‘RIP Carbone’ – Former Sheffield Wednesday star makes teammate claim and notes drinking culture regret

Carbone, loved during his time in blue and white, left under a cloud in 1999 amid talk of a contract dispute, and there was also a situation that arose when he was named on the bench rather than in the starting XI.

It’s a situation that the ex-midfield man says he wishes he’d handled differently…

Speaking to William Hill recently, ‘Beni’ 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 teammates and I went home.

“But when I was back in Sheffield, one of my teammates – 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 teammates 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.”

The Italian also spoke about his regret and not involving himself in the side’s drinking culture at the time – saying he feels he should have joined them, even if he didn’t have any alcohol while he was out.

“This was one of my mistakes,” he said. “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.”

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