The French Connection

Lyon and Bordeaux sneak under the radar as Ligue 1 starts to take shape

Vaishali Bhardwaj — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 09:00:00 GMT

There is no doubt the teams to have shone brightest in Ligue 1 so far this season have been Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain.

The former may not have started the campaign with the media’s attention fixed upon them, but after Élie Baup’s team became the league-leaders and then the first side in over 50 years to win their first six games – a statistic that came to an end at the weekend – everyone was talking about them.

The latter, in contrast, were well and truly in the spotlight from the very beginning – indeed, even before the start of the season. With their superstar line-up, scintillating individual displays from the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and youngster Marco Verratti and increasingly cohesive team performances, Carlo Ancelotti’s PSG team have also enjoyed the limelight.

But two clubs that have perhaps not garnered as much attention are Lyon and Bordeaux, the teams sitting in third and fifth place respectively. And considering their form so far this term, it is remarkable that they have been largely overlooked.

Before this weekend, Rémi Garde’s Lyon were unbeaten. Les Gones had won four of their six league games and had drawn the other two. Before matchday seven, Lyon occupied a higher standing than the club many had predicted to win the league this term, PSG, by climbing to second place in the Ligue 1 table.

This fact may not have been surprising a few years ago but considering Lyon’s recent off-the-pitch financial woes, their on-pitch results have been all the more unexpected.

Lyon were the powerhouse of French football for much of the Noughties. On the pitch, the club enjoyed unprecedented success, winning consecutive league titles between 2002 and 2008.

Off of the pitch, club president Jean-Michel Aulas had implemented a highly successful business model. Lyon bought promising players at relatively little cost, nurtured and gave them a platform in the form of the Champions League to showcase their skills and then sold many of the same players for a huge profit. Players such as Michael Essien and Mahamadou Diarra are prime examples. With Europe’s elite football competition providing Lyon with a vital source of income, the club remained competitive. But it wasn’t to last.

Aulas’ business model may have proved successful for several years, but the club lost money on failed big-money signings. Lyon’s sporting achievements then suffered under Claude Puel, who failed to bring a title to the Stade de Gerland during his three-year tenure as manager. And even though Garde came in and helped steer the club to the Coupe de France trophy last term, the fact Les Gones then failed to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in 13 years meant their financial situation became somewhat precarious.

Something had to change – and quickly. For Aulas that meant offloading the high-earners. After lambasting the performances of certain players, in particular the "pharaohs and the dinosaurs" of the dressing room - players such as Cris, Ederson, Kim Källström, Aly Cissokho and Jeremy Pied - were sold, in addition to Hugo Lloris, bringing in a total of nearly €30 million.

Aulas then bought several players on the cheap with Milan Bisevac, Fabian Monzon, Steed Malbranque – who returned to the Gerland after 11 years – and Arnold Mveumba all joining in the summer. With Lyon trying to stick to a one-in/one-out policy, the club spent less than €10 million on transfer fees before the start of this season.

Although Lyon’s financial situation looked healthier coming into this campaign, with all of the changes occurring at the club, it is little wonder that many did not expect Lyon to be sitting below Marseille and above PSG in the league table ahead of matchday seven.

But amid a lack of expectation, Garde’s players have stepped up to the challenge on the pitch. Clément Grenier has thrived in the absence of the injured Yoann Gourcuff, while Michel Bastos has responded to criticism from Aulas with several excellent displays in front of goal. Bafétimbi Gomis and Lisandro López have also been important offensively with both players, like Bastos, having scored three goals thus far. And while there has been an element of luck in Lyon’s results so far this term, such as the 1-1 draw in Lille, the team have performed well.

No doubt then, Lyon have to be commended for remaining unbeaten in the league before this weekend. But it was unlikely to last forever.

Last weekend, Bordeaux inflicted the first loss of the campaign on Les Gones after defeating them 2-0 at the Gerland. Francis Gillot’s team – who came into the game unbeaten like Lyon – may have lined up defensively against the hosts but thanks to goals from Benoît Trémoulinas and Cheick Tidiane Diabaté, some excellent goalkeeping from Cédric Carrasso, missed chances and a goal ruled out for the home side, it was Bordeaux who walked away with all three points.

Here was a team who, like Lyon, had received relatively little attention in the French league thus far even though they were – and still are – unbeaten. Here was a team that, like Lyon, were surprising many Ligue 1 enthusiasts.

It wasn’t just that Bordeaux had won three games and drawn four – including a stalemate against PSG at the Parc des Princes. No, what was astounding many about Bordeaux was the team’s consistent form on the field since the beginning of 2012.

Gillot's men have not lost any of their 14 Ligue 1 games since a 1-0 defeat at Caen in April, and are unbeaten in their last 17 competitive matches. In 2012 so far, only champions Montpellier and big-spending PSG have picked up more points than Bordeaux.

Such statistics are incredible, even more so when one considers the turbulence at the Stade Chaban-Delmas during the past few years.

In 2009, Bordeaux were crowned the Ligue 1 and Coupe de la Ligue champions. With the team taking their good form into the new season, things then started to go wrong. Rumours began circulating about the impending departure of the then-Bordeaux manager, Laurent Blanc, for the France national team post. With speculation also rife about the departure of striker Marouane Chamakh to English side, Arsenal, Bordeaux suffered a sensational dip in form in the second half of the 2010/11 campaign, which eventually saw them relinquish their title to Marseille and fail to qualify for European football.

Blanc, Chamakh and midfield maestro Gourcuff eventually left the South-West of France for pastures new. The club replaced Blanc with Jean Tigana but he failed to get Les Girondins back on track and challenging for the title again. The former Bordeaux and France player lasted less than a full season in charge, eventually leaving the Chaban-Delmas four games before the end of that season.

With no permanent manager and their lowest league finish since 2005 (seventh), Francis Gillot was brought in from Sochaux to steady the ship. While it took the former Lens player and coach some time to implement his ideas and get the team winning again, since they did, Bordeaux have not looked back.

The club finished in a surprising fifth place last season after winning their last six league matches to pip Saint-Étienne and Rennes to the Europa League spots.

Gillot has openly admitted that doing well in Europe is the team’s focus this season. Lyon may have a different aim to Bordeaux this season, that is, ensuring they qualify for the Champions League, but similar to Les Girondins, Garde’s men have thrived with the spotlight fixed on clubs such as PSG and Marseille instead.

Naturally then, the clash between Lyon and Bordeaux at the weekend was always going to be intriguing. Two teams with two different stories, united by their unbeaten streak, facing each other in the league. Gillot’s side may have been the team to leave the Gerland still unbeaten, but with relatively little attention on both clubs, even now, Lyon and Bordeaux are the sides to watch as they continue on their respective quests this season.

What went wrong for Monaco – and where to now?

Guest Writer — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 10:23:00 GMT

It's less than a decade since Monaco were Champions League finalists – but they're about to start their second successive season in France's second tier. Stuart Coleman reports on the fallen giants – and the familiar face hired to take them back up...

On a balmy May evening in 2004, Fernando Morientes scored Monaco’s fifth Champions League semi-final goal against Chelsea to secure his club’s first appearance in Europe's showpiece final. At that moment, the fans of one of Europe’s most glamorous clubs could scarcely have imagined that eight short years later they’d be solemnly preparing for their second season in France’s second tier.

Such a dramatic collapse – from the continent's pinnacle to a mid-table Ligue 2 finish in front of an average crowd of just 4,611 – has come with tumultuous boardroom activity, frequent managerial changes and desperate financial straits. But there are signs that better days may be coming back to Monaco.

HIGH-ROLLERS IN MONACO
An enclave of style, symbolic of affluence, glamour and panache, the celebrated Principality is home to the only team in France’s professional leagues to hail from another country. The red and white shirts of AS Monaco match the heraldic colours of the reigning House of Grimaldi, and the club’s trophy haul unquestionably places them amongst the royalty of French football: seven championships and five Coupe de France victories leaves them comfortably in the upper echelon of successful clubs.

So how did this stalwart of the top flight, used to battling with big guns such as Marseille, PSG and Lyon, find itself in Ligue 2, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Châteauroux, Arles-Avignon and Stade Lavallois? To understand where Monaco are now, we should begin by rewinding 11 years to the summer of 2001.

France’s World Cup-winning captain Didier Deschamps took charge of Monaco in June 2001. Despite never having managed, the popular and successful midfielder took on the unenviable task of replacing legendary former player Claude Puel, whose contract had not been renewed despite having lead AS to their 7th, and still most recent, French title.

After a woeful first season Deschamps' side finished in a wholly disappointing 15th place on 39 points, just six above relegation. However, recently-installed club president Pierre Svara stuck by the young manager and was rewarded with a much-improved second-season performance: Monaco finished Ligue 1 runners-up in 2003. The following season, Deschamps achieved the remarkable by taking his team to an unlikely Champions League final against Jose Mourinho’s Porto, in a game between two of Europe’s brightest managerial prospects.

Morientes strikes at Stamford Bridge

While Lyon dominated domestically en route to an unprecedented seven consecutive French titles, it was Monaco who became the first French team to reach Europe's biggest game since Marseille beat Milan in 1993 – while captained by a certain Didier Deschamps.

UNSUSTAINABLE ECONOMICS
But the on-field success came at a price – literally. Under the new club president Svara, Monaco had paid unprecedentedly large large bonuses to its top players: 2003/04 was, financially speaking, the worst the club had ever experienced.

Svara, who had a background in economics, was supposed to have brought stability, but he left his role after one year. His departing comments that "Our third place in Ligue 1, our European campaign, the restoration of our financial situation and the level of competence shown by everyone involved last season allow Monaco to look forward to a bright future" displayed a worryingly blinkered point of view and remarkable hubris.

Svara's replacement, the bullish Michel Pastor, made things little better. While Pastor strived behind the scenes to turn around the club’s crippling debts, he could persuade neither Deschamps nor his star players to stay for long on the Mediterranean coast.

Partly that was due to cost-cutting, as men who had made their names sought their fortune elsewhere, but the imposing Pastor didn't help with his idiosyncratic approach to man-management – as summed after a 2-2 draw with unfancied Ajaccio, when he boomed "That was catastrophic. What they need is a good bollocking. I'll be heading to the training ground first thing Monday morning to give them just that."

Deschamps left the club less than five months after the Champions League final, having, understandably, fallen out with Pastor and the board.

Pastor (far left) and Deschamps before the latter left

The events at board level since have been extraordinary. As the team of 2004 was dismantled piece by piece, Pastor managed to motor through six managers in four years and finally left under a cloud in 2008.

DECLINE & FALL
Svara was replaced by the calming presidential presence of Jerome de Bontin. The Chicago-based financier helped steady the ship, with a focus on the distressing financial situation: he knocked 40% off the wage bill and made a €16m profit on transfers before handing over to Etienne Franzi in 2009.

Despite the off-field turbulence, the club had achieved consistent, if unspectacular, mid-table league finishes of 10th, 9th, 12th and 11th from 2006 to 2009. In the space of five years, the fans had seen the club go from the Champions League final to regular mid-table mediocrity – but things were about to get worse.

Franzi failed to pursue the ruthlessly assiduous approach of his predecessor, spending many millions on the less than fruitful Eidur Gudjohnsen (9 games, 0 goals) and the striker Dieumerci Mbokani, who arrived for €7M despite having only a moderately successful spell in the provincial confines of the Belgian league to his name.

Monaco’s unsettled fans were understandably nervous as to the hectic goings-on at their club, and the ever-present sense of impending disaster began to build after the worryingly poor start to the 2010/11 season.

Following a humiliating January 2011 Coupe de France defeat to amateur outfit Chambery, coach Guy Lacombe was unceremoniously sacked by an enraged and increasingly desperate Franzi. The cup loss was symptomatic of the general malaise that was affecting the beleaguered Monegasque club.

Despite the best efforts of Lacombe’s replacement Laurent Banide, who had proved a capable steward during his previous brief period in charge in 2006/7, Monaco slipped inexorably into the drop zone. The coup de grace came on the final day of the 2010/11 season, with Lyon’s 2-0 victory at the Stade Louis II finally condemning Monaco to the nightmare of relegation.

Devastation as the side are relegated

ADAPTING TO A NEW LEVEL
For the fans, the initial burning sting of relegation eventually fades into a dull but constant ache. A pain that remains under the surface, a lingering reminder of the disappointment and shame in suffering the humiliating drop. And the summer of 2011 did little to encourage the Monaco faithful that their troubles would be eased in their first season in Ligue 2 for decades.

Big clubs often handle relegation poorly: the shock of going down, that previously unthinkable notion, is at odds with the history and expectations of a team like Monaco. Like Leeds United in 2004, Monaco were relegated under a cloud of financial unsustainability and were subsequently particularly hard hit by their failure to remain in the top flight.

With a tiny average crowd, the club needed massive cuts to even continue running as a legitimate business. The consequence of this financial imposition was that the ratio of players leaving to arriving was damagingly one-sided, with 23 professionals leaving and just 12 taking their places. Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering the enormous upheaval, Monaco did not adapt well to the second flight, winning none of their first six games.

However, in December 2011, Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev took control of the club. After years of financial mismanagement, the appearance of an incredibly wealthy patron as the club languished in Ligue 2 was received with a heady mixture of pleasure and relief by many fans; here surely was Monaco’s ticket back to the big time.

Whilst ostensibly fitting the stereotype created by Roman Abramovich of a ludicrously rich businessman in need of a rather substantial plaything on which to fritter his vast wealth, Rybolovlev, as a long-term resident of the Principality, is thought to consider his investment as a chance to bring prestige back to both the club and the state.

The run-down coach Banide, hit hard by the relegation of the club for whom he had spent 16 years coaching, was replaced by former player Marco Simone, who guided the team out of the relegation zone to a solid 8th-place finish. Even so, Simone departed the Stade Louis II in May as Rybolovlev attempted to bring a manager with more experience and greater pulling power to the club.

CLAUDIO'S SILVER LINING
Enter the Tinkerman. In Britain, the popular image of Claudio Ranieri is that of an avuncular, idiosyncratic gentleman, his time at Chelsea characterised by constant changes to the starting XI as he strove to rotate personnel while chasing various trophies.

Under Ranieri, Chelsea changed from cup contenders to mega-rich league chasers – mainly through the arrival of Roman Abramovich three years into the Italian's reign: when Monaco defeated Chelsea in that Champions League semi-final, Ranieri's number was up as Abramovich moved for Mourinho. But eight years later, another Russian billionaire has invested his faith in the Italian to complete the seemingly modest yet potentially more difficult task of putting Monaco back on the map.

Claudio prepares for another promotion push

Ranieri comes with vast experience of European football, having managed an impressive list of some of the continent’s biggest names: Valencia, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Parma, Roma and Juventus. But more importantly, the Italian brings a history of promotion, having achieved the feat three times in Italy.

Rybolovlev has already started to invest in the playing side, with the recent acquisitions of midfielder Delvin N’Dinga from Auxerre, exciting Moroccan left-winger Nabil Dirar from Club Bruges and the experienced Danish international Jakob Poulsen from Midtjylland, for a combined fee of over €13M.

To borrow Barcelona's motto, AS Monaco is more than a club. The principality has a fiercely proud population that enjoys the glamorous reputation their country has cultivated. From the speed and style of the Formula 1 grand prix to the status as a home of the affluent and the pomp of the royal family, everything about Monaco suggests the tradition of success.

The recent downfall of the football team is not only a great shame for the loyal fans, but a knock to the Principality’s reputation. If Claudio Ranieri and Dmitry Rybolovlev can return this much-loved club to its former great heights, then French and European football should be grateful for the return of the unique charm of les Rouge et Blanc.

Stuart Coleman is editor of The Football Diaries

Capital gains: well-connected PSG's revival is good for French football

Guest Writer — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:31:00 GMT

Stuart Coleman, Editor of The Football Diaries, on the benefits of Paris St-Germain's rejuvenation

As Nicolas Sarkozy took his place in the Élysée Palace in June 2007, le président's team of choice had just finished their Ligue Un campaign in a dismal 15th. Paris Saint-Germain, one of French football's great clubs and the capital's only top-flight representatives, equalled their lowest-ever league finish after a season spent flirting with relegation.

That season had been a tumultuous one on and off the pitch, with former playing hero Paul Le Guen replacing the ineffective Guy Lacombe as manager in January 2007 and the shocking death of a PSG fan, shot by police after anti-Semitic harassment of an Israeli Hapoel Tel Aviv fan, in November 2006.

The fortunes of the capital city's biggest sporting asset had reached their nadir. As Le Guen's erstwhile employers Lyon swept all before them at the top of the table, PSG had to look on from the league's lower reaches, struggling without an all-important league title since 1994. By 2007, discord, violence and disappointment had established themselves as the club's defining features.

Fast forward four years and things are very different in the Western reaches of Paris, where the Parc des Princes rises like a brutalist monument to the beautiful game, standing watch over the ever-rumbling périphérique, the endless motorway marking the border between the city and the suburbs.

President Sarkozy, a genuine PSG fan, could afford a moment to forget his country’s economic problems, and let slip a satisfied smile. The premier has reportedly played a major part in not only the revitalisation of the French top flight, but also the dramatic changes at his beloved Paris Saint-Germain.

In November 2010, French football was looking with increasing fear towards a bleak future. The clubs had been handsomely remunerated by a generous TV package since 2008, courtesy of a bidding war between major broadcasters Orange and Canal Plus. With the rights for the 2012-2016 contract soon to be arranged, Orange announced they would not be taking part, apparently leaving Canal Plus to a monopoly and an enviably strong position from which to negotiate.

Having operated under a rights deal that paid better than the equivalent agreements in Spain and Germany, both of which are better-supported and more profitable leagues, the powers that be in French football were worried about the effects of vastly reduced rights money. Ligue Un's relatively low turnouts and a lack of commercialism could render contingencies incapable of bridging the impending financial gap: many thought that even bigger clubs like PSG could fold.

Enter Sarkozy. The French president played a major role in convincing Qatar's Crown Prince Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani to purchase a controlling share in PSG – and to persuade Qatari broadcaster al-Jazeera to step in and effectively save French football with a considerable TV rights deal.

Qatar Sports Investment, which was set up by the Crown Prince in 2005, was created in order to promote the oil-rich nation’s interests abroad, particularly in Europe. (As well as the takeover of PSG, QSI announced a record-breaking shirt sponsorship deal with global football darlings Barcelona.) The chairman of QSI and friend of the Crown Prince, Nasser al-Khelaifi, also happens to be the chairman of al-Jazeera sport, thus completing, for the Qataris, Sarkozy, French football and PSG, a mutually satisfying circle of influence.

It has been suggested that Sarkozy asked Michel Platini to support Qatar’s bid for the 2018 World Cup, in order to oil the wheels of the rights deal and the takeover of PSG. Neither side admits to any such arrangement and while the UEFA chief firmly denies the accusation, but it is a matter of record that his influential vote ultimately did go to the unlikely Middle Eastern bid winners.

Whether the financial dealings behind the scenes at PSG were Machiavellian scheming or simply shrewd business, the news of PSG’s takeover by wealthy Qataris sent shockwaves through French football and was the beginning of a new chapter in the club’s turbulent history. The new owners brought a renewed optimism and self-confidence to the club’s beleaguered supporters, who have spent much of the last decade wallowing in self-pity.

QSI’s financial muscle allowed the club to compete with the richest of Europe’s elite group; the signing of the highly-rated and widely-coveted Javier Pastore from Palermo for just under €40m in August was both a coup for the club and an overt announcement of PSG’s ambition. Indeed, Paris spent a wholly conspicuous €89m last summer; more than every other club in Europe, with the exception of England’s own Middle Eastern nouveau riche, Manchester City.

Opposing fans have felt a curious mixture of envy and disdain, the culture of buying success being considered vulgar and less valid than ‘earned’ victory – the same arguments that Chelsea and Manchester City had to contend with upon their own mega-rich takeovers. Despite the ostensibly obvious similarities, many PSG fans felt that the major investments taking place under QSI’s ownership were merely helping Paris back towards where they belonged – the top.

The merits of this line of thinking are up for debate, and it's worth remembering that last season PSG managed a creditable fourth place prior to QSI’s takeover. But no matter the route via which competitiveness has been reached, the club the French love to hate are, beyond any doubt, back.

The dominance of Lyon in the opening decade of the century, winning seven titles in a row from 2001/02 to 2007/08, was as interminably tedious as it was hugely impressive. A league dominated by one force is only genuinely positive for that club; the lack of competitiveness harms the image of the league abroad and bores neutrals and opposing fans alike.

Thankfully, the last three seasons have seen three different league winners, Lille, Marseille and Bordeaux having all claimed the Ligue Un crown. To add a little extra spice to the mixture, the poseurs from Paris are back and are more than ready to stake their own claim to French football’s greatest prize.

PSG are the second best-supported club in France, after their arch-rivals, Marseille. The QSI takeover brings them back to the top table and provides Ligue Un with a continental contender with the stadium, profile and cash to attract quality players, such as Pastore, and a global fan base to the French top flight.

Brazilian Leonardo, who has taken up a Sporting Director role at PSG, has insisted that the playing squad will be improved by focusing on young French talent, which so often in the past has been drawn in by the far-reaching tentacles of the Premier League. The former Milan and Inter manager has also appeased those fans keen to explore the tantalising possibilities of the club’s newfound wealth, with the promise of the occasional ‘marquee’ signing like Pastore thrown in for good measure.

Moneyed they may be, but the club is well aware of the negatives associated with a specious Galacticos policy. Maintaining a French core to the team and club will please fans and if the temptation to fill the team with stars is resisted, the French national team, which is still rebuilding its reputation after the World Cup debacle, should also see demonstrable benefit.

The claimed dedication to young French talent seems so far not to be just bluster, with the promising Blaise Matuidi, Jérémy Ménez and the outstanding Kevin Gameiro joining the likes of club captain Mamadou Sahko at the Parc des Princes in the summer.

With a rejuvenated squad, Paris have made an impressive start to 2011/12; Les Parisiens will enter the new year second in the table, kept off the top spot solely by an inferior goal difference to surprise contenders, Montpellier. Having just missed out on a second round spot in the Europa League, PSG’s ambition for the season is now the single-minded pursuit of that elusive Championnat.

Not all will be pleased at the kind of massive instant investment PSG are currently undergoing, but to see the club where the likes of Ronaldinho, Raí and Weah have shone, one of Europe’s true glamour sides, revitalised, hungry and back amongst the leading pack at the top of Ligue Un is a satisfying sight for any fan of French football.

So vive Paris, vive la France et vive la révolution!

Lyon back to basics with Arsène Wenger protégé Rémi Garde

James Horncastle — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:31:00 GMT

They say that with humility comes wisdom. After three years without a trophy, Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas decided it was time to go back to basics.

"These past few years," he admitted, "we have sometimes lived beyond our means. But that's because we dared to take risks, contrary to the others."

Like a poker player losing the winning habit, Lyon kept raising the stakes in an effort to get back what they had lost. Sooner or later it was inevitable that there wouldn't be any chips left.

Since 2008, Lyon have spent €131.5 million on new players, abandoning the buy-low, sell-high policy that brought them seven consecutive league titles and made the club a model for others to follow.

"We never took ourselves for the best team in the world," said Lyon technical director Bernard Lacombe, "but for four or five years it was like the Tour de France with Eddy Merckx: we asked ourselves who would finish second. Now we have become a normal club again."

After announcing losses of €35.6 million following the 2009-10 campaign, and with the new TV deal entitling Ligue 1 clubs to €158 million per year less than its predecessor, the time had come for Lyon to curb their extravagance.

With his fingers burnt, Aulas no longer talked about Lyon winning the Champions League before entering their new Stade de Lumiéres in 2014, but rather "starting again from zero."

The swagger has gone. Aulas feels betrayed and senses, not without some justification, that he was made to look a fool by Claude Puel, the coach he sacked at the end of last season who was claiming €5.4 million in compensation.

"I don't understand it," Aulas sighed. "For three years, I gave him everything to succeed, supporting him against everyone else's advice. I expected more dignity. It's an immense disappointment."

Lyon retreated into themselves. They needed to find their identity again. Aulas sought refuge in L'Arbresle, the village where he was born 25km or so northwest of Lyon. It was there, while getting back in touch with his roots, that he thought about Rémi Garde.

Garde, Aulas and Lacombe announce the new era

Garde was also born in L'Arbresle and as a boy he would go to the Stade Gerland accompanied by his parents, either to watch Lyon play or to train on the fields behind the south stand. A gifted, intelligent and fragile player emerged. Garde was inducted into Lyon's academy, but between the age of 18 and 21, he played just three months of competitive football after tearing the cruciate ligaments in both of his knees.

He was given his debut by Robert Herbin in Ligue 2 during the 1984/85 season, but it wasn't really until the arrival of Lacombe as a director of sport in 1988 and Raymond Domenech as coach in 1989 that Garde's Lyon career began to take shape.

"At the first training sessions," Lacombe recalled, "we said to Raymond: 'If he doesn't break anything, it's something.' We got promoted to Ligue 1 thanks to the quality of the team and the mentality of the kids who came up through the academy.

"It wasn't all easy for them. Garde and Bruno Génésio had professional contracts worth 6,500 francs a month, and at one point, the club hesitated in keeping them. It was José Broissart, the academy director, who insisted that we did."

Garde quickly came to embody what Aulas's Lyon were all about. "It was a dream," he smiled. "We were at the club that we'd always dreamed of playing for. We were among friends. We had the absolute confidence of the technical staff and did something that had been unaccessible for six years, returning to Ligue 1."

A renowned hard worker with good technique, Garde could play across the midfield with relative ease. He was called up to represent France under Michel Platini in the autumn of 1989, and would certainly have earned more than six caps if it weren't for the presence of Didier Deschamps in his position.

Garde became Lyon's captain at 23 and scored the first European goal of the Aulas era against Swedish side Osters in the UEFA Cup. However, he never let his personal role in the club's rise go to his head. Always with his feet firmly on the ground, perhaps owing to the many hours spent either in the treatment room or on the sidelines, he was more prone to reflection than many of his peers.

"Rémi has all the qualities," Domenech once said. "He must only stop being so serious. He has to live. Football is important, but life is too. Rémi begins his season on July 1 and ends it on June 30. That leaves him around an hour and a half's rest. He has to decompress."

But Garde never did, and when Lyon's progress stalled in the early to mid-'90s, the tension got to him and he needed a break. Three years at Strasbourg followed before Garde received a call from Arsenal manager elect Arsène Wenger. He moved to Highbury on the same day as Patrick Vieira.

Treated sceptically by the media and his new teammates, Garde set about proving himself the same way he always did – with charm and perseverance. "I was 30 and from France with little status," he bashfully admitted.

Garde shields the ball from John Barnes

But Garde brought something intangible to Arsenal. "I have rarely seen a player who has such little confidence in himself transmit so much confidence in others," Wenger noted.

Garde's reward was to become the first foreigner to captain Arsenal and though he wasn't a regular, often backing up Vieira or Manu Petit, his role in Wenger's first double-winning side shouldn't be underestimated.

After hanging up his boots, a short stint as a commentator for Canal+ preceded Garde's return to Lyon in 2003 as an assistant to Paul Le Guen and then Gérard Houllier. "They were technicians who delegated, who loved to rest on the competences of their staff and, after having analysed everything, decide what was the right thing to do," Garde said.

Yet when Houllier left in 2007 and Aulas offered Garde the top job, he turned it down in favour of staying behind a desk to develop the club's recruitment and later direct their academy.

To Garde, the responsibility was too big and Lyon's ambitions still too great. With the passing of time, however, that changed. So when Aulas reached out again this summer, he didn't leave his president hanging.

"If I accepted the challenge on this occasion without reflecting for too long," Garde explained, "it's because the context is different. Right now at Lyon, it's a question of finding 'the house values' again, and that interests me."

Puel had left the club a house divided. Garde, with his understanding of Lyon, would unite them again, put a smile back on the players' faces and those of the fans.

A low-cost appointment hired on a one-year rolling contract, Garde doesn't so much mark the end of an era as Aulas pressing the reset button. The generation that has taken power of the club is the one discovered by Domenech between 1988 and 1993. Génésio was named one of Garde's assistants, and their former teammates from that era Stéphane Roche and Gilles Rousset are in charge of the youth team.

"I am not working in relation to what happened here before," Garde insisted, as if to further underline Lyon's departure from the unpopular overtly physical philosophy used by Puel with its three cardinal rules of presser, récupérer and accélérer. "It has been a long time since I have seen the players train with the ball on the first day of pre-season," Aulas smirked.

Tempering the optimism, the doubters pointed out that Garde has never managed before, the club hasn't signed anyone apart from Auxerre midfielder Delvin N'Dinga in a deal done late last week, and lest we forget both Yoann Gourcuff and Ederson have already been lost to injury.

In addition, Lyon's plans to compensate for a lack of recruitment by promoting the youngsters Garde so carefully nurtured in the academy have also been shelved, at least for August, as six of them are with France at the Under-20 World Cup in Colombia. In any case, aside from the promising Enzo Reale there are reservations about whether the current crop can have the same impact on the first team as other former academy graduates like Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa.

So on the eve of the new campaign, a big question mark appeared alongside Lyon's name. A solitary victory in five pre-season games had done little to quell the anxiety ahead of Saturday's trip to Nice and neither did the first quarter of an hour at the Stade Municipal du Rey.

Lyon, lined up in a new 4-4-2 formation, managed to give away six corners and inevitably went behind after six minutes. It was Nice winger Anthony Mounier, perhaps the smallest player on the pitch, who somehow got in front of Dejan Lovren to nod one of them in past Hugo Lloris.

Rather than collapsing like they had done at this ground in April – when Lloris was caught by a Canal+ cameraman screaming: "We shat ourselves! I've had it up to here with this sh*t!" – Lyon pulled themselves together and set about playing some wonderful football, decorating the pitch with arabesque short-passing patterns.

Although their goals came from Lisandro López chasing down a long ball, Bafétimbi Gomis scrappily turning in a corner and Maxime Gonalons pouncing from close range after Lovren nodded a Kim Källström free-kick back across the box, Garde's side were expansive and an absolute pleasure to watch, serving up a reminder to those numbed by the Puel years that this team can still put on a spectacle.

"What a breath of fresh air," wrote Le Progrès. "And to think we all thought that this had been lost in a corner deep in the club's archives." There was even talk of a 'Gard-iola' effect among the fans as Lyon's 3-1 win saw them share top spot with Montpellier. "Their style of play and intentions have changed," beamed L’Équipe. "Lyon want to seduce and make the ball run again."

Resisting the temptation to write off Garde's first competitive win as beginner's luck, Lyon will understand more about their new coach after the club's tough Champions League preliminary round matches against Rubin Kazan later this month.

Until then, a cry of "En Garde" seems fitting, as Lyon might not be finished yet after all. Indeed, the rest of Ligue 1 has been warned.

The galactiques of Paris seek to put French football back on the map

James Horncastle — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:44:00 GMT

Graphic designers have taken to neatly incorporating a red oil drill into the design of Paris Saint-Germain’s logo. The decision of Qatar Sports Investments [QSI] to extend its already impressive portfolio with the purchase of a 70 per cent stake in the club for a reported €50 million has unsurprisingly been the main topic of discussion in France this summer.

The Emirate’s continued acts of ‘diplomacy through sport’, a term used by the economics professor at the Sorbonne, Frédéric Bolotny, didn’t stop there either. In addition to their surprising move to capture the overseas rights to Ligue 1 from 2012 until 2018, the Doha-based TV network Al-Jazeera, also won a package of the domestic rights to show two games a week from 2012 until 2016 for €90m per year.

Nasser al-Khelaïfi, the suave head of Al-Jazeera Sport who is set to become the President of Paris Saint-Germain, insisted during an interview with L’Équipe that “if the two acquisitions coincide, it’s purely chance,” but many are sceptical.

In general, however, the emergence of the Qataris has been welcomed. “It’s a very good thing for French football,” claimed Lille President Michel Seydoux. “I always rejoice when important people are interested in our game,” added Jean-Michel Aulas, his counterpart at Lyon.

Of course, this isn’t the first time the ruling al-Thani family has tried to buy Paris Saint-Germain. In 2006, they were invited to the negotiating table when Canal + put the club up for sale. Hostility from the Mayor of Paris and his assistant, who called the Qataris “exotic”, meant the deal fell through and Paris Saint-Germain ended up in the hands of the American fund Colony Capital instead.

The atmosphere has since changed. “The Qataris have arrived at the right moment,” wrote France Football editor in chief Rémy Lacombe. Last month a report revealed Ligue 1 clubs are €114 million in debt and even with the entry of Al-Jazeera following the retreat of Orange from the TV rights market, the new deal entitles them to €158 million per year less than its predecessor.

A Qatari and a Brazilian walk into a French football club...

It’s certainly no exaggeration to say that French football is crying out for fresh investment and hitherto its efforts to entice have floundered. “Today most clubs in Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 are looking for a majority or minor shareholder,” admitted the director general of France’s union of football clubs, Philippe Diallo. “But with the financial crisis which has been raging since 2008, it has been difficult to find cash.”

According to an investigation by the magazine So Foot, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy intervened to help Paris Saint-Germain. A well-known supporter of the club, he met Sheikh Tamin al-Thani at the Élysée palace on November 23. Michel Platini was also invited. “He told me that the Qataris were good people,” recalled the Uefa President. Ten days later Platini voted for Qatar to be awarded the hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup.

A ‘special relationship’ had been formed, one that So Foot claim would impact upon Paris Saint-Germain. By now Qatar has become a privileged partner in the French economy. They hold interests in some of the country’s biggest corporations like Total, Air Liquide, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space company and literally helped get the project to build the A380 airbus off the ground.

Paris Saint-Germain would be a drop in the ocean. After the Qatar Foundation agreed a five-year shirt sponsorship deal with Barcelona worth €160 million and Abdullah Bin Nasser al-Thani’s purchase of Malaga for €36 million, it fits perfectly with the Emirate’s project of garnering visibility and most importantly of all legitimacy in the eyes of the football world ahead of the 2022 World Cup.

