This whole situation was a complete disaster. And I'm sorry but I can't put much blame on Benatia here.
Really he should have handed in the transfer request as soon as we acquired Bonucci. He had come off a fine season and the writing was on the wall that we were going to bench him for an inferior player. But he says, "Ok maybe it's a meritocracy and I will take my seat on the bench and wait for another chance." But the chance never comes. He is watching mistake after mistake from Bonucci and still Bonucci is the first name on the sheet?
How does a player in his prime accept this? It would take an extraordinary love for the shirt to accept a complete reserve role. It's irrational to expect him to be OK with this setup.
Now the blame falls on Allegri/Paratici. Can they not see this coming? Allegri is the coach and he knows who he is going to play. If you know Benatia is never going to play, then sell him before the season starts. This is a separate criticism from other obvious issues like how Benatia is better than Bonucci anyways or that sometimes it would make sense to play with 3 CBs and use Bonucci in his preferred role as a sweeper. So in that scenario you can placate Benatia and also win games.
But the idea was just to sit Benatia on the bench the whole season?
And then it comes to Paratici. What the fuck did we gain by selling him now? Did we use the money somewhere? He was benched the whole year and suddenly *now* you care about his feelings? Either you care or you don't. You have to keep him now. Isn't there some communication between Max and Paratici that Bonucci will be used every game? In that case you are aware that Benatia will just be a reserve.
It's like this whole situation caught them by surprise but they're the ones who initiated it. Either you wanted Benatia as 4th choice, or you didn't. You decided this several months ago. All of a sudden in January you wake up and say, "Hey wait a sec, we don't need Benatia as 4th choice!".