield for Aston Villa and started my new experience with them.

"But I made a mistake in what I did."

This is a really sad tale that would suggest that bullying played a role in Carbone's departure, the former forward enjoyed some of the best years of his career at Hillsborough but did not receive the respect that he deserved in the dressing room.

Carbone reflected on some of the reasons why he did not fit into the environment at Wednesday as much as he possibly could have done, and admitted one of his regrets from his time at the club.

He continued: "This was one of my mistakes.

"You need to respect the culture where you go to play and work.

"At that time, I was very young, so when my team-mates invited me to go out to drink I would say, ‘no, I don’t like to drink, I don’t like beer, I don’t like wine.’

"That was wrong of me, it was a big mistake.

"When they invite you, you have to go with them because you need to do activities like a family, and if you don’t like alcohol, you can drink coke or water.

"It maybe would have had a big impact if I had spent more time with my teammates, it’s an important part of the culture."

Turning down team building opportunities like socialising with fellow players outside of the training ground or matchdays was probably a mistake, but it put Carbone in a difficult position, with team-mates seemingly hesitant to compromise and to offer other forms of socialising and team building activities rather than drinking.

Something that is probably very different in modern day football.

The Verdict

 

 

Carbone certainly should not blame himself for failing to integrate himself fully with the squad at Wednesday, what happened to him may have been part and parcel of the era that he played in, but that in no way makes it right.

The 51-year-old's honesty should be a lesson to football clubs and how they deal with foreign players entering a new environment and culture, ensuring that a repeat of the atmosphere Carbone was operating in is avoided.

Carbone went on to make a positive impact at Aston Villa and Bradford but never replicated the goalscoring output that he produced in his time at Hillsborough before returning to his homeland.