Still, some sceptics have persisted with the question: why Paris Saint-Germain?

Isn’t it obvious? “Paris Saint-Germain have an enormous potential,” al-Khelaïfi explained. “They’re also the only club in a capital city, which can count on a population of 12 million people. It’s something unique.”

Sarkozy and Sheikh Tamin agree 'him with the sword' would be a good signing

Factor in the low cost of the operation in comparison with recent Premier League acquisitions, the low barriers to entry in comparison with members-owned clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona, the absence of the 51 per cent rule that distinguishes the Bundesliga from its competitors, and it’s not difficult to see the allure.

Funding is also available to renovate stadia in light of France winning the rights to host Euro 2016, with the Minister of Sport Chantal Jouanno announcing that the government will contribute €10 million towards the refurbishment of the Parc des Princes.

Plus this is Paris, a city renowned for its beauty with a much greater appeal to prospective players than some of the other nouveau riche clubs splashing the cash. It’s not the Dagestan of Anzhi Makhachkala and the rain is perhaps more bearable in Paris than in Manchester.

But what about the football? Yes, while at the moment the standard of Ligue 1 may not be equal to that of La Liga or the Premier League, it’s certainly hoped that Paris Saint-Germain will bring the spotlight back on to French football and with it other ambitious investors.

The charming al-Khelaïfi has also downplayed fears that QSI’s interest in Paris Saint-Germain only extends until the 2022 World Cup. “There is not a fixed date for the resale of the club,” he insisted. “10 years? 20 years? I don’t know. I repeat it’s a long-term commitment.”

Everything so far indicates that the Qataris are serious. “We know how to spend our money,” al-Khelaïfi smiled. “We are not here to throw money out of the window, but to realise well-thought out and effective investments.”

The appointment of Leonardo as the club’s new director of sport or ‘super manager’ gave an impression of that shrewdness - first of all from a PR perspective, as it showed if not an intimacy with Paris Saint-Germain’s history than an understanding that the decision would be popular with the fans considering his 14-month spell at the Parc as a player in the mid to late `90s and that performance against Steaua Bucharest (video below).

Second, the multi-lingual Leonardo suited the role given his time as a director at Milan. He brings expertise even if there are suggestions that his part in the signings of Kaká and Alexandre Pato have been overstated.

Leonardo is by now the face of Paris Saint-Germain as the previous President Robin Leproux has found out to his cost.

Initially assured of his position by al-Khelaïfi, the man who did such a courageous job in sanitising the Parc last season by ridding it of a nefarious hooligan element with his ‘Everyone PSG’ initiative, soon recognised that his powers were reduced to such an extent following Leonardo’s arrival that his exit was inevitable.

The future of coach Antoine Kombouaré, though guaranteed ahead of the start of this season, is also uncertain with some in the French media believing that while Arsène Wenger isn’t a realistic target at the moment or in the short-term, a project such as Paris Saint-Germain’s could be enough to one day lure him away from Arsenal.

Instability lies not just in the dugout, but in the dressing room too. “The group is working but we’re not 100 per cent in our heads,” Kombouaré confessed. “I can understand what the players are thinking when they see certain signings coming in.”

Take Nicolas Douchez as an example. The 31-year goalkeeper brought in from Rennes agreed to join on a free transfer before the takeover and could expect to become Paris Saint-Germain’s No 1. Since then, Leonardo has drafted in Salvatore Sirigu, the Italy international from Palermo and any certainty that he had of becoming a regular is gone.

Douchez - the goalkeeping equivalent of a straight-to-video movie

Elsewhere, Paris Saint-Germain have, as expected, upgraded and rejuvenated the squad to such a degree that they can’t but be considered anything less than genuine title contenders if not favourites for their first championship since 1994.

Kombouaré finally got his man, Milan Biševac, the Serbia international defender with whom he formed a close bond at Valenciennes. Jérémy Ménez has replaced the departing Ludovic Giuly and Blaise Matuidi the retiring Claude Makélélé. They have both been joined in midfield by the injury prone Momo Sissoko.

Last season’s rather impotent attack of Mevlüt Erdinç and Guillaume Hoarau has also been bolstered by a move for Lorient striker Kévin Gameiro, the closest thing Ligue 1 has to David Villa with 39 goals in his last 71 games, and reports this morning claim a bid has been lodged with Manchester United for Dimitar Berbatov.

The transfer strategy is clear. “We are not going to buy 10 Messis, that’s not how you build a team,” Leonardo said. Indeed, the pursuit of players like Ménez and Gameiro both of whom are lifelong Paris Saint-Germain fans - the latter growing up with a poster of Marco Simone on his bedroom wall - is a conscious effort at fostering the spirit embodied in Mamadou Sakho, the team’s 21-year captain, who was born and raised in the city and came through the club’s academy.

“We are not trying to recruit Lionel Messi, but we want to invest in the greatest talents of tomorrow and, among them, there will be French players,” al-Khelaïfi added. “We want the new Messi.” The reported €40m plus signing of Palermo’s Argentina international playmaker Javier Pastore, a French transfer record, suggests Paris Saint-Germain have sensationally already realised that objective.

How the 22-year-old trequartista corresponds exactly with Kombouaré’s preferred 4-4-2 formation - a hallmark of his coaching career so far - remains to be seen and raises questions. For instance, is it evidence that Kombouaré wasn’t consulted on the transfer? Probably not. Or is it a sign that his opinion matters less than that of Leonardo when it comes to recruitment? Perhaps. The fans, however, really couldn’t care less, not with rivals Marseille all but waving the white flag.

“We have to call them the galactiques of Paris,” said the OM President Vincent Labrune. Indeed, with backers like QSI, Paris Saint-Germain are on another planet.

Leonardo leaves Milan to reignite love affair with Paris

Richard Whittle — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:31:00 GMT

Leonardo always maintained that he didn't see his future as a coach, but how about president of a major club? That could well be the urbane Brazilian’s destiny, but for now he'll have to make do with being chief executive at Paris St Germain. Not a bad turn of events for a man who had to put up with Silvio Berlusconi’s meddling and Rino Gattuso’s bitterness – followed by unrelenting scorn from half a city when he became coach of Inter in January.

There was always the feeling that Nerrazurri chief Massimo Moratti had acted to spite his old nemesis across town, and that the Brazilian was a willing participant in his own personal revenge on the arch-narcissist, but that there was no long-term gain for either Moratti or Leonardo.

Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri felt that his predecessor was too much of a gentleman for the rough-and-ready world of team management and that his smooth demeanour and ready smile were better suited to the boardroom. And so it has proved in what could be the ultimate revenge on parochial Italy by overseeing a revolution in suave and cosmopolitan Paris; at a club which bears the crest of the Eiffel Tower and where Leonardo played for an all too brief year in 1996 before moving to Milan.

PSG player Leo scores against Liverpool

A few months ahead of his 42nd birthday, he is free of the tracksuit and no doubt more comfortable in a suit and tie as a young and dynamic CEO earning a reported €6m annual salary overseeing the investment in PSG from Qatar Investment Authority, who are as rich as their name is bland. Put this way, it's Qatar the state investing their money in whatever takes their fancy, from London Stock Exchange to Walt Disney – of late they've also been rumoured to be eyeing Manchester United.

As it stands, a 70 percent stake in PSG leaves Leonardo with untold riches at his disposal – there's a €150m transfer kitty to get him going. How must he feel at never having to listen to Berlusconi telling him which players to pick, or Moratti haughtily proclaiming that he has done a good job in winning the Italian Cup? Not to mention where his thoughts about Gattuso have been consigned to...

No doubt there will be no love letters to Milan from Paris, but there's no time to look back when you're reporting directly to Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Crown Prince of Qatar, who feels you have what it takes to become club president in place of Robin Leproux. (Apparently, Leonardo declined.)

Now facing pressure of a different kind in taking PSG into the upper echelons of European football, Leo has the power to hire and fire – so not only will Leproux be looking over his shoulder but current coach Antoine Kombouarè can start clearing his desk. Heading Leonardo’s wish-list is Carlo Ancelotti, who would be ideally suited to move from London SW3 to the boulevards of the French capital. If not, maybe Leo's Inter predecessor Rafa Benitez would jump at the chance to splash some cash, having been presented with an empty vault by Moratti.

With his contacts around Europe and throughout South America – where being a genuinely nice guy can open plenty of doors – it goes without saying that Leonardo is a major player in club football and PSG could be destination de rigueur for some of the game’s most sought-after talents.

"Psst! Cristiano!!"

Ricky Kakà, for one, needs a new challenge – and it was after all Leo who brought his old San Paolo team-mate to European prominence in the first place. Then to really scupper a Milan summer show-off signing, Paulo Henrique Ganso at just 21 has all the makings of a Leo protégé. Jeremy Mènez may also feel that the refinement of Paris is more to his liking than the mean streets of Roma, while Samuel Eto’o is looking for one more payday – not to mention to be finally allowed to play as the main striker instead of filling in from left-back to left-winger at Inter.

There's no doubt that Moratti was caught once again of being guilty of not gauging what is going on under his nose and having heard rumblings of discontent from Wesley Sneijder, Lucio and Eto’o he must now start the search for a third coach in a year to calm the waters. After Marcelo Bielsa declined the offer, it looks as if the Mourinho bottled-lightning effect isn't going to be caught again with Andrè Villas Boas either: the Porto coach has a €15m buy-out clause and doesn't seem desperate to swap the Portuguese champions for the Italian runners-up. [Ed: As we go to digital press, rumours are strengthening that Chelsea are to appoint AVB.]

NEWS Mon 20 Jun Inter: Villas-Boas too expensive

Roberto Mancini’s former assistant Sinisa Mihajlovic has also ruled himself out of a return, but with free agents Gian Piero Gasperini and Delio Rossi the only other feasible candidates – no one can genuinely believe that Fabio Capello will walk away from England or Guus Hiddink will turn down Chelsea – current Fiorentina coach Mihajlovic could yet be persuaded back to Milan, although Luciano Spalletti’s name has also been mentioned.

Meanwhile, Leonardo must be the happiest man in football, having turned his back on the city that no longer loves him for a new romance in the City of Love – a case of addio Milano, Paris, je t’aime. Some guys have all the luck.

Caen pin hopes on 16-year-old 6ft striker compared to Sammy Davis Junior

James Horncastle — Fri, 13 May 2011 12:35:00 GMT

Few were prepared to give Caen a chance. The optimism that followed an opening day victory over champions Marseille and then another at home to Lyon a week later had long since vanished. A 12-game run without a win between September and December had put the Norman invasion in retreat.

Not even the sniper-like striking of Youssef El-Arabi, the Morocco international who is still on course to break Xavier Gravelaine’s club record of 20 goals in a single top-flight season, could pull Caen clear of relegation. A poll in L’Équipe last week revealed that, of the 157 people asked, 28 per cent thought the Normans would join Lens and Arles in Ligue 2 next season. Only Nancy fared worse.

Feeling desperate, Franck Dumas had to do something. The Caen coach switched from 4-2-3-1 to 4-3-3 and 4-1-4-1, but still no luck. He fooled around with his players’ positions only to then cause confusion in their ranks. Things picked up in March with a four-game unbeaten run and Caen briefly sat 13th in the table. But just when the Normans thought they were out, they were pulled back in.

Three defeats in a row left Dumas with gravel under his fingernails again. His side were hanging on the edge of a cliff and losing their grip. Then a Mannish Boy appeared as if from a Muddy Waters song and offered his hand. That boy was M’Baye Niang, a star in the making with all the ability to persuade the Cannes film festival to up sticks and move to Caen.

The rescue act started at the Stade Malherbe last Saturday. Caen were hosting fellow strugglers Lens and Dumas decided to give Niang another go in the starting line up. The teenage prodigy had made his debut in a 1-1 draw with Toulouse on April 24 and was a member of the first XI a week later in a 4-0 win away to Nice.

Within two minutes, he had made his mark, receiving the ball on the left-hand side of the box before hitting a weak shot that Lens’ veteran ‘keeper Vedran Runje disastrously fumbled into his net. It wasn’t the best goal by any stretch of the imagination, but at 16 years, four months and 18 days, Niang became the second youngest scorer in the history of Ligue 1 after Laurent Roussey, the former Saint Étienne striker who set the record back in 1978.

The match ended 1-1 with another top prospect, the 18-year-old defender Raphaël Varane getting an equaliser for Lens in the 37th minute, something that will no doubt pique reported interest from Manchester United. And yet, all the post-match talk was about Niang. “Even if I am a little crazy for playing him, it’s not a surprise!” Dumas said. “I play the best whether they are 16 or 35. And anyway, we’ve been preparing him for this for two and a half months.”

Dumas left Niang on the bench for Wednesday’s trip west to Brittany to face free-falling Rennes. However, when Abdou Kader Mangane gave the home side the lead just before half-time with an opportunistic dink over Alexis Thébaux, he looked to the wunderkind again to get Caen out of trouble. Niang of course didn’t disappoint, finding the net four minutes after coming on to secure a precious point.

“M’Baye has huge potential,” said Caen’s Under-19 coach Philippe Tranchant. “We’ve never seen a player like him at the club before.” Indeed, many feel Niang will eclipse the academy’s most famous recent graduates such as William Gallas, Mathieu Bodmer and Yoann Gouffran. “He is not at all intimidated and doesn’t have a complex about it, which some people take for arrogance,” said defender Thomas Heurtaux. “But he is always respectful of the veterans and the hierarchy.”

Niang was first spotted in 2006 by the club’s youth scouts David Lasry and Laurent Blaize who drove to the outskirts of Paris one day on a tip off. “In the beginning they told me that he was a présu (a player claiming to be younger than his actual date of birth),” Blaize told L’Équipe. “But he was born in Meulan and at the age of 13 he was already 5’4”.”

Niang had already come to the attention of Saint-Étienne, PSG, Lille and Monaco, so Lasry and Blaize knew that they’d have to move fast if Caen were to beat the competition for his signature. He was invited for a trial and scored a hat-trick during a 20-minute cameo in a training match. The club showed no hesitation in tying the kid down to a contract the following day.

Too good for every age group at youth level, Niang’s size has been only part of his success. He has shown natural ability and instinct too. “It’s bizarre,” he told France Football. “When I get into the box it’s like I have a black out… I don’t see anything, but I know that I am going to score.”

That might sound big headed - indeed, Niang has reportedly been taken to one side by the coaching staff at Caen on several occasions for “sometimes having his head in the stars” particularly after signing a new three-year contract, and you can read what you like into the decision of France Under-17 coach Patrick Gonfalone’s decision to overlook the precocious striker in favour of his teammate Lenny Nangis for the upcoming European Championship in Serbia.

“You can get bored a youth level,” Dumas said in Niang’s defence. “He wanted things to go a little too fast. I can relate to M’Baye on this point, as I was also 15 when I first started training with the first team. It feels strange to go back to the juniors. If he is praised too much, he won’t progress. But if he listens he’ll become an exceptional player.”

Niang’s rise coincides with the quota row and dual-nationality debate currently running across L’Hexagone. Born in France to parents of Senagalese descent, he has already represented les Bleus at Under-16 and Under-17 level.

Mulling Niang’s case over in his column, L’Équipe’s Didier Braun drew a comparison with Sammy Davis Junior: “The artistic talents of the American star allowed him to overcome [the prejudice]. M’Baye is a phenomenon, a striker out of the ordinary. There is no quota for talent.”

There is a price, however, and it remains to be seen how long Caen can hold on to their 6ft, 16-year-old man-child of a No 9. In the meantime, of course, they’ll be hoping Niang can save the club from relegation, starting this weekend against Montpellier.

Race-quota scandal rocks France and sparks nationality debate

James Horncastle — Wed, 04 May 2011 11:27:00 GMT

On walking through the streets of Paris this spring, it was hard not to be confronted by Nike’s landmark agreement to sponsor the French national team. The glossy posters showing Florent Malouda, Yann M’vila, Abou Diaby and Alou Diarra standing, arms crossed with steely determination, gave off the sense that a changing of the guard had taken place. Fifty-seven years with Adidas had been consigned to history, the coveted rights prised away with the promise of an annual cheque worth €42.6m until 2018.

Nike didn’t just set about marking a new era by redesigning the kits – and quite radically too, with the sailor-inspired Mariniére away shirt – but also perhaps more importantly by drastically rebranding a team in desperate need of a new direction.

During last summer's fiasco in South Africa, the players infamously went on strike following the decision by the French Football Federation [FFF] to send Nicolas Anelka home for allegedly telling Raymond Domenech to “Go f**k yourself, you dirty son of a whore”. That put paid to 2010's hopes, but more importantly it also indicated that the Black, Blanc and Beur element, so often mythologised as 1998’s great social legacy, no longer rang true – especially amid claims of bullying and the formation of clans divided over an apparent lack of “national identity.”

Stung but not surprised by his treatment, Anelka did his bit to confirm those reports in an interview with the pop-culture magazine les inRockuptibles later that year. “We have seen France’s real face,” he said. “In difficult times we see what people really think. Franck Ribéry hits Yoann Gourcuff. Gourcuff the good Frenchman, Ribéry the Muslim. We go too far. When you don’t win in France, we immediately speak of religion, colours…”

In light of the circumstances, the brief Nike received from the FFF and new manager Laurent Blanc couldn’t have been simpler – try, in the midst of great scepticism, to foster a spirit of reconciliation and social harmony. After hours of scribbling, head-scratching and presumably a few games of wastepaper-basketball, the marketing men came back with a slogan that seemed to strike the right tone. “Our differences unite us,” it read.

France model the historic new kit

As if inspired, France came together much quicker than expected. A seven-match unbeaten run, which saw les Bleus top their Euro 2012 qualifying group and record prestigious victories over England and Brazil in international friendlies, brought a renewed sense of optimism to the country.

But all that came under threat last Thursday when the investigative website Mediapart alleged that “members of the FFF’s National Technical Board [DTN], including Blanc, secretly approved a quota system to reduce the number of young black players and those of North African origin, emerging from the country’s youth training centres as potential candidates for the national team.”

France’s press officer Philippe Tournon initially answered for Blanc, denying that he could ever have supported such illegal, immoral and self-defeating selections based on ethnicity or skin colour, which “go against his philosophy” – and added that Blanc didn’t want to react himself so as to give the story too much publicity. However, given the seriousness of the claims, an appearance became inevitable.

Blanc duly emerged on Friday to say that he had “never heard mention of such a project,” only for Mediapart to then publish a verbatim transcript the following day in which he allegedly said that he was “very much in favour” of a quota on dual-nationality players and also damagingly argued that France was prioritising the development of footballers with physical rather than technical attributes, many of whom were black.

“You get the impression that we produce the same kind of players: big, strong, powerful ones. And who are the big, strong, powerful ones? The blacks. That’s the way it is. It’s a current fact,” Blanc was quoted as saying.

DTN head François Blaquart went on to admit that, while context needed to be provided, the Mediapart transcript was in fact genuine. “All the words reported remain true,” he said. “Some of the words may be shocking. There was some clumsiness, but it was in a passionate internal discussion. Apart from that, there is nothing harmful.”

Blaquart elaborated further by insisting that the idea of a quota, mooted at 30 percent, had since been abandoned, but acknowledged that serious questions were asked about a player’s motivation in choosing to represent France at youth level only to then switch their allegiance to another country.

An investigation was launched into the scandal, prompting France’s Minister of Sport Chantal Jouanno and FFF President Fernand Duchaussoy to suspend Blaquart pending its completion.

Blanc, meanwhile, sat down in front of the cameras again to apologise for his association with the plan. “I admit that certain terms used during a work meeting on a sensitive and wide-ranging subject could be interpreted ambiguously if removed from their context – and if I hurt anyone’s feelings, I apologise,” he said. “But to be suspected of racism or xenophobia when I’m against all forms of discrimination, I cannot accept.

“It would be in bad faith not to see that the debate in which I participated was not about ‘reducing the number of blacks and Arabs in French football’, as the sensational title of the article suggested, but about planning the future of French football and addressing the important and delicate problem of players with dual nationalities, as well as methods of scouting for a new project.”

Blanc flew to Italy on Sunday for a holiday, which was said to have been planned long in advance even though it meant he missed a scheduled public appearance at a youth tournament held in his name in Bordeaux. Whether the 45-year-old will survive the scandal remains to be seen. But a debate about dual-nationality and identity has started in earnest.

Regretta de Blanc: The coach is buttonholed by the media

After defending Blanc against accusations of racism, Alou Diarra, the Bordeaux midfielder of Malian origin who has captained France on several occasions this season, told Canal+: “I see a coach frustrated because the number of players eligible for selection has become limited. A call-up to the French team is very difficult to get. I can understand why some players reflect.”

This isn’t anything particularly new. After all, the great Saint-Étienne No.10 Rachid Mekhloufi, who won four caps for France, practically defected in the build-up to the 1958 World Cup by conspiring with eight other players to leave the country and organise a team to represent the Front de Libération National, a group fighting for Algerian independence. As a contemporary L’Équipe editorial mused, although “the France team remains […] the word ‘France’ will have a narrower meaning.”

History isn’t exactly repeating itself, but the issue remains. If anything it has become more contentious since June 2009, when the Algerian Football Federation requested and obtained from FIFA the modification of article 18, which authorises a player to change national team once without age limit on the condition of having not been capped at full international level in an official competition.

Up until that point, players had to make a decision about who to represent before their 21st birthday. This rule-change has seen the likes of Hassan Yebda, Habib Bellaïd and Djamel Abdoun, all of whom were born in France and played for les Bleus at youth level, don the shirt of Algeria.

And it’s not just the Desert Foxes who are taking advantage of this technicality. Senegal used it to call up Sochaux midfielder Jacques Faty, as did Poland in the case of Lille winger Ludovic Obraniak – much to the exasperation of those within the FFF, such as France Under-21 coach Erik Mombaerts, who asked: “How long can we continue to develop our opponents at the World Cup?”

Although at first glance that may appear to be an exaggeration, the statistics support Mombaerts’s argument. At the World Cup in South Africa last summer there were nine footballers representing nations other than France who had played for les Bleus at youth level. The highest-profile examples were Arsenal midfielder Alex Song and Tottenham defender Sébastien Bassong, both of whom opted to play for Cameroon.

Song (back, 2nd right), Bassong (back, 2nd left) and new friends

If, as Mombaerts claims, 26 players out of 30 who go through Clairefontaine then join a different national team it’s hard not to follow the great French tradition of existentialism and ask is there really that much point in devoting so much time, money and energy on the development of players with dual-nationality just so others can extract the benefit.

France's record cap-holder Lilian Thuram thinks it’s a “false problem” because in the end the best players like Raymond Kopa or Zinedine Zidane – both sons of immigrants, Polish and Algerian respectively – will always be taken on by les Bleus. “Karim Benzema plays for which country? Samir Nasri plays for which country?," he asked rhetorically. "The others, who won’t be kept on, will naturally go and play for other countries."

But then there is the case of a player like Lille striker Moussa Sow, currently Ligue 1’s top scorer with 21 goals. Born in Mantes-la-Jolie just 57km from Paris, he was a team-mate of Hugo Lloris and Yoann Gourcuff in the France Under-19 squad that won the European Championship in 2005. And yet during a period when a full international cap for les Bleus looked unlikely, he decided to play for Senegal. If Sow had been more patient, the French say, he would have earned a call-up.

Credence to that claim is given by Marouane Chamakh, the Arsenal striker born in the south-west of France, who admitted during an interview last September that he’d perhaps chosen to play for Morocco “a little hastily” before adding that he’d never regretted his decision because he remains very proud of his roots and knew that it was important to his family.

"Have I done this wrong?"

Still, it begs the question as to whether international football is something of an anachronism in a globalised society when on the one hand you have Ryad Boudebouz, the Alsace-born Sochaux midfielder who represented France at Under-17 and Under-19 level yet claimed he wanted to play for Algeria since the age of 14, and on the other you have Basile Boli, the Abidjan-born former Marseille defender and 45-cap France international who said that if he had been playing “at the heart of the Drogba generation I would perhaps have worn the shirt of the Ivory Coast”.

It’s another issue, along with goal-line technology, that FIFA should seriously consider reviewing. Several questions need answering, not least whether France’s national training centres are entitled to a degree of compensation for developing a player from the ages of 12 to 21 – in much the same way that their counterparts at club level are if graduates then go on to play for another team or country.

On the flip side, some might say that article 18 actively incentivises some football federations to invest in a network of scouts and lobbyists – let’s say, based in France – with the job of finding and persuading youngsters to play for their country rather than setting up academies back home. It's something which the Frenchman Jean-Marc Guillou did to great effect in the Ivory Coast with Asec Mimosas, where he brought through the likes of the Touré brothers, Emmanuel Éboué, Salomon Kalou, Cheik Tioté, Didier Zokora and Gervinho.

Whichever way you look at it, the dual-nationality debate is a complex one and with a presidential election only a year away in France it risks being increasingly politicised. The argument may have begun in the 1950s but it shows no sign of going away as the team and the nation come to terms with the multiculturalism they are endeavouring to foster.

Cannonball kid Taiwo blows away Montpellier before heading for Milan

James Horncastle — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Taye Taiwo has always had a reputation as a Cannonball Kid. Once during his school days back in Lagos, the powerfully built youngster hit a shot so hard it knocked one of his friends out cold. The emergency services even had to be called. “All the mums and dads came to my house,” Taiwo told RMC Sport. “They started yelling and my father told me that I was going to have to give up football.”

Fortunately, it didn’t come to that. The head teacher merely banned Taiwo from playing at break time and the thunderbolt on which he would build his reputation soon came to the attention of Pape Diouf, the former Marseille president, and José Anigo, the club’s existing director of sport.

“I did not even know Marseille had sent a scout,” Taiwo shrugged. “Nigeria played a friendly against South Africa and when I got home, my agent told me: ‘In two weeks, you’re going to Marseille’. I told myself: ‘Marseille are a great club. How will I play for a team like that?’ The self-effacing left-back was in for quite a culture shock. “The airport was clean. It wasn’t like at home where nobody works and the people say: ‘I’m tired, I’m haven’t been paid’.”

Drafted in by Diouf and Anigo to replace the departing Bixente Lizarazu, a star struck Taiwo learned the ropes from Fabien Barthez. “I told myself: ‘Look, it’s Barthez who won the World Cup! I had my picture taken with him and sent it home to Nigeria. He spoke English. He helped me and told me how things were at Marseille. I’ll always thank him for that.”

Seven years later Taiwo is the longest-serving player on Marseille’s current squad. His daughter Ahliyat even speaks with a Marseillais accent. But the Nigeria international’s time at the club hasn’t always been easy. He was never going to be afforded the same talismanic status reserved to fellow Africans Didier Drogba or Mamadou Niang during his time at OM.

A lack of positional sense and frequent lapses in concentration occasionally brought criticism from the fans and local journalists, and when Didier Deschamps’ reshuffled his defence last season, asking his anchorman Stephane Mbia to drop in at centre-back and Gabriel Heinze to play at left-back, Taiwo perhaps realised he was no longer assured of a place in Marseille’s starting XI.

After considering his options, the 26-year-old let it be known that he would not be renewing his contract at the end of the current campaign. But Taiwo wasn’t done with Marseille just yet. In fact, he would make his mark on the club’s history in his own special way with a goal in Saturday’s Coupe de la Ligue final against Montpellier at the Stade de France.

With 10 minutes remaining and extra-time on the horizon, Montpellier keeper Laurent Pionnier flapped at a Benoit Cheyrou free-kick only for the ball to fall to Taiwo on the edge of the box who cocked his weaker right foot and pulled the trigger, hitting a bobbling shot that found its way through a crowded penalty area and into the net.

It was enough to make Marseille the first club to retain the Coupe de la Ligue, but perhaps even more remarkably also meant that their fourth piece of silverware in 13 months under DD was on its way to the trophy cabinet after a 16-year title drought in La Vieux-Port. “Europe has José Mourinho,” wrote L’Équipe. “France possesses Didier Deschamps.” The manager blushed. “It’s flattering to compare us, but he is more handsome than me.”

Meanwhile, Taiwo was getting carried away in his celebrations. On the lap of honour at the end of the game he took hold of the microphone and led the Marseille fans in chants against the club’s historic rivals Paris Saint-Germain. “The Marseillais have come to Paris to f*** PSG,” he sang.

When asked about Taiwo’s little ditty in his post-match press conference, Deschamps said: “You’ve got good ears. You must be the only one who heard it.” He wasn’t, though, as across town, PSG were seething.

Their president Robin Leproux called his counterpart at Marseille, Jean-Claude Dassier, to express his dismay that this could be allowed to happen after all the hard work they have done to reduce tension between the two sets of supporters. Antoine Kombouaré, the PSG coach, also said: “It’s unacceptable. The club must take action. If tomorrow one of my players were to insult Marseille supporters, I would intervene.”

A repentant Taiwo soon appeared in front of reporters, telling OMTV: “I want to apologise for what I sang into the microphone on Saturday. All my teammates told me that it was wrong to have done that and it made them feel sick in the heart. Now I feel bad for having done that. I was euphoric. We had to win and we sang. I apologise again.”

Whether the LFP’s Ethic’s Committee, who have since opened an investigation into Taiwo’s actions, will accept his excuses remains to be seen. Still, the ‘leaving present’ he handed to Marseille fans on Saturday will live long in the memory and no doubt earns a place for him in their hearts. No one at the Vélodrome begrudges Taiwo a move to pastures new.

Tuesday’s L’Équipe claimed he had reached an agreement with Milan to join on a three-year deal ahead of next season, although according to La Gazzetta dello Sport it’s contingent upon whether he can secure a French passport so the club’s one non-EU spot can be kept free for Santos playmaker Paulo Henrique Ganso.

As for Marseille, the double-double is now very much on the cards. Lille’s 1-1 draw at Lorient on Sunday means Deschamps’ side can go top for the first time since November if they win their game in hand at home to Nice this evening. “Our destiny is in our hands,” Cheyrou told RMC Sport. “If we win all our matches, we will be champions.”

In that case, it’s perhaps best to keep Taiwo away from the microphone.

End of the road for Nice keeper Letizi as Lille look to make history

James Horncastle — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:07:00 GMT

Imagine playing each game as if it might well be your last. This is the life Nice goalkeeper Lionel Letizi has chosen for himself.

The 37-year-old, who made his professional debut back in 1992, finally plans to hang up his gloves at the end of the season. “I made the decision in October,” Letizi told France Football. “I have been thinking about it for four years. Each season, I ask myself about it. This time I felt that I wasn’t alright, that my body was making hard work of recovering from pre-season training.”

Nonetheless, his former protégé Hugo Lloris continues to find it remarkable that he is still around. “My grandfather brought me to Nice when I was 10,” the Lyon No.1 told L’Équipe. “Dominque Baratelli, the goalkeeper coach, was there and he said: ‘We’ll take him.’ Letizi was in the first team. It’s bizarre that today I am 23 and he is still the goalkeeper at Nice.” To put that into even greater perspective, Letizi made his debut for France against South Africa on October 11, 1997, the same evening as Thierry Henry.

The old man of the Stade du Ray follows a great tradition of Niçois goalkeepers, from Baratelli – another former France international – and Jérôme Alonzo to Damien Grégorini and of course Lloris. He is by now second choice to David Ospina and unless the cat-like Colombian international is injured, Letizi’s playing time is limited specifically to the Coupe de France. By extension, his retirement date has taken on the quality of a sudden death match.

Letizi - so old he played against Peter Beardsley...

“The more the season progresses, the more my time is running out,” Letizi explained. “When we started out in the Coupe de France back in January against Créteil, there were still five months of the competition left. Now there’s only a month to go. If we lose, it will all be over.” Fortunately, Letizi has a reputation as a cup specialist. As a relatively sprightly 26-year-old he made it to the Coupe de la Ligue final with Metz in 1999, only to lose 1-0 to a Lens side who were at the time in their pomp.

Success came a short while afterwards, however, with Paris Saint-Germain. Letizi lifted the Coupe de France twice in 2004 and 2006, and considering his former club are still very much in this year’s competition there has only been one thing on his mind. “To come full circle with a victory in the Cup against PSG. That would be fantastic.”

Knocking out Lyon in the last 16 underlined Nice’s credentials for an upset. “We are obliged to think about winning it even if we know that the obstacles will be tough,” Letizi smiled. “But after our match against Lyon we have a lot to be hopeful about.” Fatalistically, he started to imagine the scenes at the Stade de France on May 14. “I would like all my family to be in the stands – a final is rare… above all for Nice.”

League leaders Lille stood in the way of Letizi’s dream of bringing the Coupe de France back to Nice for the first time since 1997. But a shock defeat to Monaco and a draw at home to Bordeaux indicated that the nerves were beginning to get to Rudi Garcia’s side. Lille needed penalties to get past Nantes and Lorient in the earlier rounds, prompting some to question the Mastiffs’ pedigree in cup competitions.

Between 1945 and 1955, Lille reached seven finals and won five. Those were the club’s glory days under the mythical André Cheuva who shares the record for victories in the Coupe de France with Guy Roux.

Since then, however, they have only made the semi-finals twice, the last such occasion coming in 1985. Florent Balmont, the Lille midfielder who spent four years on the Côte d’Azur with the Eagles, wasn’t expecting an easy ride before Tuesday night’s game, not with his former team unbeaten in eight matches.

“I can confirm that it will be intense,” he said. “They have been waiting for this match for 15 days or so. We expect to get kicked a bit, but the referee will be there to do his job.” Balmont went off injured in the 33rd minute with a thigh ligament strain. Ironically, it proved the turning point. Garcia brought on Eden Hazard, the two-time young player of the year, who had single-handedly dismantled Nice at the Stade du Ray back in January when he provided Moussa Sow and Gervinho with assists in a 2-0 win.

