Bayern Munich Alumni: Catching up with Venezia’s Michael Cuisance

At one point, Michael Cuisance was one of the most promising, young midfielders in the Bundesliga.

After moving from Borussia Mönchengladbach to Bayern Munich, the Frenchman suffered one misstep after another — and each issue was usually self-induced.

Skilled, talented, and emotionally volatile, Cuisance never got going in Bavaria and now appears to scuffling his way through Serie A with Venezia.

In an interview with Sport1, Venezia sporting director Alex Mentatalked through his team’s collapse into a relegation battle and the disappointing performance from Cuisance.

“The first half of the season went almost perfectly for us, but the second half of the season is a real disappointment,” menta said. “We no longer reach the performance limit, but we also have extreme bad luck in the crucial moments. A lot is possible in football. We still have five final games to go thanks to a catch-up game, three of them against teams from the bottom half of the table.”

As for Cuisance, it has been an adjustment.

“We expect more from him, but also from all the other players,” says Menta. “You also have to understand that he has never been in such an uncomfortable situation in his career. Add to that the new country, the new language, and the new culture. He also has to get used to the style of play, it’s a completely different world for him.”

Menta did not that Cuisance has been “very good” with his attitude and behavior.

“All I’ve heard and read about him is nothing to see here. I can’t say a bad word about his attitude, really. He’s also a father now, has a child, something like that makes you mature,” Menta said.

The sporting director did acknowledge that Cuisance was frustrated with the club’s standing in the table.

“If you as a journalist, write ten articles a day and none of them are well received, you wouldn’t be happy either. It’s the same with Michael. He works very hard in training but the results are disappointing. But we also can’t expect a player to come here and have ten goals and ten assists after ten games,” Menta said.

If Venezia is relegated, is Menta worried that Cuisance will leave?

“We haven’t talked about that yet,” says Menta. “Basically, the contracts of all our players are still valid if they are relegated to Serie B. But, of course, we will sit down with the players, including Michael, after the season and discuss what we are doing.”

Cuisance has not registered a goal, nor an assist for Venezia as of yet this season.