“Outraged” Blanc promises overhaul of French soccer
The French national soccer has a new coach in charge - and he’s promising big changes to the team.
Laurent Blanc has taken over the French team after his predecessor, Raymond Domenech, led his team to an inglorious exit at the 2010 FIFA South Africa World Cup. The team not only humiliated French soccer pride by failing to win a game, tying Uruguay and losing to Mexico and South Africa, but also disgraced itself in the eyes of international soccer with its public infighting.
After striker Nicolas Anelka was sent home for calling Domenech a “son of a w***e,” captain Patrice Evra declared there was a “traitor” within the camp who had leaked the insult to the press, and the team held a mini-strike, refusing to train and eventually sequestering themselves on the team bus. Eventually they were persuaded to return to the pitch but lost their final game anyway.
On Tuesday, Blanc expressed the same outrage so many French people were feeling over the incident and said he would have the task of rebuilding the team because the current incarnation was untrustworthy.
“Not even a melon’s pip”
"I can't act like nothing happened in South Africa, it wouldn't go down well. I followed the events, as you all did, with a lot of sadness," Blanc said. "I was outraged by certain behaviour ... it's a delicate situation, there are certainly meetings to be had."
What will be said at the meetings is anyone’s guess, but some of the ringleaders of the mutiny such as Evra, William Gallas and former captain Thierry Henry may be in for a rude awakening.
"What bothers me is that, after the World Cup, a new coach should be able to lean on a hard core [of players]," Blanc said. "This hard core is not even a melon's pip...My task is to find a hard core within this team."
“Total rebuilding phase”
Blanc also said he would bring a new era of humility to the team. The French team was criticized by their arrogance for having stayed in a very posh hotel in South Africa while the nation is going through an economic crisis, and for Domenech’s insistence on holding training sessions far out of the public eye, in private.
"People will have to show a certain amount if humility," he said. "At a certain point in time our national team could say 'We're going to the European Championship to win it' ... I don't think we'll even be in the top 10 FIFA rankings now. We will need to be a bit humble, given that we're in a total rebuilding phase."
His total rebuilding phase will likely involve shedding veterans such as Thierry Henry, and a major question mark circles over the future of Evra. He is almost undoubtedly never going to be captain again, having been benched and stripped of his armband, but whether he will stay with the team is also in question.
Blanc said that only players "with the right mentality and team spirit" will be selected for the team. The move seems sensible enough, given that what undid the French at the 2010 World Cup certainly didn’t seem to be a lack of talent, but rather cohesion.
Blanc is for a tough task
Even if the expectations on France’s team might be reduced somewhat, and even if the nation knows Blanc is facing a very tough task, he acknowledged just how much pressure he’d be under to turn things around.
"Everyone wishes me luck. I get the impression I'm heading toward suicide, or the guillotine," Blanc said. "I hope this climate will change with results."
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