It didn’t take long for the highly regarded Belgian starlet to make an impact. He exchanged a neat one-two with Ludovic Obraniak on the edge of the box, raced through on goal and fired a shot under Letizi’s crossbar just before the interval to deflate Nice and their veteran `keeper. Minutes after the break, the visitors ruthlessly struck again, this time with Gervinho beating a high-defensive line before taking the ball around Letizi to score his 15th goal of the season. At 2-0, it was game, set and match.

Nonetheless, Nice’s ultras - no doubt buoyed by the first full house at the Stade du Ray since 1990 - remained in full voice and sang songs in tribute of their idol. It was a wonderful gesture and Letizi was clearly moved, as barring injury to Ospina it looks likely to have been his last game in front of the home support.

“I would have loved to have retired at the Stade de France, but Nice’s journey in the Cup was interesting and I really loved it,” Letizi said after the match. “For me, the page has turned. Now I retain the hope of perhaps being able to play in the Championnat. If the team were to ensure its survival quickly and ask me to pull on the gloves again it would be a pleasure.

“I would like to thank my teammates again for having allowed me to experience this beautiful adventure and the fans for the reception they gave me this evening and for the ovation I got at the final whistle. It touched me.”

But as one dream ends another begins. PSG or Angers await Lille in their first Coupe de France final for 56 years. “I think that we are living a historic moment,” Garcia said. “It will be magic.” And if he manages to conjure a league and cup double it just might be the greatest trick in Lille’s history.

Lloris and Rami 'express themselves' as the wheels come off at Lyon then Lille

James Horncastle — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:07:00 GMT

With the passing of spring and the end of the season approaching, tempers are beginning to flare in Ligue 1, even among the most reserved of players.

After watching Lyon surrender a two-goal lead in injury time away to hometown club Nice and draw 2-2 last Sunday, the usually timid goalkeeper Hugo Lloris shouted at his teammates Maxime Gonalons and Aly Cissokho that they didn’t deserve to wear the shirt, before pacing down the tunnel pursued by a Canal+ camera crew screaming: “We shat ourselves! I’ve had it up to here with this sh*t!”

As a child, the France No 1 used to play tennis a short drive down the road from the Stade Municipal du Ray at the Combes club and had a poster of Pete Sampras on his bedroom wall. This, however, was pure John McEnroe.

“Hugo expressed himself in quite an expressive manner,” said Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas, his ailing team now in fourth place and eight points off the pace. “Even if his reaction surprised me, it’s healthy. There was perhaps an excessive use of language but he was fed up, you know.”

Wayne Rooney and Sir Alex Ferguson no doubt nodded their approval. Lest we forget, Rudyard Kipling entitled his most famous poem If for a reason. Not everyone can keep their heads when all about them are losing theirs. Not even league leaders Lille.

In pole position since the end of November, Rudi Garcia’s side travelled to Monaco on Saturday evening looking to record a fifth win in a row and strengthen their grip on a first championship title for 57 years.

Aptly for a coach in charge of a relegation threatened team whose ground sits directly above a car park, Laurent Banide left the Monaco bus in front of the goal. “Yes, I watched the three games in which Lille suffered defeat,” he revealed. “The attitude to have is to either be completely offensive and go for it or to be rather defensive and take your chances.”

Banide unsurprisingly opted for the latter, acknowledging the fact that tasting victory in the principality has become about as hard as paying tax and as painful as a Prince Albert. Indeed, Monaco have won just three times in front of their home support at the Stade Louis II this season, the last such occasion coming back in early February.

Park Chu-Young was one of only two naturally attacking players in Banide’s starting line-up but the South Korea captain still managed to set the cat among the pigeons after 12 minutes, pouncing on Adil Rami’s underhit backpass before ruthlessly taking the ball around Mickaël Landreau to score the opener.

As it turned out, the goal would prove his second winner in as many weeks and his 11th of the season.

Lille were shell-shocked. Garcia complained that two Monaco players had come from an offside position while Rami and Landreau berated each other. “There was a disagreement,” the defender admitted. “It’s between us. We’ll talk about it again in training.”

Things would get worse before the interval for the visitors. Gervinho was given a straight red card for pushing the Monaco left-back Adriano to the floor after a rash tackle and the mountain Lille had to climb just got steeper. “The referee made his move, but they should have been reduced to 10 before us,” said Yohann Cabaye. “Gervinho got riled up, but he takes a lot of knocks and never responds.”

Rami twice came close to redemption, while Eden Hazard was guilty of wasting a chance to equalise late in the second half, meekly hitting a squared cross from Franck Béria into the grateful hands of Monaco goalkeeper Stéphane Ruffier from the edge of the six-yard box. Not even Lille’s bench, the most prolific in Ligue 1, could rescue the result.

When the final whistle blew after six long minutes of added time, Garcia had to dash on to the pitch to stop a melee. His frustrated players were taking aim at the referee and Monaco’s presumed negativity. “For me, they didn’t play football,” said Florent Balmont. “We came across a handball team,” added a tetchy Aurélien Chedjou.

The drama, however, was far from over, as Rami let his emotions get the better of him in an interview with Canal +. “It’s really sh*t,” he snarled. “There was my individual error that brought the goal, but we did not play with heart… We’ll have to lance the boil.

“Today certain things weren’t done in the right spirit by certain players. It’s really starting to break my balls. Either you play with the heart and let your body do the rest or you premeditate things in which case you’re not made of the right stuff to be a Lille player.”

Monaco threw everything in Lille's way - including Georgie Welcome...

The outburst was remarkable for it was so out of character. Rami, after all, is anything but the kind of player to throw his teammates under the bus. In Saturday’s L’Équipe he went through each member of Lille’s squad, highlighting their merits. Rio Mavuba was described as “top,” Mathieu Debuchy as “Robocop,” Stéphane Dumont as “our Steven Gerrard” and 20-goal striker Moussa Sow as a “golden guy.”

After Garcia finished his post-match press conference in Monaco, Rami - probably at the recommendation of Lille’s directors - took to the stand to explain his comments. “We talk a little sh*t when we’re angry… My teammates know me. It’s nothing bad,” he sighed before jokingly pleading insanity. “I was taking aim at myself as it’s like I am living with two or three people…”

A further apology was forthcoming on Sunday afternoon in an attempt to downplay reports of disharmony in the Lille dressing room. “Even if we lost, there is still a good atmosphere in the group. We remain competitors. We are a little edgy.” And rightly so, for the title race seemed to be open again.

Second placed Marseille had a chance to get within a point of Lille on Sunday. Didier Deschamps’ side faced midtable Toulouse at home and considering that they had won seven of their last eight matches few saw the champions missing out on such a golden opportunity.

Instead, things didn’t exactly go to plan for OM who could only draw 2-2 and needed André-Pierre Gignac to come off the bench and score a late equaliser against his former club six minutes from time. “Agreed, a point at home is not sufficient, but we must be happy with it,” Deschamps said. As for Lille, well, they can sleep easy, according to L’Équipe. Monaco, however, might just be the wake up call Garcia’s side needs.

Marvellous Marvin Martin a fine example of French youth

James Horncastle — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:05:00 GMT

Mevlüt Erding is dying for a piece of chocolate. But the striker’s secret is out thanks, in no small part to his former Sochaux teammate and best friend, a cheeky little scamp with two first names called Marvin Martin. “With just one piece, you get the impression that he instantly puts on weight,” the rascal laughed to Le Parisien. “It has always irritated him.”

But Erding can forgive Martin. After all, he might not be at Paris Saint-Germain today if it weren’t for the influence of his mate. “During the clasico between PSG and Marseille, we used to separate the dining room with two tables,” he recalls. “There was one side pro-Paris and the other pro-Marseille. Marvin was one of the fiercest supporters of PSG. It was unbelievable.

“As he is from the Porte de Vanves, he told me about his nights at the Parc des Princes in the Auteuil stand. You felt the magic in the way he talked about it, and it’s partly thanks to him that I’m a fan of Paris.” Indeed, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Martin will get his dream move back to the capital this summer after a fine season with Sochaux.

Voted Ligue 1 Player of the Month for January, Martin is statistically France’s best passer with 11 assists, the same number with which Marseille’s playmaker-in-chief Lucho Gonzalez won the award in the 2009-10 campaign. Laurent Blanc has described the 22-year-old as “very talented” and there is even talk of a call-up to the France squad for a Euro 2012 qualifier with Luxemburg and a friendly with Croatia later in March.

“I have it in the corner of my mind,” says Martin. “I won’t get carried away. I am happy at Sochaux and still have a lot of experience to acquire.” In spite of Martin’s apparent mischievousness, and the fact that, according to defender Damien Perquis, “he's still in his kid’s world, always laughing,” Sochaux coach Francis Gillot thinks he is “the perfect teammate” and “very nice to manage.”

While it’s true Martin has a Playstation stashed in his room for duels with his new BFF, the Algeria international Ryad Boudebouz, and Gillot has to organise fun training exercises to keep the pair occupied as if they were both suffering from ADHD, there is a rare humility about the youngster.

“There is no selfishness in his game,” says Erding. “It reminds me of Mesut Özil, the midfielder from Germany and Real Madrid. When we played together at youth level, he finished the season with 16 assists.” As matter of fact just like Özil, who recently told Spanish magazine XL Semanal of his budget airline trips to Mallorca and habit of shopping in Zara rather than D&G, Martin is just as modest off the pitch, as he is on it too.

“You must never forget where you come from,” he told SoFoot. This “Parisian urchin,” as one coach calls him, who dreamt about following in the footsteps of Erding and Jérémy Menez at Sochaux and donning the yellow and blue No 26 shirt, chose instead the No 14 for very personal reasons. Not because of its links with Johan Cruyff or Thierry Henry – but rather because it’s the number of his arrondissement in Paris.

Every time Martin scores a goal – such as the magnificent lob he conjured up against Nice – he crosses his arms in poignant celebration. “It’s a thing between us. It comes from a TV series. It is to pay tribute to our neighborhoods, our brothers and friends.”

When L’Équipe went to meet him at Sochaux’s picturesque training ground in Seloncourt, they witnessed Martin drop off Jérôme Roussillon, a member of the youth team. The 18-year-old doesn’t yet have a driving licence and needs a lift into work every now and again from the club’s star player. Martin is only too happy to be of assistance.

He steps out of the car, smiles and shakes the hands of the Sochaux academy players that follow his path to the Château du Bannot, all the while talking animatedly and never once declining an audience, signing an autograph here, offering advice there.

“He is someone who is open to others, who loves football, which isn’t always the case,” says Éric Hély, the coach who brought Martin through the ranks at Sochaux and made the little magician his captain in the 2007 Gambardella Cup winning side. “Marvin is affectionate and likes life within the group. He comes with his teammates to watch the reserves and eats at the academy on some evenings.”

"Yay!" Martin bear-hugs best buddy Boudebouz

It’s not what you would necessarily expect from one of France’s brightest emerging talents, not in an age when a national team goes on strike at a World Cup, nor when players like Hatem Ben Arfa, Stéphane Sessègnon and Dimitri Payet quickly follow suit at their clubs, and certainly not when – in the words of the legendary former Auxerre boss Guy Roux – coaches and directors don’t speak the language of the banlieue [low-income suburbs].

Thankfully, Martin is a bit different. The diminutive playmaker is something of a rarity and so are Peugeot-backed club Sochaux. “Youth development is in our genetic code,” claims chief executive Alexandre Lacombe. “We are here to produce players for Ligue 1, but also to shape young adults and citizens too. It’s interesting to know whether the players of tomorrow have clear ideas as well as two feet on the pitch.”

With that in mind, Martin is perhaps the personification of Sochaux’s ethos. He has represented the club at every level and is not only a well-rounded footballer, but a well-rounded individual too. Dominque Ravaudet, his old coach at amateur club Montrouge, says: “I have the impression that the same boy is in front of me as back then. He is still kind and smiling. His biggest quality is his humility. He grew up in a very structured setting, with a father who was always around and very discreet.”

Credit must go to Sochaux. It bears remembering that 16 of the 29 players in the first team squad have come through the academy, including such exciting prospects as striker Cédric Bakambu – a member of the France Under-19 side that won the European Championship last summer – and Pierrick Cros, the youngest first-pick goalkeeper in Ligue 1.

After ending up in 16th place last season, which incidentally was Sochaux’s lowest finish in a decade of being back in Ligue 1, the few veteran players within the side complained that the club was naïve in its policy. “We have said for a long time that we need players of experience,” said one. “We’ll need to sign four players to replace Stéphane Dalmat,” said another.

Sochaux did listen, but only selectively. David Sauget, a 31-year-old full-back, was brought in from Grenoble, but his fellow additions – defensive midfielder Kévin Anin and striker Modibo Maïga – were still both in their early 20s.

Bakumbu, Cros, Maïga, Sauget and Gillot

Today, Sochaux are eighth in Ligue 1 and play the best football in France outside of Lille. At the turn of the year, no team had attempted more dribbles or more shots from outside of the box. The attack that was firing blanks – just 28 goals in the 2009-10 campaign – is now being supplied live rounds from the ammunition factory in Martin’s feet.

So what next for him? “Sochaux are good, but it’s a shame they are a club who are not too ambitious. And me, well, I am ambitious,” Martin says. “I want to win titles and play in the European Cups. If I can do it here, then all the better.” Either way, one imagines it won’t be long until one of the big teams hears about him on the grapevine, leading Sochaux to ask or maybe sing how much longer this particular Marvin will be mine.

French renaissance highlighted by Mexes and Rami's defensive 'bromance'

James Horncastle — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:30:00 GMT

Laurent Blanc won’t have struggled to find the words to describe what he felt before Wednesday’s friendly between France and Brazil in Paris. This was as classic an example of déjà-vu if ever there was one.

Thirteen years ago, he had been in the exact same position awaiting the start of the World Cup final on July 8, 1998. And much like last night Blanc was forced to sit on the bench.

Back then he had scandalously been banned from playing the final against Brazil in one of football’s great injustices. Blanc received the first red card of his career in the previous round for a non-existent coming together with Croatia’s Slaven Bilić. It was a travesty.

“I didn’t experience it like any old spectator because I had the chance to follow it from the bench and not in the stands like the rules indicated,” Blanc told France Football. “Frankly I prepared myself as if I were going to play that final. I remember playing at being a journalist in the Stade de France and trying to get Brazil’s starting line up. I had to occupy myself to pass the time and believe me the time didn’t pass very quickly.”

Rather than take pity on himself, Blanc reported for training to the surprise of Aimé Jacquet, sat in the same seat on the team bus and wore his No 5 shirt on the bench even in the knowledge that he hadn’t a chance of playing the final. He understood that the collective came before the individual.

If Blanc hadn’t given it consideration before, he now really thought in earnest about becoming a coach. “Yes, I already was one then,” Blanc said.

Memories of 1998 came flooding back last night. The hope that they would have a restorative effect on les Bleus wasn’t lacking among the supporters. Last summer’s events in South Africa represented a nadir in French football history – above all, when it came to the theme of national togetherness.

The Black, Blanc and Beur element – held up as 1998's great social legacy – had been ripped to shreds in South African squabbles. “We have seen France’s real face,” Nicolas Anelka claimed: “Franck Ribéry hits Yoann Gourcuff. Gourcuff, the good Frenchman, Ribéry the Muslim.”

Even six months on, the after-effects of the strike in Knysna are still being felt. Indeed, Patrice Evra’s international future is the very definition of a political football, with France’s Minister of Sport Chantal Jouanno recommending that he never play for the country again after “sullying” its name.

Sixty two percent of fans polled by France Football before the announcement of Blanc’s latest squad were against Evra’s call-up, even though the Manchester United left-back had completed a five-match ban for the role he played in South Africa. Amidst great speculation, Blanc eventually chose not to include him, insisting that the decision had been taken “purely for sporting reasons.”

That matter was laid to rest, at least for now, and the prospect of playing Brazil meant a sunny disposition prevailed at Clairefontaine. Signs that the inheritance of `98 wasn’t lost on the current generation were plentiful. As for the Black, Blanc and Beur component no greater advert for its revival could come than in the bond formed by France’s two centre-backs Philippe Mexès and Adil Rami.

Interviewed jointly in L’Équipe on Tuesday, their bonhomie leapt off the page. “We’re not married,” Mexès blushed. Rami on the other hand felt absolutely no shame at the bromance. “We sleep in the same châteaux, that’s enough…” he joked.

Contrary to the impression given, France were taking the encounter seriously, although loyalties were split within the group. Guillaume Hoarau, the Paris Saint-Germain striker, revealed how he had been wearing a Brazil shirt on the day of the ’98 final “but quickly took it off when France scored.” Cultural ties also made it a special game for Chelsea’s Florent Malouda. “I am Brazilian,” he told Le Parisien.

“My wife is from Brazil, my children are half-Brazilian… When I was little, I dreamed of playing in Brazil for a Brazilian club. Having grown up in Guyana, France was far away and I thought I had more chance of success over there.”

Speaking of success, France’s record against Brazil is remarkable. Les Bleus haven’t lost to the Samba kings since August 26, 1992, when Raí, the city’s future darling inspired a 2-0 victory at the Parc des Princes. Blanc still erred on the side of caution, however, and paid customary respect to his opponent.

“Each decade an extraordinary generation comes out of Brazil. It’s for this reason that there are five stars on their shirt… Brazil are in reconstruction because they have young players, but they are practically the best in their positions. In the team that will start there’ll be one from Inter, one from Barcelona, another from Milan….”

But that’s not to say of course that there wasn’t a palpable air of cautious optimism blowing through the French camp. December’s hugely impressive dismantling of England at Wembley left no illusions as to the potential of this side. It was also France’s fourth win on the bounce under Blanc.

The key word here was continuity, though there was a sense that a two-month hiatus and the absences of both Samir Nasri and Mathieu Valbuena might well knock les Bleus off their rhythm.

“We will stick with the same philosophy,” Blanc said. Indeed, not much would change aside from the new kit launched by Nike with the slogan: “Our differences unite us.”

The team-sheet once again made for familiar reading with Hugo Lloris wearing a red mime outfit in goal, the lovers Mexès and Rami in defence, Alou Diarra named as captain for a fourth time, and Karim Benzema brooding menacingly up front.

A second chance was afforded to richly talented Roma playmaker Jérémy Menez on the right-hand side of France’s 4-2-3-1 formation. His nerves had got the better of him in the 1-0 defeat to Belarus last September and he had lost his place in the squad. The 23-year-old wouldn’t let Blanc down this time.

Before the match Zinedine Zidane had offered France’s players some advice. After all, he had masterminded defeats of Brazil in 1998 and 2006. “Each time I talk about Brazil, I have a good memory,” Zidane told L’Équipe.

“The fact that I have also been on holiday there has an impact on my relationship with the country. I was always afraid. I asked myself how they would welcome me. And what’s funny is that they welcomed a Brazilian footballer. French, but Brazilian… They didn’t have any resentment.”

The secret to beating Brazil, according to Zizou, is that they don’t like to be provoked. “You have to rattle them,” he said.

Uncharacteristically for a team without Felipe Melo, it was Brazil who did most of the needling. The pitch was in a sorry state after the Six Nations match between France and Scotland four days earlier and initially didn’t appear to lend itself particularly well to slick passing.

Mano Menezes side had much of the early possession and managed to eek out chances for Milan duo Alexandre Pato and Robinho. But the Seleção looked cluttered and ungainly. France, meanwhile, seemed to carry the greater threat.

Hernanes’s sending off in the 40th minute for a ‘De Jong’ style challenge on Benzema swung the game greatly in France’s favour and to their credit they took advantage.

The breakthrough came shortly after the interval when Menez turned two Brazilians inside out down the right flank and then played a perfect ball across the box. Benzema lay in wait to score his third goal in a row for France.

The 23-year-old had been a little wasteful, notably in the first half when he didn’t supply the finish Yoann Gourcuff’s wonderful reverse pass thoroughly deserved. But once again Benzema showed the swagger that was a hallmark of his play two and a half seasons ago when he struck 27 times for Lyon. He looked dangerous with each touch of the ball.

It was yet another return to form under Blanc, not just for his No 1 striker, but also for Mexès, the man of the match, and for the team as a whole. “I liked what I saw… There were many positives this evening,” Blanc said.

France’s prestigious 1-0 victory extends their winning streak to five games, a feat les Bleus haven’t achieved since 2007. And though thousands of fans didn’t line the Champs-Elysées to savour this triumph over Brazil as they famously did in 1998, there is a definite sense, as evoked in L’Équipe’s headline this morning, that things are getting “better and better."

Bordeaux's latest vintage feeling the pressure of history

James Horncastle — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 12:35:00 GMT

The walk back to the dressing room at the Stade Chaban-Delmas is said to be the longest in Europe, stretching for nearly 120m under the historic listed stands.

Amidst the din of the supporters above and the clatter of studs on the parquet flooring below, every single step provides a moment for Bordeaux’s players to dwell on the past, the present and the future. The distance itself encourages reflection. This, however, is a team that has been overburdened if not tormented by its own thoughts for a year now. Any glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel has yet to materialise.

Back in late October the local authority in Bordeaux had to declare 1,200 seats unsafe for use after a crack emerged in the stonework of the ground. Nothing could perhaps have better illustrated the sense that the club was broken. “I can’t wait for 2010 to end both on a collective and an individual level,” sighed Benoît Trémolinas.

No one could possibly blame the Bordeaux full-back. After all, his team had collapsed like no other in recent memory. “For me, it was like a plane crash,” added his teammate Fernando. “At the end of the season we had the impression of no longer knowing how to play football.”

This time last year, Bordeaux were the toast of France. The reigning champions had a six-point lead at the top of Ligue 1 and Laurent Blanc had just witnessed his elegant side knock Ajaccio out of the French Cup with an imperious 5-1 win.

The Girondins had already booked a place in the League Cup final against Marseille and even more impressively were through to the last 16 of the Champions League after topping a group comprised of Bayern Munich and Juventus. On paper at least, an unprecedented quintuple was on the cards. Bordeaux had already won France’s equivalent of the charity shield in Montreal and were fighting convincingly on four fronts.

The seven-year itch had officially been scratched. It appeared that a team had finally been found to break Lyon’s cycle of dominance. But, it wasn’t to be. Bordeaux’s free-flowing side went into freefall shortly after January 5 when the President of the French Football Federation Jean-Pierre Escalettes told three radio stations in quick succession that Blanc was the first and foremost name he had in mind to replace Raymond Domenech once the World Cup concluded in South Africa. Though he later called reports of a secret meeting “completely false” and “absurd”, one only had to look as far as the dreadful results that followed at Bordeaux to get the inevitable sense that a deal had been struck.

The tide turned for les Girondins as soon as it seemd Blanc would walk

Much like dominoes, the Girondins were toppled with a seemingly irresistible force first in the French Cup, then in the League Cup and finally in the Champions League. Bordeaux collected just 21 points from the second half of the season and calamitously finished sixth, outside of the European places.

It was a disaster both on and off the pitch. The club was left with a deficit of €15m and things started to fall apart. “We have no money,” said Bordeaux President Jean-Louis Triaud. “We have built a team and a budget to play in the Champions League. We have to take responsibility for it.”

In the meantime, Blanc left as expected along with his influential coach Jean-Louis Gasset and was followed first by Marouane Chamakh and then Yoann Gourcuff, two players around which the 2009 title-winning team had been built, and upon whom its success had greatly hinged both in technical and tactical terms.

Rebuilding certainly wouldn’t be easy for the incoming manager. Bordeaux pursued Eric Gerets and Jean Fernandez, the Ligue 1 Coach of the Year, for much of May, but when it emerged that the latter would rather stay with Auxerre in light of their surprise qualification for the Champions League, the club reached out to an old favourite.

Jean Tigana had spent the last year tending to his vineyards and doing charity work back in his native country of Mali when he got a call from De Tavernost. Health problems meant that he had reservations about returning to the game following his dismissal from Besiktas in 2007, but the lure of Bordeaux proved too much. “It was my heart’s choice,” Tigana said. “For three years, I’ve received many offers from France and abroad… I would not have come back to coaching for any team other than Bordeaux.”

The sceptics of course wasted no time in pointing out that Tigana hadn’t worked in France for over a decade and that the title he had won with Monaco in 1997 was by now a fading memory.

But the club defended its decision. Tigana was already a legend at Bordeaux having made 251 appearances as a player, winning the league three times and the French Cup twice between 1981 and 1989 in a golden age remembered to this day as the best in the club’s history.

He helped define an era with France, forming part of the Carré Magique, a midfield quartet comprised of Michel Platini, Alain Giresse and Luis Fernandez, which inspired les Bleus to glory at the European Championship in 1984.

Tigana had also quite literally forged a reputation among his former teammates as a take-names-and-kick-asses kind of guy. Interviewed in France Football, Marius Trésor said: “When we played at Bordeaux, Jean was the team’s ‘treasurer’ and he made a note of the players who were late.”

After his first training session, Tigana revealed that he had reprised his old role: “The first thing that I asked of my players was to respect the hours of our training session. This morning, I noted that some players were late. It was surprising…”

This was exactly what a fragile-minded side like the Girondins supposedly needed. “Jean has the competence, the experience, the image, the charisma and the personality” to coach Bordeaux, insisted Triaud. Six months down the line, however, he is starting to have serious reservations.

Winless in Ligue 1 since November 21, Bordeaux lost 2-1 to Marseille in their first game back after the New Year. Tigana’s side slid to 10th in the table. They were now seven points adrift of the Champions League places, hadn’t been on the podium all season, and were about to suffer the ignominy of being knocked out of the French Cup by Angers, a team ranked 15th in the second division.

“The club, like its supporters, deplores the team’s results,” read a statement on Bordeaux’s official website. “We understand if they show their disappointment, although any form of vandalism or violence will not be accepted.”

Bordeaux’s fans weren’t the only unhappy ones. The captain Alou Diarra had already called for the club to show its ambition in the transfer window only to be told by De Tavernost that “you can’t buy spirit” and that “one recruit alone won’t solve the problem.” Undeterred, he spoke up again after the Angers defeat and was deliberately vague in asking for “change.” The local hacks scratched their heads and pondered what he had meant before deciding that he might actually be turning against Tigana.

The names of Élie Baup, Rolland Courbis, Alain Perrin and Paul Le Guen were all mentioned as possible replacements while crisis talks apparently took place at Bordeaux’s training ground in Haillan. Tigana emerged defiantly the following day for a press conference alongside Triaud. What had felt like the end was merely a new beginning.

“I don’t want to abandon the ship in a storm,” Tigana said. For now, he would keep his job. Bordeaux’s directors had been playing good cop, bad cop. Triaud claimed the question of Tigana leaving had never once been asked while De Tavernost suggested otherwise. “The season started badly and it continues to be bad. There will be significant consequences if we keep playing matches of this nature,” he bristled.

The stats made for difficult reading. Tigana had a win ratio of just 30%. He was reminded by L’Équipe that four out of the last five coaches sacked in Ligue 1, had on average lasted just 13 days after receiving a vote of confidence. Following this logic, Tigana had two games to save his job. He won the first at home to Nice at the weekend, creating a degree of breathing space before the second, which comes this Sunday away to former club Lyon. Yet there is a suspicion that even if Tigana were to go back-to-back, each victory would be pyrrhic in nature.

Bordeaux's form has left Tigana scratching his head (see...?)

Indeed, not all the blame lies on his shoulders. Long-term injuries to Mathieu Chalmé and Marc Planus have left Bordeaux’s defence in tatters, prompting Fernando to drop back from midfield where his influence and rhythmic passing is missed. Alou Diarra’s six-match ban in October for doing a Paolo De Canio and pushing over referee Wilfried Bien also deprived the team of its only real leader at a delicate moment of the season. Then a change of style and system from a possession-based game to one predicated on the counterattack also required time for adaptation.

Upstairs had a lot to answer for as well. Triaud and De Tavernost hadn’t exactly covered themselves in glory when managing the immediate post-Blanc situation. Investment in the squad was minimal during the summer, ostensibly for failing to qualify for Europe, but also because the departures of Chamakh and Gourcuff were both poorly handled and poorly timed. The former left on a free. The latter much too late for his €22m transfer fee to be reinvested in the team. “I am not a magician,” joked Tigana. “Unless M6 give me €100m, I will have to be clever in the recruitment.” Unfortunately Bordeaux have been anything but.

They brought in a pair of 22-year-old strikers who were largely unproven at the highest level, namely Anthony Modeste and Moussa Maazou. Both were too raw to fill Chamakh’s boots in the short-term. Bordeaux supporters were by now accustomed to much more.

While they adopted Modeste thanks to his goals, Maazou was a different case entirely. His loan from CSKA Moscow was canceled last week after he launched a broadside at the fans. Speaking to 20 minutes, Maazou said: “The people can say what they want. If they are disappointed, that’s their problem. I couldn’t give a sh*t. Me, I am fine. I have my contract with CSKA. I would prefer to stay at Bordeaux, but if it doesn’t work out, I’ll go back. It’s not a problem. CSKA play in the Champions League.”

In retrospect the decision to let Fernando Cavenaghi leave has become even more implausible. The 27-year-old Argentine had scored 46 goals in 99 games for Bordeaux and given Chamakh had now gone his concerns about a lack of first team football should have been no more. Add to that the absence of a like-for-like replacement for Gourcuff, not that Bordeaux necessarily needed one after a change of formation, and several questions were being asked about the club’s ambition to stay among the elite in France let alone in Europe.

No greater example of the club’s reduced standing came than after they pushed the boat out to meet Lorient’s €12m asking price for Kevin Gameiro only for the in-demand striker to turn up his nose at the prospect and decide to hold out for a transfer to Valencia instead. Bordeaux ended up signing André, a highly rated 20-year-old on loan from Dynamo Kiev. It remains to be seen whether the bright young forward who was recently called up to the Brazil squad for a friendly against France actually lives up to the considerable potential he had shown previously at Santos.

And that’s the thing with Bordeaux. To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, there are too many ‘known unknowns’ not to mention ‘known knowns’ such as the reported friction between Tigana and his assistant, Michel Pavon who was foisted upon him in the summer.

A source quoted at length in L’Équipe last week said: “The duo is stillborn. Tigana was chosen by M6. He is a friend of De Tavernost. He is a competent manager, but too distant from the realities of today in Ligue 1. He arrived on his own. It wasn’t easy for him. Michel is Triaud’s man. They are in constant contradiction. It’s no longer bearable for the group. The players go to training dragging their feet.” Tuesday’s France Football even claimed a clash between the pair during Bordeaux’s winter training camp in Morocco nearly brought about Tigana’s resignation.

So one doesn’t have to be a qualified sommelier to understand that this particular vintage from Bordeaux is not up to the standard of 2009. The grapes are sour, the bottle is corked and the arguments at the club suggest it only goes down well with beef. Sunday’s trip to Lyon will, of course, go a long way towards deciding whether it ultimately gets poured down the drain.

How Sunderland target Sessegnon fell out of love in Paris

James Horncastle — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 12:17:00 GMT

Sat in the corner of a bar, watching the game, Ludovic Giuly stood up and started to undo his shirt one button at a time. It wasn’t long before the above mentioned item of clothing was being swung over his head; the famous hips that had fooled one top-class defender after another in France, Spain and Italy were now writhing away in saucy abandon.

This wasn't a last tango in Paris, rather an impromptu striptease. Someone shouted “allez.” No one shouted “encore.” Everyone simply felt awkward. Giuly could certainly forget about finding any notes tucked into the waistband of his white boxers.

Admittedly, it’s not uncommon for footballers to give away one of their shirts. This, however, was neither the time nor the place. Fans of Roma saw glimmers of Giuly the dancer during his one season in Serie A, namely a goal celebration called the Tecktonik, a kind of Sharpey shuffle on speed. Is it any wonder Luciano Spalletti decided to sell him?

Judging by this performance, the 34-year-old was now finished as a footballer. The days when Giuly inspired Monaco to the Champions League final and later won the competition with Barcelona seemed very much in the past. Throughout the previous season, the tricky winger had argued with Paris Saint-Germain’s cantankerous coach Antoine Kombouaré. At a pre-season training camp in the United States, Giuly was even told he could leave. Bad times.

A place on the bench looked like the best he could hope for, but the colourful little character stayed on at the Parc des Princes regardless. The signing from Monaco of Nenê, the naturally left-sided player that PSG had long been missing, meant that Stéphane Sessegnon could finally return to his preferred place on the right flank, the flank where Giuly played.

Now aged 26, the mercurial Benin international had played all last season out of position and his form had suffered accordingly. Though it was hard to shine in an unbalanced team that finished in 13th place amid great unrest both in and around the club, Sessegnon looked a shadow of the player who had joined PSG from Le Mans in a transfer worth €8.5m two and a half years ago. “Stéphane wasn’t good and he knows it,” Kombouaré said.

The explosive and instinctive football Sessegnon demonstrated during his first six months at the Parc, such as when he memorably dribbled into the corner flag during a League Cup quarter-final against Lens and bunny-hopped past three defenders, had drawn knee-jerk comparisons with another iconic PSG No 10 from Africa: the richly talented Nigerian Jay-Jay Okocha.

France’s appetite had been whet. Back then Sessegnon deservedly featured in the Ligue 1 Team of the Season. Now he had to recapture that form – and the early indications were promising. Two step-overs done at pace during a friendly against Sporting Lisbon in July left Leandro Grimi with a severe case of twisted blood. The Argentine full-back fell so awkwardly it was initially feared that Sessegnon had somehow induced a leg break.

He would dazzle effervescently in PSG’s Ligue 1 opener too, inspiring a tub-thumping 3-1 win at home to Saint-Étienne which sent the Parisians top of the table just weeks after the club’s 40th birthday. Sessegnon was a constant menace and could lay claim to having scored his side’s second goal, hitting a stunning scissor kick from the edge of the box which hit the post, bounced out, then struck the diving Jérémie Janot’s hand and went in.

Since then, however, it has been downhill for the player. Sessegnon suffered an injury while on international duty with Benin in September and lost his place to Giuly. Try as he may, there was no getting back in the starting XI as PSG went on an eight-match and then a 13-match unbeaten run. They climbed to second in Ligue 1 and were conceding fewer goals without him in the side. Sessegnon’s teammates were surprised. “Often when a player is missing, another takes his place and you don’t see the difference,” Christophe Jallet said.

By December, Sessegnon had started just four times. He had played a miserable 559 minutes and warming the bench was evidently becoming too much to bear for a player who had attracted significant interest from a string of Premier League clubs during the summer. So on the eve of PSG’s trip to Nancy on December 22, Sessegnon and his agent Rudy Raba decided to meet Kombouaré to request a transfer. Interviewed in L’Équipe the following day, he recalled his extraordinary version of events.

“I told him that I would like to leave. He responded that I would not be leaving, that I was important to his group. I stayed calm. I understood his position, but he didn’t understand mine. He got angry, and it went beyond the simple scenario of a manager not wanting to let a player go. He hurt me through what he said and how he behaved.

"Basically, the coach insulted me. I don’t think it’s right for a coach to call one of his players a f**ker, a s**t player, as he did with me. That's what he said to me, I’m not going to hide it. In these conditions it seems impossible to me to keep playing in Paris. Impossible… It’s gone too far. I had so much respect for him. What he said to me profoundly hurt me.”

Much like Hatem Ben Arfa did at Marseille in the summer, Sessegnon effectively went on strike. He didn’t report for training at Camp des Loges, nor did he join PSG in Marrakech for a winter break. It was a stand-off, and it would prove lengthy.

“I won’t talk about the absentees... who are still wrong,” Kombouaré sneered. He had earlier denied the allegations that lay at his door. Things were showing no sign of improving. “I am a victim,” Sessegnon cried. Yes, a victim reportedly earning nearly €5,000 a day during the whole affair.

“We can’t say that we haven’t spoken about it between ourselves,” said PSG defender Sylvain Armand. “We have asked him to come back. He’s a lad who we all appreciate a lot in the group, who brings his joie de vivre, and we need him to play on all fronts.” Veteran goalkeeper Grégory Coupet agreed. “We are just sad not to see Stéphane. We have bombarded him with texts telling him to come back.”

In the meantime, Sunderland had tabled an offer said to be worth €5m while Everton apparently asked to have the player on loan. Both were branded “ridiculous”, partly because PSG stood to make a loss on their original investment. The club didn’t want to sell. Colony Capital, PSG’s majority shareholder, had claimed that there would be no departures and no arrivals. Club president Robin Leproux told reporters: “Stéphane is part of the family. Giuly can’t do 90 minutes like he did against Sochaux. We are not working on the hypothesis of his exit. He will be with us on January 31.”

It was time for rapprochement. PSG’s general manager Philippe Boindrieux and their head of recruitment Alain Roche held clear-the-air talks, but to no avail. Then, without warning, a little before 10.45am last Thursday, Sessegnon returned to training. The strike had lasted a little less than a month.

“I learned that he was here on my arrival this morning,” Kombouaré said. “It is very good news. But no one has won. He is here. He is happy to train. It works for me. Stéphane is back to work. When you have a written and ethical contract, you see it through right until the end.”

The suspicion, however, was that Sessegnon’s return had been strategic. L’Équipe wondered whether Sunderland could have suggested it in concert with his agent to appease PSG. What happened next only fueled the conspiracy theories.

Sessegnon was sent to the Pitié-Salpêtriére hospital with club doctor Éric Rolland for some tests. “It turns out he is suffering from a fever which needs at least three days' treatment and rest,” Kombouaré said. When asked to reveal the exact nature of the fever, he replied: “It’s confidential.”

Sessegnon’s entourage was surprised. The player’s team-mates had also noted how “sharp” he was after a 30-day hiatus. After all, it wasn’t as if Sessegnon was out of shape. He had been training regularly with the coach of Olympic hurdler Ladji Doucouré. Needless to say, you didn’t have to be Hamlet to see that something was still rotten in the city of Paris.

The plot twisted once more this week. Sessegnon was absent from training on Wednesday and then Thursday. Le Parisien were sure he was in the north-east of England negotiating a three-and-a-half-year deal with Sunderland. The Black Cats’ made another offer yesterday, thought to be around €5.8m. It was rebuffed. But PSG are now resigned to losing Sessegnon and the club will apparently listen to offers. A deal is expected by the weekend.

“I am very happy and looking forward to my Premier League career,” Sessegnon told Sky Sports. “It is a dream come true and I want to show my value to Sunderland.” Meanwhile, Kombouaré and Leproux have lost face in front of PSG’s supporters and this morning’s L’Équipe makes embarrassing reading for the pair. “Sessegnon wins his battle,” it claims. Who, though, will win the war?

PSG’s title challenge could rest on what they do in the next five days. They have been linked with Saint-Étienne star Dimitri Payet, Nancy’s Marama Vahirua and Anderlecht’s Jonathan Legear. Only one thing is certain, though, and that’s fireworks. The more likely outcome, however, especially for a club with just two top five finishes in the last decade, is implosion.

Goals, weight loss & quiz shows: The Andre-Pierre Gignac story

James Horncastle — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 08:30:00 GMT

The phone rang for the Nth time. Once again caller ID revealed it to be Marseille’s press officer. André-Pierre Gignac had purposely avoided picking up for weeks. But this time he couldn’t leave it hanging. He knew what was being recommended.

The club had made it clear through other channels. It was time to face up to the elephant in the room or more specifically the one stood right in front of the goal at the Vélodrome blowing raspberries in his direction.

Five months had now past since Gignac completed an eagerly anticipated transfer from Toulouse. The 25-year-old who had grown up in Martigues, a mini Provence version of Venice just half an hour outside Marseille, was finally coming home to play for the club he had supported as a boy. It was a dream for Gignac, one that he had been vocal about realising ever since his time with Lorient.

“It’s something fantastic, a great feeling of pride, an enormous emotion,” Gignac gushed to reporters at his official unveiling. “A lot of memories come to mind. I remember the matches that I went to see at the Vélodrome with my dad like against Lens in November 1998 when Christophe Dugarry scored. We won 1-0. I am a Marseille supporter. It’s going to be crazy.”

Just how crazy, though, was for the moment completely beyond Gignac. The local lad couldn’t possibly have imagined at the time that the next press conference he would be asked to give would be one apologising for the woeful start he has made to his career at Marseille. But that’s exactly what happened last week, as a sheepish-looking Gignac walked gingerly into the club’s media room wearing the expression of a penitent Christian on his way to confession.

As an opening gambit, he didn’t quite say: “Forgive me father for I have still not scored at the Vélodrome, it’s been three months since my last goal in Ligue 1.” The dominant theme, however, was one of mea culpa. Gignac had no option but to hold up his hands.

Much like tumbleweed blowing through a barren landscape, his solitary strike against Saint-Étienne was all Marseille had to show for the €16.5m they had paid for him in the summer. The time when he scored 30 seconds into his debut for Lorient and said, “I thought I was Ronaldo”, seemed very long ago indeed.

Statistics in L’Équipe showed that Gignac had just a two per cent conversion rate in front of goal. Even Youssouf Hadji –brother of former Coventry City cult hero Mustapha - had done better at mid-table Nancy while also somehow finding the time to run a hair salon. This obviously was neither a French striker of international class nor one who had topped the scoring charts in 2009, but rather a Mexican child swinging blindfolded at a piñata on his birthday. For try as he may, Gignac was hitting nothing but air.

And yet that’s not telling the whole story. After all, if it hadn’t been for a silly foul called on Brandao in the 93rd minute against Monaco in September, the header Gignac had nodded beyond Stéphane Ruffier would have counted as his first goal at the Vélodrome. Talk of a jinx would have ended there and then.

Instead the wait went on. He struck the post against Spartak Moscow, then the bar against Sochaux. A hat-trick away to Slovakian side Zilina in the Champions League was taken for granted, come as it did in a 7-0 win.

It was becoming a problem. The fans had started to whistle one of their own. Gignac was now a figure of fun, definitely more Ibrahim Bakayoko than Jean-Pierre Papin. Old history was dug up, such as how he famously got his break in professional football through his pushy grandmother who spent much of a family wedding badgering Jacques Abardonado, a cousin of the Gignacs and a defender with Valenciennes, for some precious advice. The young André-Pierre was simply told to drink more milk. Only he liked eating too. Evidently it wasn’t just the goals that made the player think he was Ronaldo.

In fact, the days when Gignac’s Toulouse teammates used to buy him slimming pills weren’t a thing of the past either. His paunch has come to the fore again since his move to Marseille. France’s version of Spitting Image, known as the Guignols, has recently run a feature that has caricatures of Didier Deschamps and Bernard Laporte guessing at his weight. The latter suggested he tips the scales to the tune of 29 stone, something Gignac himself finds funny.

“It made me laugh,” he said last week. “I love it. It’s off the wall humour, nothing malicious. But if I could lose one or two kilos it would be good. I am working towards it. I was a little less professional than I might have been before.”

Joking aside, things were beginning to get uncomfortable for Gignac, not least because Marseille were without a win in five matches in Ligue 1 and had been knocked out of the French Cup by second division leaders Evian.

Though panic had yet to set in largely on account of his side being fifth and just three points off the top, Deschamps couldn’t hide his concern with a lack of a cutting edge in attack for much longer.

“The statistics are bad even if they have not had dramatic consequences on our place in the table,” he explained. “To be champions you need to score 50 to 55 goals with the two strikers sharing 25 between them.” Marseille had a shortfall. Gignac and Loïc Remy, the strike duo who cost €30m in the summer, had contributed just six in Ligue 1, that’s €5m a goal to be exact.

To use DD’s own Cantona-esque phrase against him, it looked as though Marseille had in fact caught a couple of sardines when they had instead gone fishing for whales. The worst kept secret in the Vieux Port last summer was Deschamps’ desire to lure a big name striker with a proven track record in Europe to take Marseille to the next level, above all in the Champions League.

The names of Emmanuel Adebayor, Diego Forlan and Alberto Gilardino were all mentioned. Talks were in an advanced stage for Luis Fabiano too, but they collapsed. “We did everything to have him,” revealed Marseille president Jean-Claude Dassier. “But the price Sevilla demanded wasn’t reasonable. Everyone agreed on it even Didier who had the elegance to tell me so. I asked him: ‘Come to the office and give me your choice’. He arrived, sat down and said: ‘Gignac’. And that’s how it all started.”

Before Marseille did so, however, they faxed Chelsea to half-heartedly inquire about the prospect of bringing Didier Drogba back to the Vélodrome. Gignac, you see, was never first choice, if anything he was a consolation prize, and the poor lad knew it. “Between what I wanted or what I hoped for and the reality, I’ve had to adapt,” Deschamps said. “I will try to get the best out of it with my staff. It’s like that. At Marseille, like anywhere else, a coach is forced to adapt.”

Gignac tried to remain unfazed. “The sceptics should know that I have the mentality of a warrior and I am ready to die on the pitch,” he roared. And die Gignac did, but not in the way he intended. The shock departure of Marseille’s captain and last season’s top scorer Mamadou Niang after the season had already started threw Deschamps’ plans out of kilter. The weight of expectation on Gignac grew. He wilted under the floodlights.

Though Gignac’s shirt was still the third most popular in the club shop behind those of Mathieu Valbuena and Lucho Gonzalez, until he actually started scoring he could never feel loved. The adulation Drogba received on his emotional return to the Vélodrome with Chelsea in December offered a telling reminder of the bond he had yet to form with the fans.

So last week’s press conference was an operation in catharsis. Gignac got to tell his side of the story, revealing that it has taken time to adapt to life back in Provence. “Now that I am all in place, I want to be able to think about my job more,” he said. “I have everything that it takes to do well. I no longer have any excuses. I need to be 100 per cent to be good.

“Last season, I played injured because there was something extraordinary to play for [namely the World Cup] and you all know how that went. I had to put back my holidays and I wasn’t able to do pre-season training. Then I was injured. I had a great physical deficit that I tried to make up for each day. Playing every three days is a change for me. But there are no more excuses.”

No sooner had the press conference finished than Gignac looked like a relieved man. He accepted all the criticism and promised an imminent change in attitude. A great burden appeared to have been lifted off his shoulders. And the following Sunday, when Ligue 1 resumed after the winter break, Gignac started afresh.

Instead of using him at centre-forward against Bordeaux, Deschamps tried a little experiment. Gignac was surprisingly positioned out on the left with Brandao in the middle of Marseille’s frequently tweaked 4-3-3 formation.

Asked about the decision, Deschamps said: “I was champion of Europe with Rudi Völler on the left and Alan Boksic at centre-forward. I have seen Eto’o and Rooney play wide. Lisandro does it at Lyon and Mamad Niang did it here last season scoring goals.”

Gignac thrived in the greater freedom of his new role. He scored after 23 minutes, appearing at the far post to tap in a cross. The Vélodrome cherry had finally been popped and much like with Pringles, Gignac now couldn’t stop. Three days later, stationed out on the left again, he cut inside and scored an exquisite curling winner from outside of the box away to Auxerre, putting Marseille through to the League Cup Final.

If the streak continues, a re-call to the France squad in time for February’s friendly with Brazil might well be on the cards. Should that happen, the family will no doubt be celebrating again, just like they did when André-Pierre’s mother Corinne won €100,000 on the French version of Deal or No Deal. But maybe don’t bank on it just yet. He’s still in debt to the Marseille fans.

The FA Cup’s father was a hamster and its mother smelt of elderberries

James Horncastle — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 10:00:00 GMT

Guy Lacombe walked out of the dressing room, his moustache twitching with rage. The beleaguered Monaco coach had a bone to pick. Someone evidently was about to be on the end of a tongue-lashing.

He spied the journalists in the mixed zone and the match officials warming down in the tunnel. “It’s all your fault,” Lacombe raged, pointing his finger at both of them. The 55-year-old knew his time was up. He was a dead man walking. The guillotine lay in wait. This was one defeat too many, a humiliation.

Just a few minutes earlier the Monaco players had walked off the pitch in Chambéry, their faces utterly disconsolate. This town was supposed to be famous for skiing not football. And yet its amateur team, a member of French football’s fifth tier, had remarkably forced extra-time then penalties and won 3-2 (the decisive spot-kick and ensuing scenes of surprisingly reserved celebration can be seen in the brilliantly shot video below...). While the Chambéry players celebrated reaching the last 32 of the French Cup for only the third time in their history, Lacombe caught a whiff of conspiracy.

Paranoia had set in. He sensationally claimed to have been the latest victim of a “populist drift” within the media and the game itself to see the little teams go through. After all, last weekend’s round of games in the cup wasn’t so much an occasion for giant killing as mass extermination.

A record 10 teams from Ligue 1 were eliminated at the first time of asking. No fewer than eight fell at the hands of lower league opposition and two more needed spot kicks to see them through. Imagine Motty’s little face had that happened in England. In terms of magic, the Coupe de France was playing David Copperfield to the FA Cup’s Paul Daniels.

With the world turned on its head and Lacombe now sacked, Frédéric Antonetti was hailed as an unlikely saviour after leading first division Rennes to a 7-0 win at home to third division Cannes. That’s more like it, wrote L’Équipe, who even went so far as to call his side “the heroes of Ligue 1.” Things were clearly getting quite desperate.

Asked to explain the woes of his fellow top-flight managers, Antonetti sighed: “You can see that the Coupe de France matches are very complicated when teams are coming back from a 10-day break and a week of training. It’s rough. The coaches are cannon fodder in this competition and I find it deplorable. It’s a shame to play the Cup in the first week of January. I defend my profession and I am perhaps the only one.”

So a lack of preparation was to blame, then? Well not if you take the case of Paris FC coach Jean-Luc Vannuchi, who started the domino effect a week ago today. Seemingly under no illusion as to the task awaiting his third division side who had been drawn against last year’s semi-finalists Toulouse, the bright young tactician gave each of his players a rather odd Christmas present before the winter break.

It was a USB stick on which there was a specific training regime to follow over the next week or so as well as footage of Toulouse’s last two matches in Ligue 1 against Caen and Valenciennes. The tactics were laid out in advance too. “The idea was that of leaving the ball to Toulouse,” Vanucchi explained. “Because they are less at ease when they have to take the initiative.” Paris FC were so well-equipped for the task at hand, it mattered little that a thief nicked off with one of their kit bags at Toulouse-Bagnac airport.

Vannuchi’s acute eye for detail paid dividends. Youssouf Touré’s opener looked a little untidy, come as it did via a long ball, but Paris FC’s second had its origin on the training ground with Stephen Vincent doubling his side’s advantage through a well worked set piece that caught Toulouse cold.

The match ended 2-1 and incredibly it was déjà vu for the home side who had lost to the same opponent by the very same scoreline three years ago. For Toulouse, the magic of the cup appeared to turn match day into Groundhog Day.

Of course, preparation alone isn’t always enough. Motivation can often prove the difference in knock-out ties and Wasquehal certainly weren’t lacking in that department. Like Chambéry, here was a team from France’s fifth tier. Before Saturday’s game against Champions League qualifiers Auxerre, the club’s president Gérard Vignoble, who also happens to be Wasquehal’s mayor, started an ugly war of words with Lille over the proposed use of their ground for the cup-tie.

Mindful of the fact that their own home has neither floodlights, or stands, Wasquehal felt Lille would graciously lend the club a stage on which to host a cup upset. They had after-all shared the stadium in Villeneuve d’Ascq, if only briefly in 2004. Lille, the Ligue 1 leaders, consented but begrudgingly and questioned whether Wasquehal would bring enough supporters to make it worthwhile. Needless to say, it didn’t go down well with Vignoble.

“We have always lived in Lille’s shadow and Lille don’t respect us,” he scoffed. “They are profoundly incapable of interesting themselves in lower league football.”

Vignoble pettily brought up old history too, recalling how Lens rather than Lille had come to Wasquehal’s rescue when the club nearly folded in 1999. The reply he got from Lille president Michel Seydoux was entertaining if predictable. He was told in no uncertain terms that if there really is such a great relationship with Lens president Gervais Martel, then why not play at his house.

Wasquehal had done a lot of talking. It was now time for action. The odds were stacked against them, something Rémi N’Dong, the team’s defender, knew only too well having recently completed a master’s degree in finance. Ironically, however, for a team that included a pair of bankers, Wasquehal’s 2-1 win resembled a stick-up.

L’Équipe even likened it to one of France’s most famous heists, namely that of Albert Spaggiari whose robbery of the Nice branch of Société Générale in 1976 was known as the steal of the century. Auxerre had gone 1-0 up early doors only for Grégoire Debuchy to equalise after 81 minutes and David Coulibaly to seal a famous victory with an injury time penalty. It was pure smash and grab.

As fate would have it the draw for the next round pits Wasquehal against Lille. Smiling like a Cheshire cat, Vignoble now has his revenge while Debuchy will get to face his brother Mathieu.

And if that wasn’t enough for one crazy weekend, what with Montpellier, Saint-Étienne, Arles, and Valenciennes all having their pants pulled down and no doubt being taunted in Monty Python fashion, Sunday night delivered another surprise, not least because the headlines wrote themselves. Evian, no less, beat a watered down Marseille side on a waterlogged pitch to record a deserved 3-1 victory.

Looking pretty in pink, the Ligue 2 leaders’ found a hero in Kevin Bérigaud, the provider of an assist and a goal, who had once nearly been kicked out of the club after he received an eight-month ban for punching a Chambéry player in the final of the Rhônes-Alpes Cup three years ago. “I am happy for Kev,” said the club’s president Patrick Trotignon. “He must be happy. Happier than the others.”

As for Marseille, it has now been a month and a half since Didier Deschamps’ side last won a game against French opposition of any kind.

But let’s forget that for a minute, as the weekend undoubtedly belonged to the Coupe de France. One could quite easily be mistaken for thinking that the FA Cup has the exclusive rights to something as ubiquitous as magic. After all, this season’s promotional video entitled Pride, Passion, History, Giant Killing tells us repeatedly and quite convincingly too that the supernatural happens every year, even amid growing scepticism about its relevance.

Still, the likes of Stevenage, Notts County, Torquay United and Burton Albion all honoured its name at the weekend. They doffed their respective caps to the legends of Ronnie Radford, Bob Stokoe, Sutton United and of course the Crazy Gang. But the idea that the magic circle is closed to anyone from outside these hallowed borders is less to do with truth and more with illusion.

A worthy response would be a Gallic shrug and, believe you me, the French Connection is doing just that right now while also muttering under its breath that the FA Cup’s father was a hamster and its mother smelt of elderberries. Pah!

What is wrong with Yoann Gourcuff?

James Horncastle — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:06:00 GMT

Yoann Gourcuff has carried a weight of expectation on his shoulders ever since he was a local ping-pong champion aged 12 in Morbihan. But the scale of the pressure that the France international is currently burdened with is arguably unlike any he has experienced before.

When Gourcuff moved from Bordeaux to Lyon late in the summer in a transfer that could well end up costing Jean-Michel Aulas as much as €26.5m, the gates to the Stade de Gerland were opened up to allow 15,000 adoring fans to witness France’s first ever Gálactico-like unveiling. The 24-year-old described the whole affair as “pleasant” but “embarrassing” before telling the assembled journalists: “I don’t consider myself to be the messiah.”

And yet after 18 months of treating Gourcuff as the second coming, some are now beginning to wonder whether he is in fact a false idol. It wouldn’t be the first time France has been taken in by the charm of a playmaker with the face and feet of an angel. After all, for every Zinedine Zidane and Michel Platini there is usually a Philippe Vercruysse and Jean-Marc Ferreri left by the wayside. Both were without doubt talented playmakers who ultimately dazzled only to deceive. And just like Gourcuff they each won a league title at Bordeaux, something that eluded Zidane, which is surely more of a coincidence than a bad omen. Yet the sudden fall off in Gourcuff’s performances this year means the possibility is at least now being considered.

Between August 2008 and December 2009, his rise was seemingly irresistible. Gourcuff’s star was in the ascendancy like few others in the world at the time. Two magical goals against Toulouse and Paris Saint-Germain showed a Houdini-like appreciation for escapology, the skill and conception of which prompted France to let out a collective gasp of “oh là là là, c’est magnifique.”

The jaw of the French press was on the floor, it’s tongue wagging. “Gourcuff isn’t the new Zidane. He is Zidane,” read one headline. His 12 goals and 10 assists inspired Bordeaux to their first title in a decade. And initially at least Gourcuff’s form was carried into the national team too, his 30-yard screamer against Romania in October 2008 saving Raymond Domenech’s job after France’s early exit from the European Championship that summer.

He seemed to be the complete package, both on and off the pitch. Gourcuff’s clean-cut image and good looks served to make his appeal stretch way beyond the game itself, yet any risk of a Beckham-like phenomenon within France were curtailed by a desire for privacy that stemmed from his childhood being firmly rooted in football.

Gourcuff was also the thinking fan’s crumpet. While at Bordeaux, he lived at No 21 on the Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau and according to Julien, the waiter at Gourcuff’s local café: “Yoann read books never newspapers.” Take into account his father Christian’s past as a player and present as an aesthetically minded coach at Lorient, then Yoann’s graduation from Rennes, the best academy in France, and subsequent two-year spell at Milan, and it’s fair to say Gourcuff’s education in football appeared to be second to none.

When asked why he’d decided to make Gourcuff the second biggest signing in Lyon’s history, Aulas smiled: “It’s the kind of thing that happens once in a lifetime.” Yet while the high-profile investment would have once looked like a guarantee of success with no risk entailed, it now bore a greater resemblance to a leap of faith, the hope being that 2010 has been an aberration in Gourcuff’s career so far. A study published earlier this month laid bare the scale of his Année Noire in all its miserable detail.

Astonishingly, Gourcuff has won just 30 per cent of his matches in 2010, scoring half as many goals and laying on half as many assists as he did last year. Ranked 151st in L’Équipe’s individual player ratings with an average score of just 4.73 out of 10, the extent of his poor form was put into even starker relief.

“His balance is mixed,” said Jacques Crevoisier, a respected psychologist who worked as Gerard Houllier’s assistant at Liverpool. “He is not decisive in spite of the enormous attention that he sparks. He has cost a lot of money. He plays very deep. He often takes several touches of the ball before passing. He is inconsistent. He doesn’t justify his transfer at the moment.”

France’s investigation into Gourcuff’s malaise has been a forensic one with no stone being left unturned in the effort to discover the reasons he has become a shadow of his former self. A page of Carlo Ancelotti’s autobiography, I prefer the Cup, in which he described Gourcuff as a “strange lad” who was both “egocentric” and “a little mad” was quoted at length.

Paolo Maldini was interviewed before Auxerre’s Champions League match with Milan on the 25th anniversary of his European debut at the Abbé-Deschamps. His opinion of Gourcuff was candid to say the least. “He got it 100 per cent wrong at Milan,” Maldini said. “Yoann’s problem was his behaviour. He didn’t study Italian at all. He didn’t want to work on tactics. He wasn’t always on time. A lot of things happened. But he knows very well what he did.”

The Italian perception of Gourcuff simply didn’t correlate with the one held in France. If anything, he had a reputation as a teacher’s pet. “It was completely the opposite,” explained Bordeaux goalkeeper Cédric Carrassso. “He was here an hour before training and worked a lot. It’s true, he had a bad season, but he also had such an exceptional one the year before, it’s tough to stay at the same level.”

Gourcuff had clearly ruffled a few feathers on L’Hexagone, though, primarily because of the timing of his decision to quit Bordeaux, which came late in the transfer window when the season had already started. “The manner in which it happened irritated me coming on the Saturday evening before an important match,” Bordeaux coach Jean Tigana said. “We were coming off two defeats and going to face PSG at the Parc on Sunday. Asking to leave on that day shocked me a little. It could have come on Monday. It would have shown respect to the group. If he is at the level he is today, it’s because of Bordeaux.”

Jean-Louis Triaud, the club president, had also been left with a bitter taste in his mouth, snidely commenting that Gourcuff’s loss would be minimal because there are other players in the team who could take corners. Bordeaux’s Ultra Marines followed that up by drafting a press release insisting that Gourcuff is no longer considered welcome at the Stade Chaban-Delmas and that they were actually more dismayed at Fernando Cavenaghi’s departure to Mallorca. Unsurprisingly he was whistled on his return to the ground in September.

In Gourcuff’s defence, there are mitigating circumstances. Things fell apart at Bordeaux in January when the-then president of the French Football Federation Jean-Pierre Escalettes made it clear that the search for Raymond Domenech’s successor had begun. He made no secret of the fact Laurent Blanc was the No 1 choice to replace him. It destabilised the club, as Blanc’s head was turned and knowing that he was considering his future, some players did too, notably Marouane Chamakh. Bordeaux incredibly threw away a nine-point lead at the top of Ligue 1 and finished sixth. It was an epic collapse, the psychological effects of which are still being felt within the squad today. Gourcuff is no exception.

The World Cup only served to make matters worse. Gourcuff’s confidence had taken a beating even before the flight to South Africa. In the build up to the play-off with the Republic of Ireland, Domenech had stripped him of his set-piece taking duties. He then lost his place in the team on the eve of the finals and started the opening match against Uruguay on the bench. Reports claimed Franck Ribery was bullying Gourcuff. Then came the notorious strike at Knysna and his harsh sending off against South Africa in the final group game. It was a personal nightmare.

When cast in that light Gourcuff’s desire for a new challenge at Lyon appeared acceptable enough. The presence of his friends Jérémy Toulalan and Hugo Lloris would naturally help with his rehabilitation. But Gourcuff unwittingly walked straight into another mess. Lyon made their worst start to a season for 13 years. Claude Puel was given until the end of October to save his job. There was reportedly dissent within the dressing room while the spine of the team itself was mostly missing with the exception of Lloris, as Cris and Lisandro Lopez suffered niggling injury problems and Toulalan needed time to deal with his own inner demons after playing a surprising role in the strike in South Africa.

Suffice to say that Lyon’s current problems haven’t exactly been conducive to Gourcuff finding his feet. The composition of the team has changed so regularly that the development of any chemistry has been difficult. “Yoann needs reference points,” said Lyon director Bernard Lacombe. “At Bordeaux he played with the same players for two years in an identical formation: Fernando, Alou Diarra, Wendel, Chamakh and Gouffran. It’s normal that he has different sensations here. The team alternates between good matches like against Rennes and complicated matches.”

Puel’s dedication to a scientific rotation policy has also seen Gourcuff often replaced before the 90-minute mark, which has frustrated the player in his efforts to find any match rhythm after the World Cup. “Ask the coach why I came off,” Gourcuff said after being replaced against Nancy despite playing well. “I wasn’t knackered. It bothered me.” And yet signs of recovery have been forthcoming. “He’s a lad who is in need of reconstruction,” Blanc said. “His qualities haven’t disappeared.”

Gourcuff has received no special treatment from his former mentor. But Blanc has used him wisely for France, nurturing the player’s confidence with care. He scored from the bench against Romania and from the start against Luxembourg in October, going back to his club on a real high. Gourcuff subsequently found the net in a key match at home to Lille to make it three goals in nine days, only for Puel to undo all of Blanc’s good work by taking him off at half-time against relegation strugglers Arles. Gourcuff was then desperately disappointing in the League Cup against PSG and seemingly back to square one again.

Last week’s events epitomised his year. Just three days after Gourcuff’s best showing of the season in a 3-1 victory away to Lens, where he made an inspirational second half cameo, a spanner was thrown in the works yet again, as he suffered a nasty Achilles injury against Schalke.

Gourcuff now faces a three-week spell on the sidelines, leaving little if no time at all to salvage what has been a rotten 2010. Lyon fans can only shrug their shoulders in dismay. Gourcuff famously once likened himself to a “diesel engine” because of the time it takes for him to get going, but it would appear someone has actually filled his tank up with the wrong fuel, as this year has seen plenty of spluttering and an eventual breakdown.

The faith in Gourcuff’s potential remains, though. “He is the prototype of a Barcelona player,” Xavi told France Football earlier this month. “I adore him.” Nevertheless, Gourcuff now has to lay the doubters to rest. “I don’t agree with the journalists on their analysis of my performances,” he said. ”But one thing is certain. We have yet to see the real Gourcuff.” Meanwhile, France and Lyon are asking if he’ll please stand up, Achilles injury permitting, of course.

Hazard a guess at Liverpool’s next big signing...

James Horncastle — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 10:42:00 GMT

Serendipity is considered one of the top 10 hardest English words to translate, but it’s one that’s all too familiar to football scouts around the world. The annals of football history are littered with examples of one player being watched, often for the final time before a bid is about to be launched, only for another to dramatically steal the show and eclipse him.

Roy Hodgson witnessed just such a moment on Sunday when he accompanied Liverpool scout Laurent Viaud to France for the second time in as many weeks. The pair were in Villeneuve-d-Ascq ostensibly to run the rule over Gervinho, Lille’s skilful Ivory Coast international striker, with whom they were strongly linked in the summer months.

A product of Jean-Marc Guillou’s famous ASEC Abidjan youth academy, which saw nine of its graduates, including the Touré brothers, Salomon Kalou and Emmanuel Eboué all start for the Ivory Coast against Portugal at the World Cup in South Africa, Gervinho missed four goalscoring chances and was ultimately substituted by Ludovic Obraniak with 20 minutes remaining.

But it wasn’t a wasted journey for Hodgson and Viaud, as they made a fortunate discovery while looking for something else entirely, getting to see one of the finest performances from a player in Europe this season. Eden Hazard was later given a nine in L’Équipe for his match-winning display against Monaco, a rating that is extremely rare and can be put into some perspective by the fact that only five players in history have received full marks from the paper’s ever-so-hard to please band of journalists.

The 19-year-old set up Pierre-Alain Frau for Lille’s opener with a stunning mid-air Cruyff turn of an assist. And when Monaco equalised, it took yet more inspiration from Hazard to restore the home side's lead. Operating from his position on the right flank, the Belgium international played a quick one-two with Tulio De Melo then raced to the byline before pulling the ball back accurately for Obraniak, who slotted home the winner, making Lille the sixth team to top the table in France this season.

“When Hazard plays at this level, he is untouchable. His talent is unique in Ligue 1,” wrote L’Équipe. Frau for one was in no position to disagree with that assessment and soon after the match he revealed to Orange Sport just how much his fellow teammates are in awe of the footballer already twice voted Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year. “Eden continues to be mind-blowing,” the veteran grinned. “Sometimes even on the pitch, we say: Wow!”

Hodgson was giving nothing away. “There were a lot of good players on the pitch,” the 63-year-old dourly remarked on his way out of the ground. His peers within the French game found it a little harder to contain their emotions, though. Rolland Courbis, the former Marseille coach and a colourful personality both on and off the pitch, told RMC Sport: “At times it looks to me like Lionel Messi on the right-hand side… I said ‘at times’. He’ll get more consistent with the experience he acquires in the coming years.”

Of course, it’s inconceivable that Hazard hasn’t been on Viaud’s radar and that of his boss, Liverpool’s newly appointed director of football strategy, Damien Comolli, for some considerable time. Tipped as one of the brightest young talents in European football even before making his Ligue 1 debut in 2007 aged just 16, Hazard has always been something of a prodigal talent.

His father Thierry was a former professional footballer in the Belgian second division. But there was no pressure to follow in his footsteps. “We didn’t direct his education in a football sense,” Thierry told France Football in March. “He only started to play football at around four and a half or five-years-old in a club coached by his godfather. One should say that there is a pitch right next to our house! He took to it very quickly and from then onwards it was football, football, football. He broke everything inside and outside the house, trying to reproduce the moves he saw on TV like step overs or Zinedine Zidane’s roulettes.”

In April, Zidane told Spanish paper Marca that he considers Hazard to be the “star of the future,” adding that: “I’d sign him for Real Madrid with my eyes closed.” So it would appear that all the time he spent copying Zizou’s roulettes has actually paid off. But Hazard hasn’t let the many compliments go to his head – far from it in fact - which will certainly be of interest to Comolli who told liverpoolfc.tv on November 15 that he’d had a long conversation with Kenny Dalglish about what it takes to be a Liverpool player, talking more about the “personal character [and] personality aspect” of the players than their talent alone.

Hazard tormented Liverpool in last year's Europa League

“He isn’t arrogant,” Marseille legend Franck Sauzée highlighted on Orange Sport. “He is humble in his comments. He mustn’t change.” The staff at Lille also offer up a glowing report of the player’s character. “He is an extra-terrestrial,” smiled Anne-Sophie Leuliette, who is responsible for teaching the club’s youngsters. “He hasn’t changed a lot since his arrival. He has remained very humble and kind, contrary to the others.”

Hazard’s former mentor Dick Advocaat has raised questions about his apparent lack of charisma. But Lille’s academy director Jean-Michel Vandamme puts that down to Hazard possessing a diligence that is out of the ordinary.

“Eden has a great intellectual honesty,” Vandamme told France Football. “We sometimes have a row about his progress at the academy. When we saw his parents to talk about it, his mother would ask him: ‘Is what Monsieur Vandamme says true’. He would never look for excuses when he didn’t do well on the pitch. He is a real competitor, not a cheat, nor a moaner, because you don’t hear him complaining when he gets fouled.”

And yet Hazard’s inner resolve has been severely tested this season. Lille coach Rudi Garcia left him on the bench for three matches in a row between September 26 and October 17 after a start to the campaign that was only remarkable for its distinct mediocrity. “It was to allow him to breathe and to learn that his performances were insufficient,” Garcia said, explaining his controversial decision.

The player who had drawn comparisons with Enzo Scifo when making his debut for Belgium aged 17 was now on the fringes of the national team. The leading light of a golden generation was left in the stands against Kazakhstan on October 8 and played just 10 minutes as a second half substitute against Austria a few days later.

“I like Eden a lot,” Belgium manager Georges Leekens said. “But he must work more. For the moment he is in a haze at Lille where he is often on the bench. It’s up to him to work physically and mentally. I am not here to hand out gifts. I am here to motivate because Belgium needs a great Eden.”

Unsurprisingly to Vandamme his pupil has managed to turn it around.

The Belgian has lead Lille to the summit of Ligue 1

After all, Hazard has been directly or indirectly involved in seven of Lille’s last 11 goals. His insatiable run of form over the last month has provided the catalyst to his side’s season. They had been stuttering despite going unbeaten in their first seven matches in all competitions.

Last year’s best attack in Ligue 1 - the one that had averaged nearly four goals a game between November 28 2009 and January 17 2010 - was struggling to catch fire. Lille scored just twice in their opening four matches. And when they did find the net four times in one game, it was misleading because it came against beleaguered Lens who were reduced to nine men. Immediately after that result Les Dogues lost to Sporting Lisbon in the Europa League and although they bounced back with a 1-0 victory over Auxerre, Moussa Sow readily admitted that his winning goal was offside.

Back-to-back defeats to Lyon and Marseille were all too familiar given Lille’s poor record against France’s ‘big’ clubs, but a 2-2 draw away to Levski Sofia was the lowest ebb with Garcia calling the performance “catastrophic.” He joined the country in questioning the club’s ambition. Lille needed a spark and it came from Hazard.

On November 7, he helped open the deadlock that was Brest’s defence, a watertight backline that hadn’t been breached in 832 minutes. Then he orchestrated a 5-2 demolition of Caen. Sunday’s sublime performance against Monaco, his best of the season so far, came just three days after a 500km trip to Voronezh where he made his comeback for Belgium, contributing to an unexpected 2-0 win signed by Romelu Lukaku. “In my opinion, he is back again,” Marc Wilmots said. “He is a lot better since the electric shock, which made him take a lot of things into consideration.”

Asked to reveal what has changed, Hazard himself said: “Nothing. I keep working at training and I knew that I’d come back.” And if he can maintain this level of performance for the rest of the season in tandem with the likes of Adil Rami, Yohan Cabaye, Moussa Sow and Gervinho, Lille could well make a breakthrough and win Ligue 1 for the first time since 1954. Then it won’t just be Damien Comolli sending a fax to Lille president Michel Seydoux.

Yet luring Hazard away from Villeneuve-d-Ascq won’t be easy. He has a contract until June 2014, which protects his value, but also more importantly it underlines his commitment to the club. “Eden has told us very interesting things,” Seydoux explained. “He wants to see the new ground [which is due to open in 2012] and we wish to see the new ground with Eden Hazard on the pitch.” Pundits such as Christophe Dugarry also feel that Lille’s presence away from the spotlight is good for his long-term development, citing Hatem Ben Arfa’s experiences at Marseille where the media pressure is immense. “It’s not bad for Lille and Hazard to stay a little longer in the shadows,” he wrote

There is a sense, though, that sooner or later, he will have to move on. “Eden is a talent, but he can’t be eternally considered as such,” Advocaat said last week. “He must find new motivation. A new club for example.” Whether that new club is Liverpool remains to be seen.

French annus horribilis ends with echoes of past and promise for future

James Horncastle — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:42:00 GMT

L’Équipe billed it as the 100 years squabble, a century of fierce sporting rivalry seasoned inevitably with the history that links England and France so intrinsically as noisy neighbours.

“Never forget Agincourt,” read one editorial, while another predictably mentioned Waterloo, both famous French defeats. And yet the psychology, something Laurent Blanc values so much, was clear for all to see. The country’s pride was still stinging.

“To interest a Frenchman in a boxing match, you must tell him that his national honour is at stake,” wrote André Maurois. “To interest an Englishman in a war, you must suggest to him that it resembles a boxing match.”

A friendly this clearly wasn’t, even if Frank Leboeuf said “When you hear God Save the Queen you feel English.” The undeniable French influence at Arsenal and Chelsea was cited as evidence of a footballing Entente Cordiale. But in all honesty it has been more of a rapprochement.

David Ginola recalled the amateurism at Newcastle United in the 1990s. “Some bus trips home lasted five or six hours,” he smiled. “We often stopped en route to eat fish and chips wrapped in newspaper.” Emmanuel Petit admitted that he knew he’d landed in England when Carlton Palmer tried to “cut off” his leg in a match against Southampton, breaking his shin guards.

The gloves officially came off, at least among the French media, when Fabio Capello’s press conference on Tuesday focused primarily on the Royal engagement and England’s 2018 World Cup bid. “The indifference of the British journalists towards the French team” was duly noted, as was the fact no translator was provided.

“The breakfast available to journalists gave some idea of the sense of British hospitality,” scoffed an article on L’Équipe’s website, which no doubt reinforces French stereotypes as much as English ones.

Blanc was doing his best to be diplomatic, though. “It’s still the England team,” he said. “They are better than us in the FIFA world rankings. I think that this team is part of the top 10 European teams. It’s not the case with us.” Even so, the French weren’t going to roll over. “There is not the same pressure for a result than in an official match,” he added. “I hope that it’s a good match. It’s prestigious. Interesting to play in of course. Interesting to win.”

Blanc was under no illusion as to the moment this encounter afforded him. The 44-year-old only played once against England – at Wembley on February 10 1999, when France incredibly still had to prove that they were worthy of their World Cup win.

Roger Lemerre had just taken over from Aime Jacquet and was remembered for being one of the ‘choirboys’ who had suffered a chastening 5-0 defeat to England 30 years earlier. France had never previously done better than a 2-2 draw at Wembley in 1951, but this time it would be different.

Didier Deschamps called it the “perfect match”. He also later described Nicolas Anelka as “our Ronaldo” and with good reason. The 19-year-old scored a stunning brace of goals, his first coming off a wonderful assist from Zinedine Zidane.

The then Arsenal striker could have bagged a third too if the woodwork hadn’t denied him in a way it didn’t Geoff Hurst in 1966. France won emphatically 2-0. The performance was exalted as the best of that era, and Blanc would have been mindful of it in the build-up, perhaps in the hope that Karim Benzema would have a night like Anelka.

The Real Madrid striker has already prompted Blanc to adapt his philosophy. On August 26, he said: “A player cannot hope to play for France if they don’t play regularly for their club.” The coach of Les Bleus reiterated his stance after Benzema twice opened the scoring in 2-0 victories over Bosnia and then Luxembourg in September and October. “He must play at Real. I have told Karim that he must be on top to impose himself. He must put all his cards to one side to seize his chance. There will be one.”

And yet though increasingly decisive from the Madrid bench, Benzema is still not a starter, and Blanc has had to soften his position. “Find me another international centre-forward who plays at a big club and scores goals,” he challenged reporters on Tuesday. “Benzema is our best centre-forward. I can talk to him about how he can become better, but I can’t intervene in his career choices.”

Such a situation is not uncommon in French football history. “I was faced with the same question with Eric Cantona when he didn’t play at Marseille and I made him play for France,” Michel Platini explained. “But I thought he was the best. So if Blanc thinks that Benzema is the best then he should make him play.”

On last night’s showing, one would find it hard to argue with that assessment. Benzema may have tried Blanc’s patience last month, turning up late for training camp, which subsequently resulted in a fine and a punishment that consisted of singing a song in front of his teammates, but the 23-year-old underlined his natural ability at Wembley.

Benzema lasted just 67 minutes, but his interplay fizzed amid the kinetic energy of France’s other attacking players, whose movement and one-touch football was indicative of their greater technical quality than England’s players.

Vitally for a striker, he took his chance when it arrived and once again opened the scoring for France. Benzema’s pinpoint finish in the 16th minute belied no sign of rustiness. All things considered, he looked well-oiled – like the team as a whole.

High 10: Scorers Benzema and Valbuena

Wearing Adidas for the last time before a kit deal with Nike comes into effect, ending a much-storied relationship that stretches back to 1972, France shed their skin. For a time it looked as though the abiding image of Les Bleus this year would be drab football and Raymond Domenech stood on a hill in Knysna like a sad puppet, reading out a statement written by his players who were striking in protest at the treatment of Nicolas Anelka.

Instead, it ended on a high note. France are playing with a joie de vivre again. Samir Nasri hinted as much about the new mood in the camp on Saturday when he told L’Équipe: “There is a real team spirit and a lot more contact with the staff. Jean-Louis Gasset, the assistant coach, talks a lot. He jokes. It’s good.

"All the coaches know their job. It simply wasn’t like that before. Today, even when we play PlayStation, the coach comes to see us play to take the mickey out of us. He watches our matches and says: ‘If only you could do that on the pitch...’.”

To Blanc, building a new spirit within the group was his No.1 priority, and it appears to be developing well – although it remains to be seen what effect the reintegration of the strike’s ringleaders has on the squad (as alluded to by Bixente Lizarazu when Eric Abidal was called up) and, lest we forget, the recent dispute over bonuses.

As for the team’s style of play, last night saw the return of the one-two and was of course the first time Yoann Gourcuff and Samir Nasri have started together. It wasn’t quite the carré magique of Platini and Alain Giresse, but did at least show that Blanc wants to play good football like he did at Bordeaux and feels confident enough to dare a little after the racking up a string of wins.

While he has expressed his admiration for Barcelona, the model remains that of Germany. Interviewed in yesterday’s La Gazzetta dello Sport, Blanc said: “In 10 years, they archived the physical play for the fluid kind as seen at the World Cup.”

But it’s still early days. Blanc’s reaction to last night’s 2-1 victory was “above all optimistic, but not euphoric,” and that is the right tone to set. Yet the turnaround is welcome. Le Figaro’s headline summed up the mood on L’Hexagone this morning: “Les Bleus’ annus horribilis ends with the pledge of a happy future.” Indeed it does.

PSG turn 40, Giuly strips and the hate turns to love

James Horncastle — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:37:00 GMT

Before all greetings cards became a 1950s setting of domestic bliss juxtaposed with a lewd speech bubble, the greetings written inside were sweet and innocent, wishing you all the best with unbridled optimism. One nauseatingly hopeful message became a cliche in its own right: ‘Life begins at 40’.

So when Paris Saint-Germain hit the Big Four-Oh this year, even France Football felt compelled to ask: "Can it be the start of a different story?" Of course, such an open and ambiguous question is a catch-all loaded with meaning, as it not only hints at a new dawn and today being the first day of the rest of your life, but also that a page needs turning and that it’s time the past was put to one side.

Mid-life crisis doesn’t even begin to describe the situation at PSG in the last few years. "It’s a club where things have happened in 40 years that don’t happen to others in 400," wrote L’Equipe. Indeed, celebrations marking the anniversary of PSG’s inception on August 27, 1970 had at their centre the ambition of becoming a national power again – an ambition, pundits mockingly add, that the club appears to have every summer.

It’s certainly no exaggeration to suggest that last season was a rollercoaster both on and off the pitch. PSG were second after four games, only to finish in 13th place. Sebastien Bazin, the club’s majority shareholder, was so angry that he stormed into the dressing room after a 2-2 draw against Valenciennes in May and raged: "I don’t think you understand the financial consequences of our final position in the championship."

HITTING ROCK BOTTOM

PSG didn’t win any of their last six games of the campaign, their slide down the table costing an estimated €3m in prize money. So it’s really little wonder that Bazin was still doing the rounds as recently as this week, calling for players’ wages to be reduced and more emphasis to be put on performance related bonuses.

To borrow a headline from L’Equipe, PSG did at least manage to save their season with another victory in the French Cup, their third triumph this decade also booking a place in Europe. But even that achievement had to be taken with a pinch of salt as they met just two Ligue 1 teams in six rounds, beating such domestic minnows as Aubervilliers, Evian, Vesoul and Quevilly en route to the final.

Speaking in July, PSG’s coach Antoine Kombouare – a living relic of the club’s 1990s glory days when his ‘golden helmet’ helped complete one of the greatest comebacks in the history of European club football – was under no illusion as to the scale of the task ahead of him. "I’ve had pressure since the very start," he said. "But I know that having the same season this year is not allowed."

It was an aberration off the pitch, too. Nike and PSG were on trial for allegedly hiding payments between 1998 and 2005 to attract top players like Nicolas Anelka and Gabriel Heinze to the Parc des Princes. But the nadir came in February when a second PSG supporter in three and a half years was killed, this time before the Clasico against Marseille in violent fratricidal clashes between the Boulogne Kop with its racist element and the Auteuil stand with its ethnic minorities.

"Once again it’s the club’s image which suffers," the goalkeeper Gregory Coupet said. "At a sporting level, we feel strongly responsible because if there had been good results there maybe wouldn’t have been all these problems and this rise in violence. It’s also a reflection on society. People fear police less and less and that creates riots."

So PSG’s 40th year was also Year Zero – time to go and take a good hard look in the mirror and reassess everything. Club president Robin Leproux implemented a courageous plan called ‘Everyone PSG’ whereby 13,000 season tickets in the Boulogne and Auteuil ends were prevented from being renewed to root out the hooligans and pacify the Parc, while families were welcomed to sit in the lower tier behind the goal with an attractive ticketing operation.

"If we don’t take these measures," he said. "The club’s future is in danger." But as Coupet had said, the team itself had a role to play – winning games would help alleviate the tension. Marseille midfielder Edouard Cisse, whose decade at PSG was punctuated with loan spells at Rennes, West Ham and Monaco, indicated as much only last month, joking that: "When things go bad in Paris, they go really bad. But when things go well, they go really well."

BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME

Mindful that PSG’s very credibility was at stake after just two top-five finishes in 10 years - the most recent coming in 2004 - and that sponsors or potential investors were also beginning to shy away from the club, its much-maligned owners Colony Capital were wary of investing any more money in the playing staff. The purse strings were prised open just enough to sign three players at a cost of £7.9m.

The most important was Nene - the lithe playmaker brought in from Monaco - whose ability to play on the left-hand side resolved a problem PSG have been wrestling with since they fell out with Jerome Rothen. The Brazilian’s arrival brought balance to the side, as it allowed Kombouare to move Stephane Sessegnon back to his preferred position on the right.

Sessegnon, Sakho & Nene find the formula

It sounds simple, but PSG were no longer putting square pegs in round holes, as they now had four specialists in four offensive positions – a lefty, a righty and a big-man/little-man partnership up front in Guillaume Hoarau and Mevlut Erdinc.

But Nene was immediately cast as the difference-maker, the heir to PSG’s other great Brazilians like Valdo, Leonardo and of course Rai, the protagonist of their last league title in 1994 and the club’s back-to-back appearances in the Cup Winners’ Cup final. Nene scored 14 goals last season, and laid on four assists.

Yet his ability from set-pieces perhaps showed that PSG were following the path to success trodden by Bordeaux and Marseille who based their recent title triumphs on being dangerous from corners and free-kicks via Yoann Gourcuff and Lucho Gonzalez.

"Nene gets us out of bad situations," said fellow summer signing Mathieu Bodmer. "He always scores a lot of goals, but he also draws many fouls and gets a number of free-kicks. Two defenders concentrate on him, which leaves more space for the others."

The initial indications were good too, as PSG beat Marseille on penalties to win the French equivalent of the Charity Shield in Tunisia and then opened their league campaign with a 3-1 win against Saint-Etienne in front of just 22,689 spectators, the lowest crowd for that fixture at the Parc des Princes for 10 years, a clear by-product of the new security measures. The atmosphere may have suffered, but the intentions were good and the results improving.

After starting the season with a three-match unbeaten run, true to form PSG lost three on the bounce. History was repeating itself. "We have to find out how PSG will cope with the crisis periods," Auxerre coach Jean Fernandez opined. Kombouare then did something inspired. Rather than throw the baby out with the bath water, he merely reshuffled his pack, striking upon a winning formula.

OUT OF ADVERSITY

The 4-4-2 was retained, but Siaka Tiene, the last of PSG’s summer signings, was thrown in at the deep end – or more precisely at left-back, where he replaced Sylvain Armand, whom Kombouare asked to move into the middle to partner the club’s 20-year-old academy product Mamadou Sakho.

PSG captain Claude Makelele had postponed his plans to retire in the summer to play one final season and wasn’t about to let it go south so soon. The former Chelsea man revealed how he told Sakho: "I've played with defenders who made strikers scared. You must become like them!"

A goalkeeping change was also in the offing with Apoula Edel coming in for Coupet. The 24-year-old occasional Armenia international from Cameroon looked shaky when called upon last season, especially after his former coach made the stunning allegation in December that he is actually 29 and someone else altogether, namely Ambroise Beyamena. But he has proven to be one of Ligue 1’s best shot stoppers this year.

Kombouare’s tinkering also saw two players who had been told they could leave in the summer surprisingly welcomed back into the fold. For a time it looked like Ludovic Giuly’s only highlights of the season would be an impromptu strip in a Parisian bar, but he has since ousted Sessegnon on the right and faintly resembles the player who won a Champions League winners’ medal with Barcelona.

Meanwhile Clement Chantome, the archetypal modern midfielder who ironically looked like yesterday’s news, took advantage of Bodmer’s injury problems to revive his career and earn a call-up to the France squad.

What happened next was a distinctly un-PSG revival, or at least one that hasn’t been seen since Vahid Halihodzic made very similar changes in the 2003-04 campaign: club aficionados should read Gabi Heinze for Tiene, Frederic Dehu for Armand and Jerome for Edel. That team went on to finish second, something Kombouare no doubt hopes to replicate.

BACK IN THE BIG TIME

Immediately after the changes, his side kept seven straight clean-sheets and got back on the podium. When PSG beat Marseille 2-1 in Ligue 1 for the first time in six years at the Parc des Princes on November 7, L’Equipe’s headline screamed "Paris are candidates". They had dominated the champions, Nene’s assist for Hoarau being put forward as Exhibit A in the case for the club to be considered a serious title contender. PSG had made the jump in quality. After all, they had only recently knocked Lyon out of the League Cup.

So naturally the question everyone is asking is: are PSG for real? The party line is that a top-five finish remains the club’s objective. But Kombouare’s ability to dig deep into his squad and find the answers to turn things around suggests that PSG have greater depth than in recent years, although it’s no secret that the manager would still like to sign an orthodox centre-back like his former Valenciennes protege Milan Bisevac.

As of yet, PSG have shown they can cope relatively well on three fronts – despite losing three times after midweek commitments in the Europa League, in which they have beaten Sevilla and held Borussia Dortmund at home and away already this season.

The chief concern has lain up front. Before the Clasico, Hoarau and Erdinc had scored just twice in the same match together. Indeed, despite their apparent compatibility on paper – the former being tall and good in the air, the latter being short and full of running – Hoarau and Erdinc only exchanged four passes against Marseille and have seven goals between them in Ligue 1. The chemistry is lacking.

The pair’s confidence was in pieces at the start of the month. PSG supporters whistled Erdinc against Dortmund while just a few days later Hoarau was even seen crying after being substituted away to Montpellier. (In case you're wondering, Nene is the team’s top scorer.)

But in some respects Hoarau and Erdinc are exactly why PSG are unbeaten in their last six matches, because though they rarely make the team win, they both ensure the side is difficult to beat, the Frenchman’s height coming in handy at defensive set-pieces and the Turk’s stamina proving invaluable for pressing.

For now, it seems PSG are finally a team again. Side is definitively put before self. Sunday’s 90th-minute equaliser at Lorient showed the spirit within the camp, indicating that the psychological barrier has been crossed. The hate that had once so insidiously enveloped the club now appears to have been channeled in a positive way: "It’s the hate of defeat," says Kombouare with a wry smile.

Today PSG lie fourth in the standings, but with just eight points separating first and 19th place in Ligue 1, crisis is never far away in the tightest title race in Europe.

Biscuits, liquidators & drugs cartels

James Horncastle — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 11:19:00 GMT

Oscar Ewolo is a trained pastor. But most of his sermons come in the dressing room. The 32-year-old’s congregation is Brest, which incidentally is the team he captains, his church the Stade Francis-Le Blé - the unlikely setting of a football miracle on Saturday night.

It was third versus fourth in Ligue 1, Brest against Saint-Étienne, a top of the table clash by default after Marseille’s eagerly anticipated match against Rennes was postponed following a rainstorm of truly biblical proportions flooded the pitch at the Stade Vélodrome.

Here was a chance to scale the summit of French football, a feat newly promoted Brest had only achieved once before in their history on August 12, 1986 at a time when François Yvinec, an entrepreneur who made his fortune selling biscuits, was famously at the helm.

His colourful story is a cautionary tale and one that only serves to make Brest’s recent achievements all the more remarkable, for Yvinec had delusions of grandeur, a Napoleon complex even, and would fly so close to the sun that it was only a matter of time before his wings were burnt and those of Brest too.

As is so often the case with football owners keen to make a splash, he sought adulation for signing the exotic. After luring José Luis Brown, the hard-tackling defender who scored the opening goal that would set Argentina on their way to victory in the 1986 World Cup final, Yvinec then brought in Jorge Higuaín, father of Gonzalo, the Real Madrid striker, who would be born in Brest a year later.

Seemingly reluctant to rely on the local talent pool that would consistently furnish Brest with some of the finest French players of a generation, like Paul Le Guen, then Bernard Lama and David Ginola, the biscuit man very nearly bit off more than he could chew when he reacted in a knee-jerk fashion to his side being second from bottom in the table midway through the 1987-88 season.

Yvinec daringly travelled across the Atlantic to Colombia with the intention of signing Roberto Cabañas, the free-scoring Paraguay international striker who played for América de Cali, a club owned by the city’s notorious drugs cartel then at the height of its power.

Having inspired América to the Copa Libertadores final three years in a row, Cabañas was their star player and one that wouldn’t be given up lightly. Yvinec agreed a fee of $555,000 and drew up a contract only for the Colombians to decide that Cabañas had been undervalued and could fetch much more.

They declared the contract invalid and sensationally ‘detained’ the Brest president for several weeks. Somehow, though, Yvinec managed to escape in a private jet, hopping from Bogota to Caracas then Madrid, his bravado becoming the stuff of legend once it emerged that Cabañas was actually on the plane with him.

Welcomed back to France much like a hostage freed from captivity, Yvinec was immediately brought back down to earth with a bump when FIFA declared Cabañas ineligible to play the remainder of the campaign. His trip had been in vain.

Brest had already filled their quota of foreign players for the season and by the time Cabañas was available to make his debut, the team had been relegated.

Brest would bounce straight back, briefly adding to their ranks another Argentine, the penalty-saving hero from Italia `90, Sergio Goycochea. But even his superstition of urinating on the pitch for good luck couldn’t save the club from oblivion. It didn’t take a trip to Colombia to work out that Yvinec was recklessly dancing on the edge of a volcano.

In 1991, Brest finished 11th in Ligue 1, yet they were demoted for financial irregularities and shortly afterwards the liquidators moved in. The club folded with debts Le Monde claimed to be worth around €150m.

It was a tragedy. Brest is a football town. Its inhabitants don’t care for rugby and the like. “Football is the only sport that is played unanimously here,” a supporter told the newspaper Libération. “Obviously after having the Bolshoi at home, it’s hard to settle for a street theatre.”

But that’s exactly what they had to endure as Brest were re-formed, starting from scratch at the bottom of the ladder. In 1999 the slogan was “Ligue 2 in 2002”. It would take another couple of years to make that humble dream a reality, the architect being a young Franck Ribéry.

So it’s certainly no exaggeration to say that the road back to France’s top flight has been a long and arduous one, 19 years to be exact. Brest finally earned their historic promotion on May 8 with a 2-0 victory over Tours, naturally prompting thousands to congregate in the Place de la Liberté and party into the early hours.

While the revelers were still nursing their hangovers, Brest president Michel Guyot and his coach Alex Dupont met to plan for the upcoming season. It was a sober discussion in stark contrast to the one then being held in Arles, who sacked their manager, brought him back, signed 18 new players, some with big reputations, and sacked their manager again after winning promotion.

Brest quietly went about their business, going against the established wisdom, adopting an approach that couldn’t have been any more different from the disastrous one adopted two decades earlier by François Yvinec.

Stability was now the club’s motto. “Here the president presides, the coach coaches and the players play,” Dupont explained. “We have one ambition and that’s building with patience.”

Brest decided to keep practically the same team, showing confidence in the lads who had got them to the Promised Land. The players they did buy were undistinguished; the new recruits being three unknowns, plus a talented yet unproven youngster, an amateur midfielder and a back-up goalkeeper - hardly the kind of transfer campaign that inspires confidence.

In all, only three players on Brest’s squad had any experience of Ligue 1. France Football unsurprisingly tipped Dupont’s side to finish between 15th and 20th in the table. “This is our job,” he said. “We don’t have the means to do otherwise. It’s not the richest team that wins, nor the poorest. It’s the most enthusiastic. I want the lads to smile in the morning when they come to training.”

And yet the cynics appeared to be right, as Brest failed to win any of their opening three games. They were playing the same kind of open and expansive football that saw them finish top scorers in Ligue 2 last season. Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas expressed his admiration of their style, but his praise meant little to Dupont.

“Aulas’s words were flattering,” he sighed. “But they set me thinking and it led me to a reflection: I couldn’t admit that we played well because in the end we lost.” Dupont now had a cultural revolution in mind. Born in Dunkirk, he settled upon a tactical withdrawal, working instead on Brest’s backline.

Dupont - definitely a Brest man...(guffaw)

“The old adage is that the best defence is attack. Well, the best defence is good defending,” he quipped, once again showing the plain-speaking wit that characterises the Chti. “This doesn’t mean we want to cower in our own half. It means that the whole team works together.”

Dupont abandoned his 4-2-3-1 in favour of the more solid 4-4-2, insisting that the distances between each line remain short. The full-backs were expressly told to stay back; The midfield to counter with prudence. And that’s how the bloc of Brest was built. Since that day in Lyon on August 28, the no-name defence hasn’t conceded a single goal in Ligue 1.

Brest’s streak of eight consecutive clean sheets is the longest in France since the great Paris Saint-Germain side that reached back-to-back UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup finals in 1996 and 1997. In goal for PSG back then was Bernard Lama, the former Brest `keeper whose likeness to their current No 1, Steeve Élana is uncanny.

“He is Lama,” claims Ewolo. “He is a cat with his long legs.” The 30-year-old shot stopper had only played 13 games in Ligue 1 in his entire career until this season. He is now one of only five goalkeepers in French history to go unbeaten for so long. Élana’s net hasn’t bulged for an age - 794 minutes to be precise.

The jeu á la brestois may be conservative, but it doesn’t bore, although that depends of course on your interpretation. “I take a lot of pleasure in defending well,” Omar Daf, the team’s veteran full-back, told L’Équipe. “Playing well is winning, right?”

Brest’s style has its limitations, particularly at home when the visitors sit back and give up the initiative. It must also be said that Dupont’s side have been very lucky too against the likes of Caen [when forward Sambou Yatabaré was sent off in the first half], Valenciennes [when Grégory Pujol was ordered to retake a penalty which he then missed] and Monaco [when Stéphane Ruffier made a grave error].

But it would be a disservice to suggest that Brest don’t have quality within their squad. While it’s true that they’ve had considerable trouble scoring - their attack being rated one of the poorest in the league - Nolan Roux is still “the most gifted player” Dupont has seen in front of goal in 25 years.

Meanwhile Mario Licka and Romain Poyet showed in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Saint-Étienne that technique isn’t lacking at the Stade Francis-Le Blé, the latter’s delightful lob over Jérémie Janot being particularly special not least because it happened to send his team top of the table.

So the question on everybody’s lips is how long will the run last? Well, Dupont has form when it comes to working miracles, most notably with Sedan in 2001 when he guided the Boars to an unexpected fifth place finish in Ligue 1.

Either way, it seems his job is safe for life. “Alex Dupont is a wizard and I want to tell you that he won’t coach another club,” Guyot smiled. “He is here until he retires. I will never let him leave.”

Puel to the death for wounded Lyon

James Horncastle — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 12:13:00 GMT

France's most successful team of the modern era may be one defeat from sacking their manager. James Horncastle reveals the extraordinary tale of derby defeat, decline and press wars around the team who won seven straight Ligue Un titles this decade...

History tells us that a dissenter’s best work is often done in the dead of night when the rest of the world is asleep, blissfully unaware of the shady goings on outside their windows on the streets below.

So it proved in Lyon on the morning of September 30. The locals woke up, got dressed, ate their petit déjeuner and headed out to work - only to find no fewer than 50 sinister banners strung up on landmarks around the city, from the Saône and Rhône bridges to the Fourvière district.

The message was unmistakable even to the uninitiated, its thick black lettering leaving an indelible impression both on the canvas and the memory of those who saw the handiwork of a disgruntled group of Lyon supporters, most probably the Bad Gones. “PUEL RESIGN,” read each tawdry banner, their exhibition no longer confined to the virage nord at the Stade Gerland where the artists are also the critics.

Funnily enough, Lyon had actually won the night before. But a 3-1 victory away to Hapoël Tel Aviv in the Champions League wasn’t enough to placate the fans, not after the team’s first defeat to Saint-Étienne in the Derby du Rhône since 1994, not after leaking the most goals in their opening eight games since Caçapa and Patrick Müller were partners in crime at the back in 2002, and especially not after the team’s worst start to a season since the 1995-96 campaign when they would finish way down in 11th place.

Jean-Michel Aulas was now making the role of majority shareholder and voluntary firefighter look interchangeable, pointing his hose here, there and everywhere to extinguish the blaze of rebellion that was slowly engulfing his beloved club.

At 11.35pm after the unlucky loss to Saint-Étienne, he was still at the Gerland addressing between 2,000 and 3,000 Lyon fans who had staged a dramatic sit-in protest at Puel’s sorry reign in charge. “You are letting yourself be influenced by the journalists. By the ones at L’Équipe,” Aulas claimed. “I don’t read L’Équipe. I don’t risk being influenced.”

L'OL lose to St Etienne, and Puel loses his public

That would later emerge to be a white lie, but it seemed Aulas had been desperately fighting Puel’s corner every week for a month, expressing “surprise at the criticism of him”, while also admitting that although “he is not my spiritual heir and the cost of his sacking is not an inconvenience, I think that a change is not the solution right now.”

Aulas would refer to Puel’s “broad shoulders,” the second and third place finishes in Ligue 1, and a first-ever qualification for the Champions League semi-finals. He moved to calm the supporters and encourage the players, just like in December last year when Puel's side were again in the sort of rut that had long been forgotten during the seven consecutive league titles won between 2002 and 2008, preceding his appointment.

Ultimately, even Aulas had to concede something, offering up to the fans a managerial review meeting (scheduled for October 24, then October 26) to decide Puel’s future. Clearly not one for self-pity, Arsène Wenger’s former Monaco protégé simply got on with the job at hand. “I have not said to myself: ‘Well, if we win here and we win there, I’m staying’,” Puel told L’Équipe.

“Aulas will take the decision that he judges to be best for his club. Lille, Benfica and Arles are the important matches for the construction of our season, not for me. The players mustn’t put themselves in a position where they play for or against the coach.”

Four wins in a row later, it looked as though the crisis had been somewhat averted going into Sunday’s trip to Arles, the league’s bottom club, a basket case of a team that had sacked its manager, brought him back, sacked him again, signed 18 new players, lost its first eight matches of the season and only recorded its first point of the campaign the weekend beforehand against newly promoted Brest. Needless to say, this was supposed to be the game when Puel put all doubts about his future to rest.

Except Lyon could only draw 1-1, needing a second-half equaliser from Jimmy Briand to spare their blushes away to the Lanterne Rouge. And as if a reminder were necessary, France’s richest club, the one that had spent €110m in the last 15 months alone, was 14th in Ligue 1 after 10 games, admittedly still just seven points behind league leaders Rennes, but occupying an unacceptable position nonetheless.

Puel at Arles: Minging in the rain

Puel could have expected the firing squad, but Aulas saved his Tommy-gun for someone else, training his sights on L’Équipe - and in particular Vincent Duluc, the journalist who had broken a story on Friday that claimed to lift the lid on Lyon’s problems.

Duluc had stunningly alleged that shortly after OL’s defeat in the Derby du Rhône on September 25, Aulas called a meeting with nine senior players in which he asked each of them to vent their feelings on Puel (who, incidentally, was absent). At first no one was forthcoming, but after further encouragement, Cris, the Lyon captain, apparently badmouthed him.

Two days later, Cris is said to have received a phone call from Aulas, who wanted to see him at one of his offices on the banks of the Saône. The veteran Brazilian expected it to be just the two of them, but when he was ushered in Puel was also sat around the table. Before he had time to compose himself, Aulas made the first move. “Cris, I’d like it if you repeat what you said about the coach the other day.”

To say the atmosphere was tense is an understatement. Duluc claims Cris threatened to tear up the contract extension he’d signed only last summer and that his actions there and then supposedly explain why Puel kept him on the bench against Nancy on October 2 despite being 100 per cent fit after a two-month injury layoff.

Circumstantial evidence was provided in an interview Puel gave when he said: “It’s strange with Cris. There are moments when things go super-well between us and other moments when things go less well without knowing why.”

Cris and Puel: "Strange"

And that wasn’t all; for Duluc had yet more ink in his pen, alleging that the existence of a golden parachute payment in Puel’s contract - said to be worth between €7m and €9m - is part of the reason why Aulas has been so reluctant to part with his beleaguered coach, especially after Lyon made a loss of €36m last season.

Duluc also reported that if Puel were to get the sack, his replacement would likely be a foreigner with a working knowledge of French, the favourite being Leonardo with Juninho as his assistant.

After telling Lyon’s fans he didn’t pick up L’Équipe on his morning paper run, Aulas showed that, on the contrary, he actually read it from cover to cover, calling the accusations false, unacceptable and cowardly before reportedly branding Duluc an “a**hole” on his way out of the press conference.

It was an extraordinary attack and one that L’Équipe countered on Monday morning, declaring their intention to stand by the story while also publishing a sarcastic list of ‘corrections’ such as: “Lyon are not 14th in the table as we are trying to make you believe out of malice; The ‘Puel Resign’ banners which have appeared for some weeks in Lyon and elsewhere were composed by our journalists in an effort to manipulate your supporters.”

L’Équipe concluded its stinging rebuttal by producing an apology of sorts. “Sorry Monsieur Aulas for not being the newspaper of your dreams. Sorry for trying to reveal what you hope to hide or minimise,” wrote Fabrice Jouhaud, tongue firmly in cheek.

The next instalment in this soap opera is fast upon us, as the attention now turns to Wednesday night’s League Cup tie with Paris-Saint Germain, Puel’s last chance to impress Aulas before his eagerly anticipated managerial review meeting.

Asked to comment on his future, Puel quipped: “Lyon is a little Hollywood, but without the H.” Just like Journey, he’ll be hoping that the movie never ends, but goes on and on and on and on, while the Bad Gones throw popcorn as they wait impatiently for the end credits.

Antonetti has his cake and eats it at Rennes

James Horncastle — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 08:30:00 GMT

Frédéric Antonetti should really be watching the game. After all, the silver-tongued Corsican tactician is on the brink of a momentous achievement. Rennes are playing early pace setters Toulouse in Ligue 1 and if the Breton outfit win, they will go top of the table for the first time in 40 years.

But at the half-hour mark, it’s 0-0 and the home fans are getting restless at the Route de Lorient. One in particular aims a volley of abuse at the Rennes bench, and Antonetti is no longer able to grin and bear it. He stands up, turns around and delivers what the French call a gueulante, the kind of harangue for which Antonetti has earned a cult following in two decades of coaching.

“He is particularly tiresome,” Antonetti grimaced, referring to the supporter in question. “It’s always the same guy and he deserves a slap. He comes here just for that. He calls me a big c***t. He’s always in the same place [three rows backs]. He says: ‘I pay for this’. I tell him that it doesn’t give him all the rights. In other circumstances, I would put my fist in his face, which he really deserves. He’s sick.”

Before he could do so, however, Romain Danzé, one of several graduates from the Rennes academy, was played through on the right-hand side just on the edge of the Toulouse box where he struck the ball with a rip-roaring outside of the foot toe-poke medley to open the scoring in sensational fashion, capping a well-worked team move.

Unsurprisingly, the mood at the ever so hard-to-please Route de Lorient suddenly changed. The red mist that had descended on Antonetti was temporarily lifted. Rennes would win 3-1 and reach the very summit of Ligue 1, turning back the clock to the 1970s when the club enjoyed a short but sweet golden age, winning the French Cup for the second and last time in their history.

And yet much to the delight of the local press corps, Antonetti wasn’t entirely pleased. There were fears that, as he approached his 400th appearance as a coach in Ligue 1, the 48-year-old was going soft, a little too Zen even.

Incidents like the one at Bastia in 1998 when he gave Lubomir Moravcik such a dressing down that the Slovak midfielder didn’t come to training for a month and even threatened to quit now seemed like a thing of the past.

That all changed when Rennes, who looked almost certain of a spot on the podium in April, failed to win any of their final eight games last season, a run that cost them European qualification, resulting in a ninth place finish, their worst in six years. “At Rennes, we tend to go to sleep a little and fall into the habit of thinking everything is going just fine,” Antonetti said witheringly.

The Rouge et Noir have been seemingly unable to arrest their slide down the table in each of the last three seasons, with a fourth place being followed by a sixth, a seventh and now a ninth. Since missing out on the Champions League on the final day of the 2006-07 campaign when a last minute equaliser from Lille striker Nicolas Fauvergue shattered their dreams, Rennes have been in a constant state of regression.

Their presence in the French Cup final in 2009 was supposed to put an end to all that, but incredibly they lost 2-1 to neighbouring Guingamp who were then in the second division. Embarrassingly, the club owned by the 77th richest man in the world with the ambition of becoming the best in France wasn’t even the best in Breton, as Lorient finished higher than them last season.

Writing in France Football, Saint-Étienne legend Jean-Michel Larqué, the Hexagone’s equivalent in punditry to Alan Hansen, mused: “Rennes suffer from a weird disease: they have deservedly boasted about the progress of this club in the grand scheme of things, but each time there is the chance to be involved in the fight for the title, they never give the final thrust.”

Naturally when Patrick Le Ray became the new president of Rennes this summer, he wanted the old Antonetti back, the one who was always in his players’ ears. Interviewed in Ouest-France at the end of June, Le Lay said: “He must have the urge to be like a marine commando who hits them in the face. He’s not there to manage a ballet group.”

With his temperament in question, Antonetti immediately responded: “I have become again what I once was,” he smiled. So pity the players. For after a 1-0 defeat to newly promoted Brest in pre-season, the bald man gave them the hair-dryer treatment. “Frankly, I am hopping mad,” he raged. “I don’t want to have to accept games where we can’t score goals. José Mourinho explained that he gets fed up with strikers who need nine chances to score rather than two. Here, three wouldn’t be bad.”

"Don't look at me, mate - I was sat down quietly..."

But that’s exactly what Antonetti would have to accept, as Rennes, having already sold Jimmy Briand to Lyon, would also flog their two other star strikers Asamoah Gyan and Ismaël Bangoura in the final hours of the transfer window, leaving the club with no time to replace them at all. So in one fell swoop one of last season’s most potent strikeforces had been comprehensively dismantled.

Admittedly, Victor-Hugo Montaño had arrived from Montpellier to become Rennes’s only proven centre-forward – and by proven it bears remembering that while the Colombian may have scored 26 goals in his last two seasons in France, he had managed only 12 in three years before then.

Antonetti was at a complete loss, calling the club’s transfer strategy “a marriage between Plan B and Plan C,” especially given no fewer than 15 players had left Rennes in the last year, and the defence, another of the team’s strong points, was also broken up. Rod Fanni, the crack full-back, did eventually stay after talks with Atletico Madrid came to nothing, and Onyekachi Apam, the coach’s old favourite, was signed from Nice, making the losses of Petter Hansson and Carlos Bocanegra easier to take.

Stéphane Dalmat, the midfielder whose playing style Clarence Seedorf recently said resembles his own, made Rennes his 11th club, vowing to “give everything” after a poor attitude and too many off-the-field shenanigans meant he never made the most of his talent at Inter and Tottenham. “I have already said that I don’t have the head of a good Frenchman or that I’m the ideal son-in-law,” he said in an interview with France Football.

In all, six new players were brought in, and the ranks were once again bolstered by the club academy, which lest we forget has been voted the best in France five years running – and why not after producing a midfielder like Yann M’vila, the 20-year-old whose maturity convinced Laurent Blanc to start him in his first three matches in charge of Les Bleus.

But the doubts remained. What happened if Montaño got injured? Well, dedicated Ligue 1 fans, Rennes might learn as much on Sunday when they travel to Lens. The Colombian picked up a knock against Toulouse just before the international break and it’s touch-and-go whether he’ll start at the Felix-Bollaert.
“Playing 38 games with only one striker is impossible,” Antonetti complained. “We are competitive in defence and midfield. But up front we don’t have the squad for the place that we occupy. The evidence today says that Rennes are first, but it’s not Rennes’s position.”

The club’s general manager Pierre Dréossi has slowly seen the error of his ways and is now being linked with a move in January for Paris-Saint Germain’s Mevlüt Erdinç. But this Rennes side has the spirit to keep going as evidenced in their gutsy reaction to the absence of Fabien Lemoine, their 23-year-old midfielder whose kidney split into three parts after a collision with a Nancy player in August.

Rennes may not be Barcelona - as Antonetti recently said - in fact they’ve recorded fewer shots on goal than any other team in Le Championnat this season. But they are still unbeaten in Ligue 1 and have started to show the kind of fire in their belly that can be identified with one man and one man only – their portly but pyrotechnic coach, the inimitable Frédéric Antonetti, who has thankfully rediscovered his mojo.

Blanc goes FBI in search for leader

James Horncastle — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 10:05:00 GMT

October 11, 1995 is a date that resonates in French football’s collective consciousness.

After all, it promised to be a particularly dark and unforgiving night for the beleaguered national team. Both hammer and nail were poised at the ready to seal the coffin on Aimé Jacquet’s time in charge of Les Bleus. The funereal setting was the Ghencea stadium in Bucharest where France needed to beat Romania to keep their hopes of qualifying for Euro 96 alive.

Les Bleus had not been to any major international competition for five years. It was a nadir that was barely comprehensible just over a decade after Michel Platini and the carré magique had inspired France to victory at the European Championship. But once again La Marseillaise was being whistled and it looked as though France were in for a gut-wrenching spell in the international wilderness much as they had been between 1966 and 1978.

Les Bleus had drawn the home leg 0-0, and expectation was so low as to be resolutely pessimistic. But goals from Christian Karembeu, Youri Djorkaeff and Zinedine Zidane capped a fantastic performance as Jacquet’s young and inexperienced side - six of whom didn’t even have 10 caps - recorded a 3-1 victory that would turn things around for France in a way no one thought possible.

“It’s the match that changed everything,” Didier Deschamps later told France Football. “The team and Aimé had been criticised a lot, and, if we didn’t win down there in Romania, we could have kissed goodbye to the Euros. And if we didn’t go to the Euros, we would have changed coach without a doubt, the group would have exploded and we would’ve had to rebuild all over again, like after the failure in 1993. In other words, even though we’ll never know, there probably wouldn’t have been a 1998 or a 2000.”

Jacquet was feeling the pressure back in 1995

Laurent Blanc no doubt cast his mind back to that result in the days preceding Romania’s visit to the Stade de France for their Euro 2012 qualifier on Saturday night. The nation’s hopes of making the finals in Poland and Ukraine weren’t yet in jeopardy – the dumbfounded head-scratching that followed an unlucky opening day defeat to Belarus did after all presage a 2-0 victory worthy of a pat on the back over Bosnia in Sarajevo.

But such was the post-traumatic stress that engulfed Les Bleus this summer, the mood surrounding the camp was still fragile. This prompted Blanc to acknowledge a Mourinho-ism: “Who knows only football, knows nothing about football.”

Consequently, the former Bordeaux coach’s first two months in charge of France has been spent mostly working on the intangibles like mentality, team-building and leadership rather than focusing explicitly on tactics. “It was Michael Jordan who said talent is enough to win a match, but team spirit is necessary to win trophies,” Blanc opined.

So when Karim Benzema, Abou Diaby and Lassana Diarra all turned up late for training last week, he saw another opportunity to develop team spirit. Blanc fined the trio €1000 each, but also made them sing a song in front of the rest of the squad in a punishment that served as a bonding exercise.

Joking aside, the creation of a group and the identification of a leader has become a priority for Le President. Until Saturday’s game, Blanc had experimented with three different captains – Roma’s Philippe Mexès, Chelsea’s Florent Malouda and Bordeaux’s Alou Diarra. The search stepped up last week when he invited an as yet unnamed ‘profiler’ to Clairefontaine to assess his players, each of whom were given a multiple choice test consisting of no fewer than 50 questions.

L’Équipe, for one, was sceptical with one outraged editorial even asking why a ‘profiler’ had been brought in considering that the role calls to mind FBI agents looking for nefarious serial killers with a penchant for taking body parts as trophies and storing them in refrigerators. However, not all were critical of Blanc’s so-called Eileen Drewery moment. “Laurent has understood that the human exists in football,” wrote Vikash Dhorasoo in his blog.

When quizzed about it himself, Blanc said: “Don’t think we went into a dark room with someone and lay down on a yellow couch. The players got involved without having any second thoughts and I did the same work on myself 15 days ago.” Yet the pop psychology didn’t stop there.

Blanc's discovery of humans in football was a revelation...

Having not won in Paris for nearly a year, Blanc was unequivocal. “The Stade de France must become the Stade des Joueurs,” he claimed. The solution was relatively straightforward: two training sessions were scheduled there – one on the eve of the match and one the day after- in an effort to get a young team used to the site of France’s greatest ever victory, a constant reminder for some of just how far Les Bleus have fallen.

After getting the players’ minds right, Blanc now had a slight selection headache. In defence, Mexès and Lille’s trained mechanic Adil Rami have become his first choice centre-back pairing, while up front, Benzema is still the favourite to lead the line, partly by virtue of the fact that aside from Jean Nicolas, a striker from the 1930s, he has scored a record number of goals for France for a 22-year-old.

Despite Benzema’s tardiness and his unashamed ignorance of Romania - as was amply demonstrated when he named Adrian Mutu as a threat to France even though the Fiorentina striker has been serving a ban for doping since the spring – his performance against Bosnia last month reminded everyone of his natural talent for finding the net.

The question mark hung over the midfield, where Blanc had Samir Nasri and Yoann Gourcuff available for selection for the first time since his appointment in July. Here was the solution to France’s problems in the final third; a pair of lock-pickers capable of playing together like Giresse and Platini or Djorkaeff and Zidane.

But the timing wasn’t right. Despite Blanc’s assertion that ‘a ball in the air is a ball lost’ - indicating his preference for a technical short-passing game - the accent at the moment falls on substance, not style and stopping the rot.

So when the teamsheet was read out, Gourcuff found himself on the bench whereas Nasri was in the starting line-up, this time in a 4-2-3-1 and not the 4-3-3 France had deployed in Sarajevo. Diarra was named as captain for the second time under Blanc, something Malouda could have cause for feeling aggrieved about being an undisputed regular for club and country, which Mexès certainly can’t say for himself at Roma and Diarra has arguably yet to become for France.

As the team strode out on the pitch, the atmosphere felt right. The players finally joined the crowd in belting out La Marseillaise having been told to learn the lyrics last month. And the initial signs were certainly positive. After a tetchy start, France began to dominate, keeping Romania pegged back in their own half, but creating little in the way of clear-cut chances. Clearly sensing a repeat of the ‘Belarus accident’, the fans grew restless and jeered France off the pitch at half-time.

Their fear nearly proved psychosomatic after the break, as George Florescu stretched Hugo Lloris into an acrobatic save, scaring France into life. Marseille winger Mathieu Valbuena would go close just before the hour mark, seeing the excellent Costel Pantelimon tip his shot on to the bar. Nasri would work him again a minute later, but Romania refused to be cowed hitting the post through Cristian Sapunaru after 71 minutes.

Whereas Raymond Domenech would frustratingly lean against his dugout with his arms folded in hapless resignation, Blanc seized the moment to impose his will on the game. He made a string of substitutions in the final 20 minutes, taking off Valbuena, Nasri and Benzema for Loïc Rémy, Gourcuff and Dimitri Payet respectively. The Three Musketeers would conspire to win the game for France.

The deadlock was broken in the 83rd minute when Diarra sent a long ball over the scrum-capped Cristian Chivu and challenged Rémy to beat the Romanian for pace, which he did. The 23-year-old Marseille striker, whose career looked in doubt only last month when a heart defect was picked up in a routine medical, opened his account with a cool finish, scoring his side’s first goal at the Stade de France since last November.

In essence, though, the strike was quite anti-Blanc in its conception as Diarra’s pass was not on the floor, but in the air where hypothetically it could be lost while Rémy had actually poo-pooed the need for a profiler earlier in the week. “Some players are more fragile than others,” he said. “For me, it’s not a necessity. I manage fine by myself.”

Nevertheless, the second and final goal was the product of a wonderfully worked piece of skill from Payet, who transferred his fine club form with Saint-Étienne to his country with effortless aplomb. The 23-year-old debutante was played in down the right-hand side in the 93rd minute, turned his marker inside out, twisting his blood so as to leave him on the floor.

Like all the great football alchemists, Payet created time and space for himself to pick a pass for Gourcuff who smashed the ball home practically from the penalty spot.

It capped a fine 2-0 win, and a convincing one too that was especially welcome after the diet of dour served up under Domenech. “It was a pleasure,” read L’Équipe’s front-page headline on Sunday. The paper’s follow up piece was equally smiley in its title: “Life is beautiful.”

Les Bleus are now top of Group D with a one-point lead over Belarus and Albania. Tuesday’s match against Luxembourg is an opportunity to extend that advantage. Even so, Blanc is keen not to get carried away, insisting that everyone’s feet remain on the ground and that they maintain their focus and perspective. After all, France are still walking away from the wreckage of a bus crash in Knysna and the road to recovery is a long one.

But just like 15 years ago today when a win over Romania laid a foundation and ‘changed everything’, there is a renewed sense of hope again that Saturday night’s victory will at least help Les Bleus turn a corner and put South Africa definitively behind them.

Payet helps ASSE lay ghosts to rest

James Horncastle — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 10:17:00 GMT

As a bus snakes its way out of Lyon in the dead of night, four Saint-Étienne players gather around a table to watch a YouTube clip on a MacBook Pro, the screen’s brightness lighting up the smiles on their ecstatic faces. Its owner is sat fidgeting in front of the keyboard, pressing play, then rewind over and over again with childish abandon.

Dimitri Payet is watching himself stand over a free-kick in the 75th minute of the 100th Derby du Rhône with the score deadlocked at 0-0. The atmosphere at the Gerland is loaded with tension. He looks left, then right in feverish anticipation and spits as footballers tend do, although this one has the feeling of a cowboy un-holstering his gun.

After a short run-up, he fires a shot, laser-like in its accuracy, up and over the Lyon wall, sending Hugo Lloris scurrying across his goal, tracking the ball’s trajectory like Wily Coyote chasing after Road Runner only to run straight into a telegraph pole. He can’t reach it and the net swells, prompting Payet to set off in raucous celebration, diving Klinsmann-like into the turf.

The 23-year-old had just lifted a curse, the length of which stretches back to April 6, 1994 – the last time Saint-Étienne beat their bitter rivals in the derby. “The return of Les Verts is not the return of a myth,” wrote Vincent Duluc in L’Équipe. “It’s a myth itself, that of an eternal return, which is perpetually disappointing.”

France’s most decorated and romantic club with its record 10 league titles last topped the table in 1982 just as financial scandal sent them into oblivion, prompting stars like Michel Platini to flee before they too were completely engulfed.

The previous decade had been one of unprecedented success. Saint-Étienne’s dominance was nothing short of absolute, so much so in fact that having wrapped up the title in 1974, Robert Herbin, the team’s ginger haired coach, laced up his boots and came on to score a penalty against Troyes.

Les Verts liked nothing better than rubbing it in their rivals’ faces. Roger Rocher, the self-made man, who had formerly been a miner in the pits that surround the city, would famously quip: “In football, Saint-Étienne will always be the capital and Lyon its suburb.”

Sat in the stands at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Rocher would sit with his beloved pipe spewing out smoke like the chimneys that populate the Saint-Étienne skyline. When his side weren’t doing the improbable, like coming back against Valeri Lobanovskiy’s Dynamo Kyiv en route to the 1976 European Cup final, they were usually thrashing Lyon, the most one-sided win in the fixture’s history being a 7-1 drubbing doled out in 1969.

Legend even has it that Oswaldo Piazza, the team’s cult hero of a centre-back, was so confident of a victory in one derby in 1978 that he even asked to be substituted early so he could get a taxi to the airport and catch a flight back to Argentina to spend Christmas with his family.

Saint-Étienne had simply grown used to not being fazed by Lyon. The example of George Bereta had been past down from one generation to the other. There he was stood at the corner flag at the Geoffroy-Guichard during a Rhône derby in 1967 when he heard something whistle past his head.

It wasn’t a bottle, a coin, or even a pig’s head. After all, Bereta was no Luis Figo. Instead, it was a humble carrot, freshly picked and resplendent in its simple orange-ness. Saint-Étienne’s unflappable captain cockily strode over, cast his eye over the offending carrot, picked it up and took a bite. “The ground started to laugh,” he recalled, producing the wryest of smiles that would live long in the memory.

But that long-held supremacy would all change in a way Rocher for one never thought possible, so when Saturday night arrived Saint-Étienne were looking for a saviour, one that could end a 16-year drought against a team poetically enough 16 places below them, hopefully taking Les Verts’ points tally in Ligue 1 to 16 points, something they didn’t achieve until December last season.

As fate would have it, Payet of all people would be the man to turn the tide back in Saint-Étienne’s favour. The 23-year-old winger had looked on his way out of the club in May when he had a fight with club captain Blaise Matuidi during a match against Toulouse.

The referee had to separate the pair in a shocking set of circumstances that were eerily reminiscent of Graeme Le Saux’s infamous scrap with David Batty in 1995 when Blackburn faced Spartak Moscow in their debut Champions League campaign.

Saint-Étienne’s two presidents came down especially hard on him. Roland Romeyer in particular displayed no hesitation in banning him for “showing a lack of respect towards the shirt, the club and its values.”

Indeed, it looked as though a move to Sunderland was on the cards. When asked to reflect on that period of his career in L’Équipe, Payet said: “I don’t know if Saint-Étienne wanted to break with me. In my head when I left for my summer holidays everything was clear. We all had to give everything to have the best possible season with Saint-Étienne.

“I did things that I shouldn’t have done, notably the altercation with Blaise, my teammate,” Payet added. “When I watch the footage again I’m not really proud of it. Not many people knew me sufficiently well to know that I could change.”

Thankfully, Saint-Étienne’s coach Christophe Galtier wasn’t one to write off a troubled genius on account of a few behavioural problems, which is no doubt something he learnt from growing up with Éric Cantona in Marseille. In fact, his faith in Payet never waivered once.

“I need you, but I need the best Payet, not the one we saw at the start of last season,” Galtier reportedly told the player. And Payet responded, instantly repaying him by scoring no fewer than six goals in the first six games of the season, a feat made all the more remarkable when you consider he’d managed only two in the previous campaign.

Having carved out a sizeable reputation for his lock-picking passes and wiry dribbles, Payet was now Ligue 1’s unlikely top scorer. Only a precocious 20-year-old named Djibril Cissé had gotten off to a better start in the last decade and that was at Auxerre nine years ago. Nonetheless, it wasn’t just the number of goals Payet was scoring that caught the eye, but the quality and variety, be they short or long, from the left or the right.

Three of his goals have come from inside the box this season, yet it’s the four that have rained in from outside the area that have really got people talking. Payet’s sumptuous free-kick against Montpellier on September 18 naturally earned its fair share of knee jerk comparisons with Saint-Étienne legend Michel Platini. And just to add to the hype, his teammate Lolo Batlles revealed after the game that when Payet was stood over the ball he turned to him with his chest stuck out like a peacock and said: “I can feel it [that this is going in].”

So it’s fair to say there was a palpable sense of inevitability that Payet would continue his form into the derby. And Galtier wasn’t taking any chances, choosing to rest him for a League Cup tie against Nice in midweek after he complained of a muscle problem, which sparked understandable concern amongst Saint-Étienne’s long-suffering fans, a concern of course that would remain for much of the derby as Lyon set about battering their opponents in everything but goals.

OL’s former Saint-Étienne striker Bafetimbi Gomis hit the post, as did Jérémy Toulalan, but if anyone was still under the illusion that Payet wasn’t the man for this occasion, that destiny somehow hadn’t cast him especially for this role, then his presence on the post to clear two efforts off the line surely turned the most cynical of doubters into believers.

It was by now becoming evident that someone was watching over Les Verts, as the free-kick from which Payet scored the historic winner should never have been given, while Jimmy Briand, the effervescent Lyon forward, would also see a header hit the bar in the dying minutes.

Claude Puel cut a disconsolate figure on the sidelines. Galtier had already told him to “just stop already” after he was seen making a number of complaints to the fourth official, something which got the trash-talking Saint- Étienne boss into a bizarre little fight with Lyon’s goalkeeping coach Joël Bats at half-time.

When the final whistle was blown at the Stade Gerland, Saint- Étienne finally had the monkey off its back. “It’s enormous,” Matuidi said. “It’s a great joy, a great pride and more than anything it’s the 100th derby.” Meanwhile Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas was personally addressing 2,500 fans who decided to hold a sit-in to ask for Puel’s resignation. “We have won it for 16 years,” he said. “We lost this evening. But on Wednesday, we are playing in the Champions League and they are playing it on their Playstations.”

But the cameramen hadn’t followed Aulas. Their lenses were focused on Payet, the revelation of the season so far. “I knew the goalscorer and the passer,” Galtier joked. “But I didn’t know that he was also an excellent defender. There is a star above his head at the moment.” Laurent Blanc also noticed it was in the ascendancy, offering Payet the chance to make his international debut by calling him up for France’s upcoming Euro 2012 qualifiers.

However, the pressing question on everyone’s lip remains whether this marks the return of Saint- Étienne as a force in French football. Les Verts have a new spirit under Galtier - that much is clear - and their away form has markedly improved, something that can be put down to an experienced spine consisting of Jérémie Janot, and new signings Laurent Batlles, Sylvain Marchal and Carlos Bocanegra.

But few see them as genuine title contenders, more a surprise package. Lest we forget they were nearly relegated in each of the last two seasons. “I believe that this Saint- Étienne can last,” said Alain Perrin. “Why can’t they have a run like Montpellier did last year?” The acid test will come tomorrow when champions Marseille arrive at the Geoffroy-Guichard for an encounter jokingly referred to in a video on Saint- Étienne’s website as ‘Star Wars’ simply on account of both teams winning more league titles than anyone else in France. Only an Ewok would miss it.

Meanwhile Payet is once again practicing his free-kicks, beating Galtier in a challenge to put the ball through a shed window. Marseille should probably consider that a warning.

Meet Europe's most dysfunctional club

James Horncastle — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 09:23:00 GMT

Michel Estevan looks on helplessly from the stands, his arms folded, protecting him from the unforgiving wind blowing around the Parc des Sports. Below him are Arles-Avignon, the team he had built from scratch, the team that was no longer his, playing a derby against the champions Marseille, a derby no one ever thought possible.

Just five years ago, Arles resided in CFA 2, France’s fifth tier. This was a team of postmen, insurance salesman and shop assistants. All they needed was a magician, but not the part-time sort who does birthdays and bar mitzvahs, rather one who can conjure results out of nothing.

Estevan would fulfill that role, returning to the club with whom he had two stints as a combative midfielder in the 1980s. And the rest, as they say, is history. Four promotions later, Arles-Avignon are undoubtedly what movie trailers would call “the feel-good story of the year.”

This was a club that had only become professional in June 2009, its unlikely rise prompting neighbouring Avignon, the City of Popes, to propose a merger, offering sponsors and the use of its 17,000 capacity stadium as tasty bait, the necessary mod-cons to register in Ligue 2.

And so Arles-Avignon was born, a hybrid split between two départments, les Bouches-du-Rhône and le Vaucluse, its training ground 37km away from its new stadium, its players mostly living in another city altogether, namely Nimes, formerly home to Éric Cantona.

Unsurprisingly the media soon wrote them off last season, looking for romance elsewhere. Phil Collins’ “Against all Odds” apparently isn’t a favourite on the French journalist’s iPod. L’Équipe weren’t convinced at all, even going so far as to publish an article entitled: “Who will join Arles-Avignon in the Third Division?”

Estevan would famously pin that piece of paper on the dressing room wall and leave it there for the entire season. That bit of pop psychology worked wonders. Arles certainly didn’t need Adidas to tell them “Impossible is nothing.”

Perhaps more than anyone, their promotion-clinching goalscorer Benjamin Psaume personified that mantra – he had been unemployed for a year and a half before joining the club.

Estevan: the French Dave Bassett...?

Of course, it should have been time for celebration. After all, Arles had reached France’s top-flight on a shoestring budget of €5.5 million, the lowest of any second division club in Europe. Instead, they have given Marseille a run for their money as French football’s No 1 soap opera, the relentless drama of which is comparable to watching a car crash – tragic, but compelling nonetheless.

“It’s a bit Hollywood,” admitted Arles’ striker Kaba Diawara, formerly of Blackburn and West Ham. That much was clear at the club’s shambolic pre-season training camp in Spain, which was attended by just 13 players. Astonishingly, Estevan wasn’t even on the plane with them.

Days beforehand, Arles shareholders had organised their very own Night of the Long Knives, ousting president Jean-Marc Conrad after it emerged he had offered Estevan a pre-contract until 2013, which included a severance package worth €600,000 without their prior knowledge.

Marcel Salerno and François Perrot both took Conrad’s place and set about making Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Gillette look like they’d cured cancer, ended world poverty and been fast-tracked to sainthood in one fell swoop.

“I bought an inn and turned it into a three-star restaurant,” Conrad said soon afterwards. “But with the new presidents there is no longer the same vision of football.” It was a dig aimed deliberately at Salerno, who had made his money in the restaurant business. There was no point engaging Perrot, as he reportedly never leaves Paris, and is neither seen nor heard.

Nevertheless, the tension surrounding Arles seemed to have been defused when Salerno announced on June 18 that Estevan would be signing a new two-year deal after all. The fans were appeased. But just as the ink was about to dry on that contract, the news broke that Estevan had now been given his marching orders pending a board meeting that would make his sacking official.

“We can no longer work in confidence,” Salerno told L’Équipe. Estevan was to all intents and purposes a dead man walking. The hero of the piece had been banished seemingly never to return, only to reappear no matter how improbably a week later brandishing the two-year deal he had been promised. It was farcical stuff with more “to me-to you” than even the Chuckle Brothers could muster.

Estevan would describe the situation as “a little storm”. Unfortunately for him, it turned out to be the calm before an even greater one. Eager to put his stamp on the club, Salerno brought in 18 new players – a Ligue 1 record - at the recommendation of Rolland Courbis and Gérard Soler. “To compete with the big clubs, you are obliged to take risks. It’s double or nothing,” Salerno told L’Equipe.

The two Angelos from Greece’s Euro 2004 winning side - messrs Basinas and Charisteas - were brought in to great fanfare. And for a while it looked as though Salerno was reading from a now out of print book entitled: ‘Transfer Strategy, according to Florentino Perez’, as in came Francisco Pavón and a former next Zidane in Camel Meriem. The signing of Álvaro Mejía gave Arles the feeling of a former Real Madrid players’ support group.

Estevan had been excluded from all discussions regarding recruitment strategy and it wasn’t long before he aired his frustration. “They have told me a striker is coming, but I don’t know if he’s big, small, or even if he has two legs,” he complained sarcastically. “I am the coach. Of course I’d like to know who is coming. We mustn’t sign one just for the sake of signing one. We have 28 players already. It’s a lot.”

Charisteas: possibly not the answer to Arles' problems...

Having asked for a “killer” of a striker with a proven track record in Ligue 1, Estevan got Charisteas, who has scored twice in two seasons, and Jonathan, an unknown 19-year-old Brazilian from Goias. When he dared express reservations at Basinas’ signing, Salerno merely turned round and replied: “Can’t he be like a little Makélélé?”

It was an utter shambles. Estevan’s communication problems with the board now extended to the dressing room where French was no longer the lingua franca. “My English is like that of Fernandel,” he joked bitterly, referring to the legendary French singer.

When Arles finally made their much-anticipated debut in Ligue 1, it was unsurprising they showed such little togetherness. Last week’s 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain made it four defeats from four matches and Salerno blamed everyone but himself.

“I even had to ask myself if the players hadn’t been drugged,” he raged. “I have not signed dancers, but yesterday evening I saw dancers.” Arles were falling apart. The new signings were against Estevan. A number of them even went and asked for his removal after an altercation with Basinas on the training ground. The Greek had apparently sworn at him in Spanish.

But as long as Estevan could count on the old guard, it appeared Arles’ beleaguered coach would be OK. Yet he soon lost them too. Sebastién Piocelle, the club captain, told him at half-time against PSG that he no longer wanted to wear the armband. Estevan was now on his own. A few hours later, he was suspended pending dismissal again. It was Groundhog Day.

Robert Duverne, the team’s fitness coach, who was last seen melodramatically throwing his whistle away following a heated argument with Patrice Evra at the World Cup, stirred things up further by announcing his resignation. Initial reports claimed he was off to join Gerard Houllier at Aston Villa, but France Football suggested otherwise.

Salerno had apparently called Duverne for a meeting at a bar outside Arles’ old ground, but switched the location to a hotel so as to be more discreet. He then did something a little strange, reportedly handing Duverne his car keys. Fear not, though, for this wasn’t a swingers’ party, but a symbolic gesture nonetheless. Duverne had been offered the keys to the first team. He left in disgust.

So when Marseille arrived in Arles on Saturday night, Estevan was still there, sat in the stands alongside his old president Jean-Marc Conrad, maybe plotting a coup. When asked if he would consider taking the bench again, he said: “I don’t know anything about it. I have been suspended for five days and that doesn’t make me think that the club wants me. I think they’re looking for another coach.”

Lest we need reminding that’s exactly what he said in June, and if the last three months have taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected at Arles, as they are undoubtedly the most dysfunctional club in Europe.

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Lacklustre Lyon face soft-touch Schalke

James Horncastle — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 07:30:00 GMT

It started with a whisper that became a shout. Like an errant snowball, the singing gained momentum and rolled down from the Gerland’s virage nord, collecting bodies as it went before spilling out on the pitch in a cacophonous roar. The chant was now unmistakable. “Puel out! Puel out!”

Lyon had conceded an avoidable equaliser at home to Valenciennes, taking a hit from Gaëtan Bong in the 69th minute who quietly wandered into the box for a corner and found himself so inexplicably unmarked it was like the opposing defenders had been, well, smoking something.

This was supposed to be “the hour of truth”, at least according to L’Équipe’s front-page headline on Saturday morning, although someone should really tell them that a match lasts 90 minutes. Instead, it felt like Groundhog Day as a lacklustre Lyon played out a disappointing 1-1 draw.

Puel’s side have collected just five points from their opening five games in Le Championnat and lie 16th in the table, making it the club’s worst start to a league campaign since the 1995-96 season. Believe this blog when we tell you that there’s no need to dig out your reference books folks - Raymond Domenech had gone by then.

Admittedly, OL’s supporters have been spoilt over the last decade, but given Alain Perrin couldn’t even screw things up domestically, they naturally feel entitled to ask why Puel is still in the job.

In August, Lyon’s blue-sky-thinking owner, the charismatic Jean-Michel Aulas, had said: “We are going to try and win the Champions League before the new stadium is built.” Despite his natural disposition for making bold statements, Aulas’ words should be taken with a pinch of salt even in light of Lyon’s first appearance in the semi-finals of Europe’s elite club competition only five months ago.

The Champions League could be a pleasant distraction for Puel

Metaphorically-speaking, the weather vane placed on top of the Gerland had blown back towards winning the league, a feat once considered routine, which Lyon now haven’t achieved in each of the last two seasons under Puel who prickles at being the only coach not to win it with the club this decade.

“Of course we want to win the title,” he snapped in July. “What do you want me to say? ‘We want to win the title! We want to win the title!’ I don’t need to tell you what to think. Rather it’s knowing how to go looking for it, that’s the idea.”

Puel didn’t exactly spend the summer turning over every stone at Lyon’s training ground ‘looking’ for a clue left by one of his predecessors as to how to actually win the title. It seemed he just decided upon a change of philosophy. Arsene Wenger’s protégé finally promised to shed his conservative skin and emulate his mentor in style. He told L’Équipe that he wanted his side “to play better football” and “to have more technical control.”

It was a clumsily constructed message to placate the fans. But it appears old habits die-hard. Puel soon retreated within himself, inducing a yawn by adding that: “Last season we were the team who had the most shots and one of those who made the most passes”.

Still, the signing of Bordeaux playmaker Yoann Gourcuff for £19.8 million – a record between French clubs - brought renewed hope of a Lyon that played in a way that took your breath away rather than choking you into submission under legionnaire-like shouts of presser, récupérer and accélérer.

Gourcuff was understanably welcomed like “a rock star”, at least that’s how he described having dinner with Cris. But the 24-year-old offered a disclaimer. “I am not the saviour,” he said. Stats taken over 135 games show he is no Juninho, not in terms of goals, decisive or otherwise. And after two appearances in the Lyon shirt, he appears to be right, even if it is early days.

Lyon are clearly rebuilding. The club’s best-laid plan, that of moving Jérémy Toulalan from midfield into defence to replace the departed Jean-Alain Boumsong, didn’t work as well as it did in experiments last season, costing Lyon points against Caen and Lorient.

Speaking to L’Équipe last week, Toulalan admitted that his experiences at the World Cup in South Africa and his subsequent ban meant he wasn’t yet mentally ready to make the change. “I ate out only once at café Leclerc,” he said. “I was behind a big pot of flowers at the back of the room with my head down.”

Lyon will hope Gourcuff can come to the fore in coming weeks

Now that Toulalan is reprising his old position in midfield alongside Maxime Gonalons albeit with the expressed intention of being a defender “in the medium to long-term”, Pape Diakhaté, the Senegal international centre-back who was brought in on loan from Dynamo Kyiv, will take over the role with the brief of steadying the ship as he did so well at Saint-Étienne last year.

The system as a whole is logically being built around Gourcuff with Puel shifting from a 4-4-2 to a 4-2-3-1 with Lyon purposely playing through him. The former Lorient youngster touched the ball no fewer than 86 times against Valenciennes on Saturday and completed 89 per cent of his passes, one of which came in the move that saw Jérémy Pied give Lyon the lead.

However, the spotlight inevitably fell on his relationship with Lisandro López, last season’s Ligue 1 Player of the Year and Lyon’s top scorer with 24 goals in all competitions. At first glance, the connection was disappointing, which can obviously be put down to a lack of playing time, but also some off the field issues.

Gourcuff had apparently walked out of an interview with Téléfoot after being asked yet another question about his relationship with Franck Ribéry, something Aulas moved to hush up, while it has also been widely suggested that there might be more to López’s pre-season Achilles injury than first thought with Lyon sacking their fitness coach Vincent Espié.

Aulas didn’t deny reports claiming ‘Lisha’ clashed with Puel over pre-season training, admitting that there have been “differences of opinion” between player and coach while also clarifying that he personally wrote to him to ask that he attend the Emirates Cup in August.

Having yet to see Gourcuff and Lisandro click, it’s a pleasure to witness Jimmy Briand settling in so quickly, offering instant creativity. Lyon’s £5.4m signing from Rennes has already gone a long way towards paying them back, making four of their five goals this season.

So while at the moment Puel’s side resembles a block of marble in need of a chisel and a Michelangelo, there is the potential for a polished piece of art to one day be unveiled at the Gerland. Whether it ever reveals itself fully under his tutelage remains to be seen. Puel seems to have an aversion to exhibition football.

Nevertheless, if the fans can’t wait any longer, then there is the reassuring news that tonight’s opponents in the Champions League, Schalke, have gotten off to an even poorer start, their worst in the Bundesliga for 23 years. “Like us, Schalke are a wounded beast,” Puel said yesterday. What better time to bite back then?

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Toulouse’s Casanova not wooing critics

James Horncastle — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:50:00 GMT

Oddly enough for a man with a name as innately attractive as Alain Casanova, the Toulouse manager is having a hard time making people fall in love with his purple-shirted team even though they currently sit top of Ligue 1 with a 100 per cent record after the season’s opening three games.

“It’s not the moment to get carried away. There is still a lot of work to do,” he said, pouring cold water on a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Arles-Avignon, which was played out in scorching temperatures on Saturday afternoon.

Admittedly, Toulouse’s impressive run in Le Championnat has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Two of their three wins this season have come against newly promoted opposition, and sandwiched between that pair was a not to be snubbed at 2-1 success away to Bordeaux last weekend, although the 2009 champions haven’t been the same team since those bungling idiots at the French Football Federation first reached out in earnest to Laurent Blanc.

Even so, the circumstances surrounding Toulouse’s early rise to the summit of the French game make for quite a fascinating story, for this is a team that hasn’t been top since September 11, 2004 and was in France’s Third Division only eight years ago. Le Téfécé are Ligue 1’s Yo-Yo club extraordinaire, consistent only in their own inconsistency.

After tying a 20-year-old club record with a third place finish in 2007, Toulouse frustratingly dropped to 17th the following season. And far from being an anomaly that undulating rollercoaster of a trend continued apace in 2009, when Casanova led his side to fourth spot, only for them to plummet to 14th a year later.

Second season syndrome is evidently what passes for Groundhog Day in the Haute-Garonne.
“We have considerable potential in this squad,” said Mauro Cetto, the club’s 28-year-old Argentine captain. “We could really claim to be a lot better without this chronic inconsistency. We need to be a force again and one with the spirit of revenge.”

This season will undoubtedly be a measure of that squad’s promise given it hasn’t really changed at all in the last year. But in many ways Toulouse are an example to follow, especially in terms of youth development.

No fewer than 12 players in the current first team squad have come through the club’s fertile academy, making up 43 per cent of the whole, the most notable graduates being Moussa Sissoko, Étienne Capoue and Cheikh M’Bengué.

An emphasis on youth has also been borne out on the transfer market. Adrian Gunino, an exciting 21-year-old right-back, has arrived on loan from Danubio Montevideo following an impressive showing for Uruguay at the Under-20 World Cup in Egypt last year. And he is joined by an enigmatic young midfielder called Wissam Ben Yedder, who represented France at Futsal while playing for amateur side Alfortville only last year.

“Of course we would have liked to have had a little more support in some positions, but it’s also a choice,” Casanova explained in July. “We neither have the desire nor the need to completely transform ourselves. What we want is to keep the spine of the team that has been here for two years.”

Unfortunately for Casanova, he won’t get that chance at least as far as André-Pierre Gignac is concerned. Toulouse’s star striker left for Marseille last week, realising a boyhood dream in the process. “I have always wanted to play for OM,” he told L’Équipe on Saturday. “I thought back to the matches that I have gone to see at the Vélodrome. A match against Lens. Dugarry scored. We won 1-0. I am a Marseille supporter.”

After last month likening Gignac to a pot of yoghurt to illustrate the fact the 24-year-old didn’t have “a sell-by date”, Toulouse president Olivier Sadran now just has nine days to find a replacement. Xavier Pentecôte was supposed to fill that role after returning on loan from Bastia where he scored 12 goals in 15 games last season only to suffer a knee injury that will keep him out of action for six months.

Former Sunderland and Manchester United reject David Bellion may yet arrive on loan from Bordeaux, but the favourite remains Nolan Roux, the inspiration behind Brest’s promotion-winning campaign. For now, though, Toulouse seem to be coping just fine without Gignac, partly because they had to get used it last season on account of his chronic groin problems.

Daniel Braaten, ‘the Norwegian Koala’ who Bolton fans may remember from a woeful spell at the Reebok two years ago, has been moved from a position out wide to centre-forward with unexpected success. He has scored three goals in three games since the start of the season and five in his last seven appearances. The Braatman is now just seven goals shy of becoming the all-time top scoring Norwegian in Ligue 1 history, which is some accolade considering the competition from John Carew and Thorstein Helstad. Wink wink.

How long Toulouse can maintain their streak remains to be seen. Their form is no sudden blip, as they were unbeaten in eight pre-season friendlies, even defeating champions Marseille 4-2. But Braaten, for instance, surely can’t be expected to be anything more than a stop-gap, not with Coca-Cola kid Colin Kazim-Richards gone, and Soren Larsen - the Danish Peter Crouch - as his only back up. Braaten’s highest season tally even in Norway was just nine, so it’s debatable whether Toulouse will score enough goals to stay in the top four.

September will go some way to answering those questions, as Saint-Étienne, Monaco and Lille all appear on the horizon. Toulouse have been well organised and miserly under Casanova, his back four being one of the top two in Ligue 1 in each of his two years at the helm.

Le Téfécé’s penchant for the smash and grab, as illustrated in Braaten’s three goals coming from just four shots on target, has unfortunately resulted in the word “vulgar” being used to describe their brand of football, even if objectively it’s just efficient. After all, the modern game is results-oriented, and the realist in Casanova knows that seduction must always come second to silverware.

Whatever the reception his team gets up and down L’Hexagone, the 49-year-old feels no urgent need to go on a charm offensive. Given France’s ‘Big Three’ all recorded their first wins of the campaign this weekend, Toulouse are just happy to have a cushion on which they can now rest, although Casanova, ever the smooth-talker that he is, would prefer to call it “a little mattress” and quite right too, the saucy devil.

Goal of the Week – Gaël Danic vs Auxerre

Valenciennes got used to seeing their side play some effervescent football last season, but Philippe Montanier has adopted a more restrained style this term. Somehow though, even he couldn’t hold back his captain, Gaël Danic, who fizzed a dipping fastball wickedly across Auxerre’s despairing goalkeeper Olivier Sorin from a distance closer to the half way line than the penalty area.

Latest transfer talk – Yoann Gourcuff to Lyon

L’Équipe claims Yoann Gourcuff held a meeting with Bordeaux president Jean-Louis Triaud on Saturday afternoon accompanied by his lawyer Didier Poulmaire to declare his intention to join Lyon before the end of the transfer window. Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas said only last week that Gourcuff would be the “ideal player” for his side who look especially light in midfield, but not at the cost of €26m.

That was the minimum fee release clause stipulated in Gourcuff’s contract, but Bordeaux’s majority shareholder Nicolas de Tavernost claims it expired on July 31, making it even more difficult for Lyon to sign him. When asked on Canal + if Sunday’s game against Paris Saint-Germain would be his last in a Bordeaux shirt, Gourcuff, who was sitting on the bench, simply said: “We’ll see.”

The key issue – Loïc Rémy’s heart defect

Thursday was scripted to be the greatest day of Loïc Rémy’s fledgling career. Instead, it turned out to be arguably the darkest. The 23-year-old Nice striker, who had been linked with several Premier League clubs this summer, had agreed to move to French champions Marseille in a €15.5m transfer and was due to be formally unveiled to the media.

After that event was cancelled not once, but twice, it was revealed that a medical had brought to light a hitherto undiagnosed heart defect. “I am a bit annoyed but it is my health after all and obviously we must look into it,” Rémy said on Friday. “The real shame is that these tests did not take place before. It was necessary for me to come to a club like Marseille to have tests which are more in depth.”

More tests will be carried out on Monday, but given the League has made routine cardiograms a requirement since 2004, it begs the question, especially in light of the deaths of Marc-Vivien Foé, Dani Jarque and Antonio Puerta, why Nice were apparently unaware of his condition and whether their medicals are sufficient? Hopefully, further cardiograms will show Rémy’s condition to be treatable or manageable and Kanu’s long career should serve as an inspiration.

RESULTS Sat Aug 21 Toulouse 2-1 Arles-Avignon, Rennes 0-0 Saint-Etienne, Nice 1-1 Nancy, Lens 2-2 Monaco, Marseille 2-0 Lorient, Lyon 1-0 Brest, Auxerre 1-1 Valenciennes Sun Aug 22 Montpellier 0-0 Caen, Sochaux 0-0 Lille, PSG 1-2 Bordeaux

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Marseille already in the eye of a storm

James Horncastle — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:05:00 GMT

When Patrice Evra pointed out to Lilian Thuram that “walking around in glasses and a hat does not turn you into Malcolm X”, he could equally have been referring to Hatem Ben Arfa, albeit in a completely different context.

The richly talented, if inconsistent, France international bore a faint resemblance to the human rights activist while posing for a moody portrait to accompany an interview with L’Equipe at Charles-De-Gaulle airport over the weekend. Ben Arfa’s beard and his choice of spectacles meant he certainly carried off the look of a freedom fighter, even if his behaviour has once again divided opinion.

Ben Arfa refused to train with Marseille on Thursday after his return from Norway where he made a glittering cameo for France, scoring a goal in Laurent Blanc’s first game in charge of Les Bleus.

No sooner had he arrived back in the Old Port than he got into an impromptu slanging match with Marseille president Jean-Claude Dassier, telling him to take responsibility and that he was done with talking.

“I will not return to La Commanderie [Marseille’s training ground],” Ben Arfa told L’Equipe on Sunday. “It’s over. I am ready to not play this season. I have my pride, my dignity. I am not a makeweight. I am not washed up. I am not f***ing awful.”

Whether channeling his inner Cristiano Ronaldo or Sepp Blatter, he then added: “Over time, people will see that I was right... Just because we are paid doesn’t mean we are slaves.”

Naturally, it wasn’t long before the knee-jerk stereotype merchants that make up the football ecosystem were quick to call a spade a spade, compare Ben Arfa’s actions with those of the mutinying French players at the World Cup and cast him as an enfant terrible for the Nth time in his short but silverware-ridden career.

After all, the list of people Ben Arfa doesn’t get on with reads like a who’s who of French football. He has already fallen out with Gerard Houllier, Paul Le Guen, Alain Perrin and Eric Gerets, had a notorious bust-up with Arsenal’s Abou Diaby at Clairefontaine, caused dressing room unrest while at Lyon, told his Marseille team-mate Mathieu Valbuena to change position during a League Cup match against Sochaux and was rumoured to have been the precocious young pipsqueak who told William Gallas to “f*** off and worry about your own game.”

Unsurprisingly, Didier Deschamps has also been on the end of Ben Arfa’s famous temper, the most notorious outburst coming in November when the 23-year-old told him to “stop breaking my balls.” Deschamps had expected it anyway, famously telling reporters just a couple of months earlier that “I’m not David Copperfield”, the inference being that he couldn’t make Ben Arfa’s penchant for trouble-making miraculously disappear.

Yet despite his track record as something of a hot head, there is a genuine feeling that while Ben Arfa’s way of expressing his grievances with the club were ever so slightly childish and in the end played to type, he was in fact justified in taking act with his treatment.

Visit Marseille’s club shop, pick up a catalogue and you’ll soon see pictures of Lucho Gonzalez, Brandao, Steve Mandanda and a selection of other stars from last year’s double-winning team. Ben Arfa is conspicuous by his absence despite the odd virtuoso display, making no secret of the club’s intentions for him.

“I didn’t want to leave,” Ben Arfa explained. “At our first pre-season training camp in Brittany on July 9, the coach wished to discuss something with me. The discussion took place in his office. He made me understand clearly that he didn’t wish to keep me. As for my exit, he told me that it would be better if I went sooner rather than later. From that moment, everything was clear in my head. I was leaving. He even recommended England as a destination.”

Agents soon lined up a move to Newcastle United and Chris Hughton showed a strong interest, apparently even going so far as to promise Ben Arfa a role as his chief playmaker at St. James’ Park. The prospect of following in the footsteps of Laurent Robert and David Ginola, whose fall out with PSG presaged a move to St. James’ Park in 1995, clearly enticed him.

“If I had any small doubt, I would have dropped Newcastle from the beginning,” Ben Arfa said. “I know that the manager thinks about me. He understands who I am, what kind of player I am. It’s for this reason that I would like to join Newcastle.”

But then Marseille’s captain Mamadou Niang threw a spanner in the works by announcing his desire to leave for Fenerbahce and the club’s transfer strategy changed. Ben Arfa was taken off the market. “Hatem will not leave,” Dassier said on Thursday. “He is under contract and will stay at OM.”

Deschamps also changed his tune. “Hatem is, as ever, a Marseille player and I have the habit of counting on the players who are here for the next match.” Is it any wonder Ben Arfa flipped? After being told to leave, Dassier now wanted to give him a new contract, all in the space of just a few weeks.

“Its because my directors don’t give a damn about me that today I’m announcing that I’m ready to put my career on hold if they don’t accept Newcastle’s offer, as was predicted from the outset,” he said yesterday.

To say the whole thing is an unmitigated disaster is an understatement as it has already made its impact felt on the pitch. Marseille suffered a 3-2 defeat, having been 3-0 down to Valenciennes on Saturday, making them the first reigning champions to lose their opening two league games since Nantes eight years ago.

Seeing his side lie 19th in the table, Lucho for one is at a loss to describe the atmosphere in the camp. “It’s a delicate situation, a little strange. We are talking a lot about players who are coming or going… Even if you try not to think about it when you are on the pitch, all the things that have happened during the week perhaps have an influence on the match.”

Marseille’s veteran anchorman Edouard Cisse elaborated further with a rather more lyrical analysis. “If there’s one wish, it’s that the mist fades so we can see the sun arrive,” he told France Football. “For the moment, it’s still seven o’clock in the morning... There are too many uncertainties.”

Whether the close of the transfer window brings any closure to Marseille’s problems remains to be seen. After all, Ben Arfa isn’t Deschamps’ only concern. The World Cup winner is reportedly no longer on speaking terms with West Ham target Benoit Cheyrou. Nigeria international full-back Taye Taiwo doesn’t intend to renew his contract, which only has a year left to run. Mamadou Samassa has made no secret of his desire to return to Valenciennes on loan while influential Cameroon international midfielder Stephane Mbia has been told to “make up for his stupidity on the pitch” after being fined for reporting to pre-season training late.

Mbia is said to be still smarting at being asked to play centre-back as he did in the second half of last season.

The backdrop to this story is that, come what may, Marseille’s board would like to slash the wage bill by 10 per cent this year, frustrating Deschamps’ efforts to bring in “whales and not sardines”, the big fish being Bordeaux midfielder Alou Diarra and Sevilla’s Luis Fabiano, reinforcements that he feels are absolutely essential if the club is to progress in Europe.

“You would think that after three titles in three months, there would be support to keep our players and support in our recruitment,” Deschamps’ assistant Guy Stephan said. Not so Guy. Not so. Marseille are a club in the eye of a storm.

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Dumas proud after Caen slay OM

James Horncastle — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 09:54:00 GMT

Diehard Newcastle United fans may remember seeing the gaunt figure of Franck Dumas briefly gracing St. James’ Park a decade ago.

The Norman libero lived on Tyneside for just four months before returning to France with Marseille where he replaced Laurent Blanc, the player under whose shadow he spent much of his career.

As Dumas found out, Newcastle was a particularly unforgiving place for Frenchmen who weren’t David Ginola in the late 90s. Signed by Kenny Dalglish, the World Cup winner Stephane Guivarch’h was largely misunderstood, though injury and a spate of managerial musical chairs didn’t exactly help his cause.

Ruud Gullit afforded Guivarch’h just a handful of games before sending him packing in November 1998. The High Priest of Sexy Football clearly found the prospect of fielding such a blue-collar player unpalatable.

Gullit would leave another Frenchman high and dry when he signed Dumas in 1999 only to quit five games into the season, though his reign is remembered more for leaving Geordie idol Alan Shearer on the bench and the ill-fated £6.5m purchase of a crocked Spaniard Marcelino Elena. It was all a shock to Dumas’ system after playing for a Monaco side with whom he had won Le Championnat in 1997 starring alongside Fabien Barthez, Thierry Henry and Manu Petit.

Dumas stops by for a flying visit to St James' Park

But that tumultuous spell on Tyneside would prepare Dumas for the ups and downs of management like no other. Since May 2005, Dumas has been in charge of Caen, the club where he made his name as a player, overseeing two promotions and two relegations.

And yet, the 41-year-old, who now resembles the rather portly Rafa Benitez, enjoys the confidence of Caen president Jean-Francois Fortin, no more so than after last season’s first place finish in Ligue 2.

Caen finally got their campaign underway on Saturday in an alternative Champions Trophy against the Ligue 1 holders Marseille at the Stade Velodrome. Although mooted as a potential surprise package, few thought they would be taking three points back with them to North West France, especially given they were missing seven key players through injury and suspension.

Dumas travelled to Marseille with a paper thin 16-man squad, his hopes for further recruits evidently on stand-by as Caen’s director of sport Frederic Deschamps thought it an opportune time to go on holiday. Nicolas Seube, the club captain, said: “We need to look at it as a chance rather than an ordeal.”

His team-mate Grégory Tafforeau agreed. “The advantage is that everyone will be committed,” he explained. “There are always five or six players in a club who feel rejected and never like part of the group. Here everyone will be obliged to feel ready.”

And that’s just how Caen were on Saturday night, in stark contrast to their opponents Marseille. It was all for one, and one for all. Admittedly OM were without influential centre-back Souleymane Diawara, Gabi Heinze and their Brazilian striker Brandao, but the lack of desire Didier Deschamps’ side showed from the start was of more concern.

Clearly affected by their club captain Mamadou Niang’s decision to publically express his desire to leave last week, Marseille were a far cry from being united and Caen did well to take advantage.

Seube caused Marseille problems by playing between the lines and it came as no surprise that he was the one who broke the deadlock after 53 minutes, cutting through the heart of the pitch at pace before launching a fizzing shot low to Steve Mandanda’s right-hand side. The ball bounced wickedly in front of the diving keeper, then skimmed over him and into the net.

Deschamps shuffled his pack soon afterwards, bringing on Hatem Ben Arfa for a tired-looking Mathieu Valbuena and Mamadou Samassa for André Ayew. It paid dividends almost immediately. Ben Arfa played a wonderful lofted pass through to his fellow substitute that will only encourage greater interest in him from Newcastle, and Samassa showed incredible guile to equalise, wrestling with a defender before beating Thébaux in the Caen goal. But Dumas’ side weren’t done yet.

Youssef El-Arabi, a revelation in the second half of last season, was a constant thorn in the side of Stéphane Mbia, who was being made to pay for turning up late for training camp last month. After nutmegging his marker and leaving the ball for his team-mate Sambou Yatabaré, he popped up at the far post to head in Caen’s winner with just five minutes remaining.

Speaking after the final whistle, Dumas said: “It’s a tremendous achievement. The players are like little children in the dressing room. But Marseille aren't quite ready yet, and have had a testing period of preparation. We are still growing in strength, and we have to continue to have desire and not be afraid."

While it’s obviously way too early to tell whether Caen can ‘do a Montpellier’ and stay in the upper echelons of Le Championnat for the duration of the season, Dumas will no doubt be heartened by the fact that only two winners of Ligue 2 in the last decade have suffered the ignominy of going straight back down the following year.

Part of Caen’s name is taken from French bard François de Malherbe and there would be a certain degree of romance if not poetry in local boy Franck Dumas leading the well-run Norman outfit on a fairytale ride in Ligue 1 over the next nine months.

RESULTS Sat Aug 7 Lens 1-2 Nancy, Auxerre 2-2 Lorient, Lyon 0-0 Monaco, PSG 3-1 Saint-Étienne, Marseille 1-2 Caen, Rennes 1-1 Lille, Toulouse 2-0 Brest, Sochaux 2-1 Arles-Avignon, Nice 0-0 Valenciennes Sun Aug 8 Montpellier 1-0 Bordeaux

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Surprise packages and golden boots

James Horncastle — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:03:00 GMT

FFT.com's resident French football expert James Horncastle continues his preview of the upcoming Ligue 1 season...

Who will be the dark horse in the title race?

Arguably last year’s most entertaining team, Rudi Garcia’s Lille, are expected to build on their fourth place finish.

The Mastiffs missed out on Champions League qualification after a 2-1 defeat to Lorient on the final day of last season and are expected to go one better if not challenge for the title over the next nine months.

However, rather than throwing caution to the wind, Rio Mavuba is playing down expectations.

“If we reach the same level of play as last year, it will already be good,” he said. “There are two or three teams who are on another level. It depends on us. If Lyon, Marseille and Bordeaux aren’t as good, we can challenge them. However, if they are 100 per cent, it will be beyond us.”

Lille were the strongest attacking force in Ligue 1 last year. They averaged 3.3 goals a game in all competitions between November 28 and January 16, which contributed in no small part to them being France’s top scorers. “Last year, we fought to break records in terms of goals scored and points gained, and you can’t break records every year,” Garcia said.

Hazard and chums could be a good outside bet for the title

But Lille have managed to keep their best players. Gervinho, the Ivory Coast international striker, wondered if it was “the moment for me to leave” amid reported interest from Liverpool. But the club’s president Michel Seydoux slammed the door shut, albeit in accordance with his views on French philosophy and Feng Shui.

“Gervinho wonders about himself, and we wonder about our future. These are great existential questions,” Seydoux said. “Everyone tells me that there are exceptional offers for him, but my telephone mustn’t be working. I am very Zen.”

Perhaps the biggest boost to Lille’s chances of being a veritable cat amongst the pigeons this term comes in the form of Eden Hazard, who announced his intention to stay at the club earlier this summer. “I feel that the most important thing for me is to keep learning and to acquire experience,” he said. “Leaving for a big club only to sit on the bench doesn’t really motivate me.”

The Belgian playmaker has the potential to be the star of this season. In fact, Franck Sauzée, the Marseille legend believes this could really be Hazard’s year. “What a shame Eden can’t play for France,” he cried.

Who will be the surprise package?

It’s unlikely any of the newly promoted teams will match Montpellier’s exploits last season when they came up from Ligue 2 and finished fifth. René Girard is hoping for a repeat of that success, although his desire to do well in Europe may derail their campaign. “We fought to have the right to play in Europe and for this reason we will not take the competition lightly,” he said. “We know that Europe is dangerous for a club like ours, but that mustn’t be an excuse.”

Christian Gourcuff’s Lorient appear the more likely to spring a surprise after last year’s progress-making seventh place finish in Ligue 1 even though Les Merlus have since lost key players like Laurent Koscielny and Marama Vahirua.

It’s easy to see why Arsène Wenger has developed a soft spot for the Brittany-based outfit. Gourcuff’s nine recruits this summer, one of which includes Arsenal youngster Francis Coquelin, have an average age of just 20. Koscielny’s replacement Bruno Ecuele Manga already promises much after two years with Angers.

Manga's defending is far from comic (clever, huh...?)

Lorient’s speedy play and preference for keeping the ball on the floor will be aided by the new synthetic pitch installed at the Stade du Moustoir, which could cause visiting teams problems, although their primary concern is likely to be star striker Kevin Gameiro.

Meanwhile, Paris Saint-Germain celebrate their 40th anniversary with every intention of becoming a major force in French football again, although it will be a surprise if they do so immediately. In the last decade, PSG have only finished in the top five on two occasions, the most recent being six years ago. They were second after four games last season only to end the campaign in 13th place.

The poisonous atmosphere that surrounds the club doesn’t lend itself to optimism either. So why should it be any different this time around? Antoine Kombouaré has made some ambitious signings this summer such as Nenê from Monaco and Mathieu Bodmer from Lyon, which make PSG’s midfield one of the best in Ligue 1 what with Claude Makélélé putting off retirement for another year and Stépahene Sessègnon moving back to his preferred position on the right flank.

Mevlüt Erding and Guillaume Hoarau aren’t exactly a bad pair of strikers either, giving PSG the firepower to cause a stir in Ligue 1. Kombouaré’s side did still manage to win the French Cup earlier this year despite a lacklustre season and recently took Marseille to penalties in the Champions Trophy.

However, flattering to deceive has become a recent hallmark of the capital outfit and defensive frailties act as a disclaimer before buying into their season completely. The presence of Ludovic Giuly, Péguy Luyindula and Jérémy Clément on the bench also represents nothing short of a ticking time bomb.

Who will finish top scorer?

All the attention naturally focuses on Mamadou Niang, Ligue 1’s top scorer last season with 18 goals. But there are serious doubts about whether the Marseille striker will actually still be in the Old Port by the end of the transfer window. Just last week Niang told L’Équipe: “I would like to be sought after. But it hasn’t been the case. I am at a great club here in Marseille. I have a good standard of living. If I were to stay here, I wouldn’t be bothered. I will only leave Marseille for something exciting.”

If that interview was a come-and-get me plea, it definitely worked as the L’Équipe-reading Turks over at ‘exciting’ Fenerbahçe made a €6 million bid for him just a few days later. “Fenerbahçe are a very big club, very popular in Turkey… I am square with Marseille,” he said. “I have given the best of myself. My soul. My heart.”

Despite Marseille President Jean-Claude Dassier calling the move “out of the question” - come as it does just a matter of days before the season opener against Caen - it’s certainly never easy to keep a player against his will. What’s more, Niang’s reputation as an attacker rather than an out-an-out goalscorer means that even if he were to stay, there’s no guarantee he would top the scoring charts again.

Marseille legend Jean-Pierre Papin is tipping Kevin Gameiro - the richly talented Lorient striker - following his 17-goal haul last season. “He is a true goalscorer, spontaneous with a trick as well,” Papin said.

Can Gameiro contine his goalscoring exploits for Lorient?

However, the 23-year-old is known to be disgruntled in Brittany after Lorient President Loïc Fery went back on his promise to let him leave after two years at the Stade du Moustoir.

An £8m bid from Monaco was turned down last month, partly because Lorient feel they no longer need to sell their star player after driving a hard bargain with Arsenal for Laurent Koscielny. Gameiro will miss the start of the season with an ankle injury and it remains to be seen how he copes without his strike partner Marama Vahirua who left for Nancy.

Other notable contenders include Loïc Rémy, the 23-year-old Nice forward who has attracted interest from Liverpool. Rémy hit the net 14 times last season often in the clutch when his side depended on him, although it’s still unclear whether he’ll be in Ligue 1 at the end of this month. Yesterday, the former Lyon youngster admitted that he is ready to start the campaign with Nice, while also making no secret of the fact that a move to the Premier League remains the dream.

Lyon’s Lisandro López is the French Connection’s personal favourite for the crown, especially now that Jimmy Briand will be paired alongside him. Briand was the top assist-maker in Ligue 1 last year, which should provide López with plenty of ammunition.

Toulouse’s André-Pierre Gignac will also be a challenger, but only if fit while Bordeaux’s Fernando Cavenaghi will benefit from more starts now that Marouane Chamakh has left the Stade Chaban-Delmas.

Saint-Étienne’s Boubacar Sanogo is an outside bet after a year of adjustment, as is Auxerre’s new target man Anthony Le Tallec, who has matured a great deal since his time with Liverpool.

Part One: Big Spending Glory Hunters

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Ligue 1 preview: Big spending glory hunters

James Horncastle — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:39:00 GMT

After the fiasco in South Africa brought a great deal of shame on a nation that had - at least until Raymond Domenech - been so very proud of its national team, France is now ready to shed any notion of self-loathing and finally move on.

Laurent Blanc will name his first squad since taking charge of Les Bleus on Thursday, excluding the 23 players who stained France’s honour so scandalously at the World Cup. But the new broom sweeping the last two months of bitter recrimination definitively under the carpet is the start of an exciting new season in Ligue 1.

“I am sick of hearing that what happened with the French team has repercussions on Le Championnat,” Marseille striker Mamadou Niang said last week. “The majority of the ringleaders play abroad. Ligue 1 mustn’t pay.” The French Connection isn’t alone in sharing Mamad’s views, so here goes with this blog’s inaugural season preview part one.

The Glory Hunters

This time last year, Marseille, Lyon and Bordeaux were engaged in a rather unprecedented summer spending spree, especially by France’s Michel Platini-inspired standards of good housekeeping. The big three loosened their purse strings to the effect that £128 million was invested in new players, a truly staggering figure, the like of which had never been seen before.

To put that splurge into even greater perspective, Bordeaux spent about £1 million more than the then Premier League champions Manchester United, Marseille somehow outdid Chelsea and Arsenal combined while Lyon broke records by writing a cheque from their savings account for £64 million. It must be all the perfume they sell.

To borrow a phrase from Real Madrid, Ligue 1 had officially gone Galactique. Flash-forward a year and the goal posts have narrowed again. In fact, the credit has well and truly been crunched, which makes for a slightly more level playing field, giving other teams a chance to close the gap.

After admitting that he would ‘never be able to digest’ the manner in which Bordeaux threw away a 10-point lead at the top of Ligue 1 only to finish sixth last season, Jean-Louis Triaud, their president, said: “We don’t have any money. We built a team and a budget to play in the Champions league and we wasted the opportunity. We have to accept it.”

Marseille boss Didier Deschamps agreed, albeit his take was slightly more eloquent, if not mildly evocative of the Old Port’s most famous son, Eric Cantona. “I’m not going to go fishing for whales if all I’m going to catch is sardines,” he grinned.

When asked to elaborate on why OM can’t afford to break the bank following their league and cup double, Deschamps told France Football: “When you win titles, you must pay the players bonuses and they cost a lot of money. A great director at one of the clubs I once played for, told me: ‘It’s fine to be in the Champions League Final, but economically, it’s better to lose.

In prestige, you gain nothing more by winning it. On the contrary, on a financial level it puts you in difficulty’. What he means by that is finishing in first place while evidently beautiful, also costs you dearly. Paradoxically, it narrows the margins to reinforce afterwards.”

Marseille’s one signing this summer is Osasuna’s César Azpilicueta, the Spain Under-21 captain who has looked lively at full-back in pre-season at the expense of Laurent Bonnart, who left on a free transfer.

Clearly confident of having upgraded in that position, Deschamps has been frustrated in his attempts to reinforce in attack and midfield where he believes OM need to make a jump in class if they are to progress further in the Champions League.

Bordeaux captain Alou Diarra was his No 1 choice to anchor Marseille’s centre, but the £6m fee, which would be payable in just one installment, proved too much, at least for now. Likewise, Toulouse have resisted Deschamps’ overtures for their Marseille-supporting striker André-Pierre Gignac, in part because former club Lorient are entitled to 20 per cent of the transfer fee, hence the club’s valuation being £15 million rather than the slightly more manageable £13 million.

And if that weren’t aggravation enough, Ligue 1’s top scorer last season, Mamadou Niang also revealed on Wednesday that he would like to leave Marseille for Turkish club Fenerbahçe, although Jean-Claude Dassier, the club’s president, insists that the idea of him leaving just ‘isn’t serious’.

To make matters even worse, another dressing room leader, influential centre-back Souleymane Diawara is out for four to six weeks after tearing a muscle in a friendly against Valencia. Needless to say, he’ll miss the opener against Caen on Saturday.

So can OM genuinely expect to retain their title? Alain Perrin, the former Portsmouth and Lyon boss, believes it’s anything but a foregone conclusion: “Its doable but complicated,” he said. “Marseille have a solid squad… When you are the chaser, the dynamic of going looking for the title unites. When you are the chased, it’s a different dynamic.”

Lyon are once again doing the chasing, which is something they are still having difficultly getting used to over at the Gerland. Budget constraints have been touched upon, but that hasn’t done anything to stop Jean-Michel Aulas and Bernard Lacombe from talking up an ambitious bid for Bordeaux playmaker Yoann Gourcuff.

As of today, though, Lyon’s only recruit this summer is Jimmy Briand, the creative if injury prone attacking all-rounder who cost £5.4m from Rennes. His partnership with last season’s Player of the Year, Argentine striker Lisandro ‘Lischa’ López, is causing trepidation throughout L’Hexagone.

Briand was the leading assist-maker in Ligue 1 last year, but that doesn’t address OL’s need for a centre-back following Jean-Alain Boumsong’s somewhat reluctant move to Greek side Panathinaikos. Although Claude Puel has spoken of his confidence in January signing Dejan Lovren, the prospect of Jérémy Toulalan starting in that position after several successful cameos last season has naturally increased after Puel said: “His versatility is a luxury and a privilege.” Keep your eyes peeled on Saturday when OL entertain Monaco.

Lyon’s priority this season is getting back to winning the league while Marseille, who will obviously try to retain their title and open a cycle of dominance, have also earmarked progress in the Champions League rather than the Champions Trophy, which incidentally they won last week on penalties against PSG.

The question on everybody’s lips is can Puel win his first title at Lyon? After all, he was the only Lyon coach not to do so in the last decade. “Of course, we must challenge for the title, but what do you want me to say? We want to win, we want to win!” Puel shouted in exasperation during an interview with L’Équipe.

Marseille legend Éric Di Meco poured salt in that wound on Wednesday when he said: “There is great pressure on Puel, it’s evident. If he doesn’t win the title this year, we have a right to ask questions of him.”

Over in Bordeaux, the fans are getting used to life after Blanc, although watching the vultures circle around their star players certainly hasn’t been easy. One of the pillars of Blanc’s successful reign at the club, Moroccan striker Marouane Chamakh, has already taken his heading abilities elsewhere. But the core remains under new boss Jean Tigana, whose suitability for the top job at the Stade Chaban-Delmas was scrutinised in this blog two months ago.

A replacement for Chamakh has yet to be found, making it more than likely that Bordeaux will start their campaign against Montpellier with Yoann Gouffran partnering Fernando Cavanaghi up front. Vujadin Savic, a 20-year-old centre-back from Red Star Belgrade, is Bordeaux’s only signing of the summer so far at a cost of just £900,000.

And while a podium finish remains very much the party line, a title challenge shouldn’t be ruled out given the loss of just one major protagonist and the retention of a group of players who won three major domestic titles only a year ago.

A lot will depend on how Bordeaux get over last season’s psychological collapse, which was in part due to fixture congestion and the uncertainty surrounding Blanc’s future. Until February, they were a dominant force in France and the talk of Europe. “We have witnessed the end of a cycle,” said Michaël Ciani, the team’s centre-back.

“The change of coach can do us good mentally. There is a thirst for revenge. We managed to win with this team and we’ll win again. Bordeaux are a great club and the objective is that of being in the Champions League.” Whether they can achieve that goal remains to be seen - The French Connection will preview the rest of Ligue 1 tomorrow.

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French future already looks brighter

Paul Simpson — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:19:00 GMT

“Here, perhaps, is the future of the Bleus”. That was the tentative headline with which Le Monde greeted the French Under-19 side’s progress to the European Championship final.

Still stunned by a World Cup campaign that set a gloriously dysfunctional standard by which all future ineptitude in the tournament will be judged, even Le Monde’s seasoned journalists dared not hope for too much.

But the Under-19s victory over Spain, coming at the end of a week in which new manager Laurent Blanc suspended all 23 mutineers in South Africa for his first game in charge, was a superb line in the sand exercise.

Le Foot magazine, with a taste for a play on colours that is quintessentially French, recently published a dossier noir (black) on the Raymond Domenech era and a dossier blanc on the bright new era which Domenech’s successor, a man known informally to his old Manchester United teammates as Larry White, is expected to usher in. Le Foot’s front cover photo made Domenech look like a silent movie villain sniggering into his sleeve at all the agony he has caused.

Outwardly France seems the same as ever. The queues outside the bakers are as long, the nation’s mysterious reverence for the questionable comic genius of Jerry Lewis shows no signs of waning and the papers are, once again, full of mysterious misdoings in high places in a scandal Le Monde invariably refers to as l’affaire Betencourt (a low grade, but usefully ambiguous affair in which nobody really agrees who gave what money to whom and for what purpose but everybody bar the man himself agrees it’s Nicolas Sarkozy’s fault).

But the catastrophe in South Africa has prompted much anguish, parliamentary interrogation (nonchalantly pursued despite threats from FIFA), a summit between Sarkozy and Thierry Henry, the threat of a £10 million lawsuit from kit sponsor Adidas and the resignation of Jean-Piere Escalettes, who has still not been replaced as president of the French FA.

Travelling through northwest France over the last fortnight I was struck by how few visual traces of the last World Cup remained. It was as if the tournament had been airbrushed from the streets.

Laurent is actually already starting to look a bit like Mad Ray...

I was startled when I finally saw a French boy drinking Coke from a can adorned with a cut out of Franck Ribery the player So Foot magazine identified as the player mainly responsible for “du fiasco bleu”. Not that the magazine let Domenech off, publishing a damning piece headlined “Requiem for a clown”.

The startling aspect of So Foot’s coverage, for English fans, is how many of its damning criticisms of Domenech apply to Fabio Capello’s management in South Africa. The Italian may not be paranoid or incompetent but like Domenech he could credibly be accused of poor communication, poor psychology, poor strategy and poor management in the 2010 World Cup, the tournament by which he had hoped to be judged.

And therein may lie hope for the future of French football. The World Cup made it melodramatically, emphatically clear that three major European football nations had some serious rebuilding to do: England, France and Italy.

Of the three, France have acted most decisively. Calcio’s problems may yet prove too big for new Azzurri coach Cesare Prandelli to solve single-handed, though he may improve matters, while English football seems, despite the right noises from the likes of Trevor Brooking, to be in denial and clutching at any straw – the loss of Wayne Rooney’s form being the latest excuse kindly offered by the ubiquitous Gerard Houllier – to face the awful truth.

France have had a real national debate, earmarked a new direction and a new philosophy under Blanc (who has, commendably, said he will quit of France don’t qualify for Euro 2012) and found some new heroes in Gael Kakuta and Gueida Fofana.

The Under-19 success, hailed as a national redemption, may prove a false dawn. (Some coaches privately fear that France is no longer producing the quality or quality of youngsters that enabled it to dominate football in the late 1990s).

But this small victory has softened the blow of South Africa and makes it harder for the National Front to turn the World Cup catastrophe into a barely coded political message about the alleged dangers of a polyglot society.

For French football, the future already looks a bit brighter than it did at the end of June when a French philosopher called Alain Finkielkraut – no I’m not making this up – likened Les Bleus to “a gang of hooligans with the morals of the mafia”.

In South Africa, captain Patrice Evra unwisely suggested that France had become a “small football nation”. Last week, with Blanc’s courageous stand and the Under-19’s triumph, French football just got a bit bigger.

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Will Henry digest new role without becoming Le Sulk Part Deux?

James Horncastle — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Four years ago Vikash Dhorasoo went to Germany as a member of France’s World Cup squad armed with a pair of football boots and a Super-8 camera given to him by his friend, the film-maker Fred Poulet.

He had played every game of France’s qualifying campaign and could expect to feature regularly in the finals. Instead he ended up playing just eight minutes.

The footage he shot during that month in Germany was later made into a documentary entitled Substitute.

It shed light on an important aspect of a footballer’s life that is all too often forgotten amid the hyperbole that surrounds the modern game where looking from the stars to the stalls is deemed a step too far - at least in the eyes of TV companies and advertisers hell-bent on the creation of a product that puts a premium on revenue and not realism.

Ironically enough that’s the unintended message Dhorasoo would derive from Nike’s recent Write The Future campaign where Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Didier Drogba fly past no-name players who have to live with merely being the extras in a Hollywood-like production.

Admittedly no one wants to be a fringe player, but that doesn’t necessarily mean people don’t want to know what it’s like to be one.

Dhorasoo, for example, found being a substitute especially hard to process and that’s what made his film so enlightening. “No one can take away my good fortune. I am in this team to the end,” he said at the start of the finals. “I belong to the 23 players. I am in this team till the end, even if I don’t play.”

However, his optimism soon started to subside as the tournament progressed. “I’m getting fed up here in Germany. I wonder what I came here for, except for a film, because my World Cup went wrong. Three days ago against Spain, I felt like crying. I’m not a supporter. I’m not a spectator, I’m a football player and I’m not playing football.”

It seems distinctly unlikely that while sat in his hotel room wiling away the hours in Germany, the thought that the same fate would one day befall his team-mate Thierry Henry ever crossed Dhorasoo’s mind. But that’s just what has happened.

France coach Raymond Domenech benched Henry for the second straight game on Sunday, the first time he has done so in over four years.

Canal + claimed at the weekend that a few days before he announced his provisional 30-man squad on May 11, Domenech met Henry in Barcelona. It was there that he apparently asked the 32-year-old to go to the World Cup as a substitute and not as a main protagonist.

Domenech dressed the offer up a bit, telling Henry that he would be the joker in France’s pack. But he really didn’t need to, as a proud Titi no doubt aware of his chance to become the first ever Frenchman to go to four World Cups put himself at Domenech’s disposal and agreed to the offer.

While there are obvious parallels with Dhorasoo’s experience, the first thing to remember is that this is Thierry Henry, France’s captain and all-time top goalscorer.

The magnitude is completely different and Domenech deserves credit for making such a bold decision early, keeping it quiet and getting the player to accept his new role.

Ever since his infamous handball against the Republic of Ireland on November 18 one could argue that Henry has rarely been the same. He has scored just two goals in 2010 and his best performances this season came when Guardiola used him effectively as a substitute, the most notable example being against Valencia on March 14.

After Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Tunisia, which L’Équipe called ‘a step back’, Henry said: “The coach makes his decisions. When I come on, I put myself at the service of the team. Individuals don’t come above the team.”

That comment certainly makes it look as if Henry has bought into the philosophy Domenech outlined in L’Équipe on April 13 when he said: “They must be clever and forget their ego to realise that the only thing that matters is the team, not them. If they don’t understand that, I will need a gun.”

However, the real question is: for how long can we expect it to last? That’s what Bixente Lizarazu asked himself last week.

“If Henry is ‘confirmed’ in his role as a substitute, he will take it very badly,” the former full-back wrote. “It’s all well and good to say that it’s fine and look for a good posture. But it’s simply horrible. It’s an immense suffering above all for a veteran who needs the adrenaline of competition to give sense to his training.”

So, The French Connection asks, will a veritable footballing icon like Henry be able to digest his new role without becoming Le Sulk Part Deux?

Well, it probably depends on how far France go in the competition as Dhorasoo’s film suggests the further the worse.

In the meantime, it’ll be interesting to see how long he can watch Evra wear his captain’s armband and, from a playing standpoint at least, Nicolas Anelka lead France’s attack.

Whenever Les Bleus go on the offensive, often down the left-hand side, Anelka’s tendency to drop back into midfield to collect the ball means there is no one for Franck Ribéry, Florent Malouda or Patrice Evra to find in the box.

Domenech needs a target man capable of holding his position, someone who uses the opposition defence as his point of reference especially in a 4-3-3 formation.

Unfortunately for Henry that striker is more likely to be Toulouse’s André-Pierre Gignac, making his presence on the bench for France’s opening game against Uruguay all the more certain unless something radically changes between now and June 11.

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Has Domenech stumbled upon a World Cup solution for France?

James Horncastle — Sat, 29 May 2010 09:38:00 GMT

Watching France train in the alpine resort of Tignes over the last week was a little like discovering a sequel to `90s classic Cool Runnings. At times it was farcical, partly because seeing a group of footballers on ski lifts and then crashing buggies just weeks before the World Cup was refreshingly reckless.

Then there was Raymond Domenech who had been cast in place of the late John Candy, leaving no one under the impression that this French team, like a group of Jamaican bobsledders, would actually win anything this summer.

A survey conducted by French newspaper L’Équipe, which was spread over nine different countries, showed that only three per cent of respondents thought Les Bleus would win the World Cup. And if that wasn’t bad enough, France finished second behind Diego Maradona’s Argentina in a poll of the least appreciated teams at this summer’s finals in South Africa.

Yet it’s clear that despite the acrimony and recrimination that surrounded their qualification for the World Cup and March’s humiliating defeat to Spain, confidence is high in the French camp. “We practically have the best players in the world at every position,” Manchester United’s Patrice Evra explained. “That does not make us the best team in the world, not yet anyway, and we have to work to become that but we’re going to the World Cup to win.”

"No, you can't be in my bobsleigh team - you're a chuffing Libra!"

Surprisingly, credit for the creation of that mentality should go to Domenech. When the players arrived in Tignes, he sat them down for dinner and apparently said: “You must like each other off the pitch, otherwise you won’t like each other on it and you’ll never succeed in matches. Learn to appreciate each other. Discover each other. Be united.”

After emerging from a group hug, Domenech could walk away - slipped disc permitting - with the confidence that he had learned from the Euro 2008 debacle when divisions within the squad flared up and contrived to wreck their campaign. Rebellious types like Samir Nasri, who got on William Gallas’s nerves when he ‘disrespected’ Thierry Henry by taking his place on the team bus in Switzerland two years ago, were left at home.

Bro-mance was the order of the day in Tignes. So much so that Henry, France’s captain, even accepted a place on the bench for Wednesday’s warm-up match against Costa Rica in Lens. “No matter who plays, this team has shown that it is working to have a soul,” Henry smiled, no doubt channeling Winston from Cool Runnings. There would be no need for Domenech to “get his gun” as he’d promised to do in April should the players not be clever enough to forget their egos.

Of course, France’s team-building exercises - like cycling, shooting and tennis - all had a secondary purpose: they were there to take the players’ minds off the altitude, although Lyon goalkeeper Hugo Lloris did note that playing in such conditions made the new Jabulani ball move in a ‘catastrophic’ fashion.

Training at 9,800 feet also triggered an illness in Lassana Diarra, which led doctors to diagnose him with ‘asthenic syndrome secondary to a sickle-cell anemia’, ruling him out of the World Cup, but posing no risk to his career.

Insert 'on yer bike' pun here...

Ironically though Diarra’s misfortune may actually help France, as it forced Domenech into a tactical rethink, persuading him to shelve the rigid 4-2-3-1 that Les Bleus have used in each of the last six seasons in favour of a more fluid and attacking 4-3-3. “It’s an interesting option that gives us more guarantees offensively, but more fragility in defence.”

Instead of having two holding midfield players, Domenech retained Jérémy Toulalan just in front of the defence but had Yoann Gourcuff and Florent Malouda patrolling the flanks. His next move was to play Ribéry in his preferred position on the left-hand side of the attack, placing Nicola Anelka in the centre and Sidney Govou on the right of a three-pronged attack.

Bixente Lizarazu, a member of France’s World Cup and European Championship winning sides, had his reservations. “The 4-2-3-1 is an imperfect book that the players know well and can correct. The 4-3-3 is a new book whose first page is yet to be written.” And Bixente looked as if he would be proven right when Costa Rica took the lead through Carlos Hernández’s long rang shot in the eleventh minute, which Steve Mandanda misjudged, perhaps because of the ball’s changing trajectory. Sitting on the bench, Lloris probably thought: “I told you so.”

But France, captained by Evra, were dominating, displaying an enthusiasm and attacking verve that their players so often show for their clubs, but rarely for their country under Domenech. The triangle of Evra, Malouda and Ribéry on the left-hand side looked sharp and brimmed with intent, while Gourcuff, playing slightly deeper than at Bordeaux offered technical quality and a threat from distance.

France equalised after 22 minutes thanks to a shot from Ribéry, which deflected in off Douglas Sequeira, restoring a smidgen of pride to a team that deserved a break. However, the night ultimately belonged to Mathieu Valbuena - Domenech’s wildcard - who came on and became the fifth player to score on his debut for France under Ray, hitting a fine winner in the 83rd minute off a pass from Abou Diaby who also impressed when introduced in place of Malouda.

When the final whistle went, fans leaving the Félix-Bollaert were smiling for once. But then again France have never lost in Lens and with all due respect it was only Costa Rica. Domenech’s dabbling with a 4-3-3 is a work in progress, but a success nonetheless.

Occasionally, the team looked split in two between five attackers and five defenders, but Raynald Denoueix, the man who brought through Didier Deschamps, Marcel Desailly and Claude Makélélé at Nantes, still felt compelled to say: “It was delicious. I saw a super match of football.”

Sunday’s match against Tunisia will tell us more about whether France have struck upon the magic formula just in time for the World Cup.

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Past magic alone won't be enough for Tigana at Bordeaux

James Horncastle — Fri, 28 May 2010 10:04:00 GMT

Curiously, football managers are often defined more by the quirks they display on the touchline than the titles they win on the pitch.

Jean Tigana is one such example whose penchant for lollipops and toothpicks while sat in the Fulham dug out between 2000 and 2003 is perhaps remembered more readily than him getting the club promoted to the Premier League, winning the Intertoto Cup and of course his decision to sign Steve Marlet from Lyon for £11.5m. The less said about that the better.

Fulham is a club that has a more acute sense of nostalgia than many of its peers after spending 33 years outside the top flight, an exile that Tigana helped to end in 2001. So there are reasons aplenty, despite the acrimonious circumstances surrounding his dismissal seven years ago, for fans of the Cottagers to look out for Tigana, because they know that behind the lollipop there is a formidable football brain.

On Tuesday he was unveiled as Bordeaux’s new manager, replacing Laurent Blanc who agreed to succeed Raymond Domenech after the World Cup. It’s his first job for three years. “It was my heart’s choice,” Tigana said. “I would not have come back to coaching in France if it was any team but Bordeaux.”

"Who loves ya, baby?"

The 54-year-old is already a legend at the Stade Chaban-Delmas having made 251 appearances for Bordeaux as a player, winning three league titles and two French Cups between 1981 an 1989 in a period of dominance remembered to this day as the best in the club’s history. He was a member of the famous Carré Magique or Magic Square, the midfield quartet composed of Michel Platini, Alain Giresse and Luis Fernandez, which inspired France to glory at Euro 84.

But yesterday’s man is tomorrow’s fool and Tigana is under no illusion as to the task that awaits him. Bordeaux were top of Ligue 1 for 30 of 38 rounds last season, but they collapsed in the spring when rumours of Blanc and then Marouane Chamakh leaving gathered pace.

Le Girondins finished sixth, outside of the European places and without the €20m windfall that comes from playing in the Champions League. The cycle was over; the coffers hardly empty but far from being full enough to compete with Marseille and Lyon. After all, it’s only right we remember that Blanc built his defence with just €3.8million.

So it’s unsurprising then that Tigana was at pains to remind France’s journalists that he was a member of the Magic Square and not the Magic Circle. “Unless M6 [Bordeaux’s owners] give me €100 million, I will have to be clever in the recruitment. I am not a magician. There are things that I can’t control, like the buy-out clauses,” Tigana grimaced, no doubt alluding to one for €8m, which would allow Marseille to wrest Bordeaux’s captain Alou Diarra away from the Chaban-Delmas.

And therein lies the rub mon petit Girondin. Tigana’s first job at Bordeaux after finding Chamakh’s replacement will be to convince the club’s stars like Diarra and most notably Yoann Gourcuff that staying put is worthwhile.

"...and for my next trick..."

He can use his hero status for leverage, but also point to the fact that he replaced Arsène Wenger at Monaco and won Ligue 1, even reaching a Champions League semi-final in 1998 only to be knocked out by Juventus.

Perhaps a more pertinent question, though, is one Tigana has to ask himself: Do I really want the job? Despite the comments made by Bordeaux president Jean-Louis Triaud that Tigana was “the first path explored”, it’s no secret that his No 1 choice to replace Blanc was Auxerre manager and Ligue 1 Coach of the Year Jean Fernandez, so much so in fact that L’Équipe claimed Le Girondins made a final approach for him on Monday after earlier rebuttals.

Tigana apparently took some convincing. He hasn’t coached since 2007 when Turkish club Besiktas fired him and admits he has also had some recent health problems. Tigana spent the last year in Mali, his native country, doing charity work and is said to have had reservations about returning to the daily rigors of running a football team.

When pressed on reports that he hadn’t watched Bordeaux at all last season, he said: “I am going to form an opinion with a fresh perspective.” However, it won’t be long before Bordeaux fans know whether to change their opinion of him from the one they formed in the `80s.

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Blanc quits Bordeaux for France as the curtain falls on Ligue 1

James Horncastle — Mon, 17 May 2010 11:36:00 GMT

If Bordeaux let out a whimper on Sunday morning in recognition that the sun had already set on what had only recently seemed like a bright new dawn, the rest of France breathed a collective sigh of relief, as Laurent Blanc revealed that he would be quitting the Stade Chaban Delmas to take charge of the French national team after this summer’s World Cup finals.

The news couldn’t have arrived at a more opportune time, come as it did just four days after a L’Équipe poll showed that only 22% of French people have confidence in Raymond Domenech following his antics on Monday evening when he unveiled an eccentric provisional 30-man squad for the World Cup.

This morning’s editorial in L’Équipe read: “The country doesn’t need a president, rather a surgeon willing to operate without anaesthetic. Let Blanc play doctor.”

It’s no secret that Blanc was the favourite to replace Domenech, but speculation really started to mount in January when the president of the French Football Federation, Jean-Pierre Escalettes, told radio station Europe 1: “Laurent is an exemplary man, he proved it as a player and as a coach. He is certainly a good candidate.”

To say his comments were unwelcome is an understatement. Bordeaux were on course for the treble at that stage of the season and quite rightly considered the toast of French football. Since then, they have been in free-fall, losing the League Cup final, getting knocked out of the Champions League and throwing away what looked like an unassailable eight-point lead over eventual Ligue 1 winners Marseille.

FEATURE: Vieira and Benzema left on the shelf after 'Mad' Raymond's Supermarket Sweep

Saturday’s 4-3 defeat to Lens ensured that Bordeaux finished the season in sixth place, and would not qualify for Europe for the first time in five years. Les Girondins took just 21 points from their final 19 games of the season. It’s little wonder Bordeaux president Jean-Louis Triaud said: “The uncertainty around Blanc has not had a positive effect on the team.”

Blanc flatly denied that accusation in quite a persuasive manner. “Do you believe that if I had said in January that I wasn’t interested in the France job, I would have been spared the injuries and lack of fitness that hit us, and the hellish fixture list that wore out my team? Come on! It’s just not serious.”

France Football had claimed on Wednesday that Blanc would announce his decision to leave Bordeaux ‘on Saturday night or Sunday morning,’ and their sources didn’t disappoint. Didier Deschamps sounded if he knew something about a deal with the French FA on Friday when he told L’Équipe TV: “It's very good, It's a very good choice.”

An official statement from Bordeaux confirming the news read: “The club wanted to keep Laurent Blanc as coach of the team until the end of his contract on June 30, 2011…Despite the damaging comments made by members of the French Football Federation, which have undoubtedly affected the end of Bordeaux’s season and future seasons, Bordeaux express their willingness to reach a solution acceptable to the club and respectful of its interests and damages.”

Even the most exaggerated Gallic shrug wouldn’t do justice to the grievances running through the club’s boardroom right now, even though it has been widely reported that Blanc had a gentleman’s agreement to leave if the right offer arrived.

Many of Bordeaux’s stars have tied their flag to Blanc’s mast, insisting that if he leaves, then they might too. Marouane Chamakh’s decision to up sticks for Arsenal has also further cemented the idea that the cycle is over at Bordeaux.

NEWS: Blanc set for France post

Saturday’s edition of L’Équipe even claimed that Lyon are preparing a €20m bid for Yoann Gourcuff, who was apparently in tears when Blanc revealed his decision in the dressing room at the club’s training ground yesterday morning. Marseille are also circling around Bordeaux’s captain Alou Diarra.

So the question is: who will pick up the pieces at the Chaban Delmas? Former Marseille boss Erik Gerets has repeatedly been linked with the post, but France Football claimed on Saturday that contact has already been made with Shakhtar Donetsk’s UEFA Cup-winning manager Mircea Lucescu.

However, if Bordeaux are serious about keeping Gourcuff then they could do a lot worse than hiring his father Christian whose work at Lorient suggests he is ready to coach one of France’s big clubs.

Elsewhere in Ligue 1, Lyon’s 2-0 victory over Le Mans meant they leapfrogged Lille who unexpectedly lost away to Lorient and so missed out on the €20m prize that comes with playing in Europe’s premier club competition.

Lyon therefore ensured their 11th consecutive qualification for the Champions League. And that wasn’t the only reason why things got emotional at the Gerland on Saturday night, as Sidney Govou bid goodbye to the club after nine years in which he won seven league titles.

Meanwhile, Auxerre will join Marseille and Lyon in the Champions League if they make it through the preliminary stages. France will be represented in the Europa League by Lille and surprise package Montpellier.

RESULTS Sat May 15 Marseille 2-0 Grenoble, Lorient 2-1 Lille, Lyon 2-0 Le Mans, Sochaux 1-2 Auxerre, PSG 1-3 Montpellier, Lens 4-3 Bordeaux, Toulouse 0-0 Monaco, Boulogne 1-0 Rennes, Nancy 1-1 Valenciennes, Nice 1-1 Saint-Etienne.

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Vieira and Benzema left on the shelf after 'Mad' Raymond's Supermarket Sweep

James Horncastle — Wed, 12 May 2010 09:48:00 GMT

This blog doesn’t recall a contestant on Dale Winton’s daytime TV classic Supermarket Sweep ever putting a 23-man World Cup squad in their trolley. But that’s allegedly what happened in France yesterday.

At around noon the blogosphere, twittersphere and every Pierre, Paul ou Jacques as the saying goes in France were claiming that Carrefour, the French supermarket chain and principal sponsor of les Bleus, had unveiled Raymond Domenech’s squad prematurely.

Carrefour’s selection was wrong and by some distance too. As when Ray finally addressed the nation on TF 1 at 7:30pm, he not only announced a different squad from that supposedly leaked earlier in the day, he named seven more players than he originally said he would, including nine strikers, but not Karim Benzema.

Madness? Yes. Unexpected? No. After all, this is the man who famously consults horoscopes when making team selections, asks his partner to marry him following defeat to Italy at Euro 2008 and rebuts claims that he is the most unpopular manager in France by revealing that a driver on the Paris metro recently invited him to come and sit up front.

Yesterday’s antics weren’t a surprise. Sadly, they were all too reminiscent of a comedian telling the same old joke over and over again clearly unaware that it’s no longer funny. When Domenech leaves his post later this summer, his biggest achievement will be that of making an entire country fall out love with its national team, which not so long ago was a symbol of unity and pride

"How can people not love me? I'm on the bloomin' telly!"

His favourite trick, lest we forget, is called ‘doing a Chimbonda’

In 2006 he shocked everyone by taking the then Wigan full-back to Germany and he has repeated it ever since, taking Bafétimbi Gomis to Euro 2008 and now Mathieu Valbuena.

However, the French Connection would hasten to add that, while undoubtedly a risk, the pint-sized winger who inspired Marseille to their first league title in 18 years does deserve to go to South Africa on merit.

Valbuena’s reaction said it all. “It was so emotional that I cried when I saw my name on the TV screen,” he wrote on his official website. “In that moment, a multitude of images came to me. I thought about my parents who have always been close to me in the good and bad times of my life.”

Arsenal playmaker Samir Nasri is perhaps the victim of Valbuena’s inclusion. When Domenech told L’Équipe last month that “players must forget their ego and realise that the only thing that matters is the team, not them,” he had Nasri among others in his sights.

Ray clearly hasn’t forgotten that the 22-year-old was one of the protagonists of an old and young divide at Euro 2008, even allegedly creating a fuss about where he sat on the bus.

NEWS: Vieira & Benzema ditched by France

Rennes striker Jimmy Briand and his team-mate, the 19-year-old midfielder, Yann M’Vila were the two other wildcards, the latter especially.

Briand’s versatility, but above all his aptitude for playing on the right and setting up his team-mates as well as scoring goals is perhaps why his name and not Benzema’s was on the list. In all, Domenech called up four players who have never played for France before.

But ultimately it was the absentees who stole the show. Patrick Vieira moved from Inter Milan to Manchester City in January to show that he was serious about playing himself into consideration for the World Cup.

Domenech didn’t even have the decency to call the 33-year-old to let him know that he wouldn’t be in the squad. Vieira found out on TV sitting just 200m away from Domenech.

Speaking to Canal + Sport, Vieira said: “I don’t question the list. I respect his decision. The only problem I have with him is on a relationship level. I expected more openness, more contact. I would have readily accepted it if he had called me [on Monday] rather than learning it here watching TV. That’s what hurts.”

After 107 caps, the most recent coming against Scotland in September 2007, the French Connection believes that that’s the last we’ll see of Vieira playing for Les Bleus.

"Oh, Patrick - fancy seeing you here. Well this is awkward..."

One person who apparently did receive a phone call from Domenech over the weekend was PSG’s 37-year-old captain Claude Makélélé. Having missed out on France’s victories at World Cup ‘98 and Euro 2000, L’Équipe claimed that Ray was doing his best to tempt the retiring Makélélé out of international retirement.

But Keke wouldn’t budge. “It’s been a long time since I quit. I have confidence in the youngsters,” he said on Sunday. “If I had been younger, yes, but the youngsters have talent.”

When pressed about the matter last night, Domenech tried to play down the whole affair. “It was a game,” he explained. “The people around us managed to believe it.” The French Connection is sorry to have to break this to you Ray, but the people around you don’t even know what to believe anymore.

As for Benzema, Carrefour permitting, it was widely expected that he would miss out after a woeful first season in Madrid. Speaking yesterday morning, he said: “If I weren’t picked by the coach, it’s evident that I would be disappointed. It’s normal; playing at the World Cup is something incredible. The entire world dreams about it. But I wouldn’t be destroyed. A footballer’s life is made up of good and bad moments.”

Domenech didn’t rule out including Benzema in his final cut. “After June 1, you can call up anyone, even someone who was not even in the 30. So you never know.” And while Benzema’s inclusion appears unlikely, it would be foolish to put it past Ray? His next move comes on Sunday when a 24 or 23-man squad must be named ahead of France’s training camp at Tignes.

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Marseille finally clinch title as Arsenal-bound Chamakh breaks down

James Horncastle — Mon, 10 May 2010 10:09:00 GMT

For the people of Marseille, Wednesday night was arguably the longest in 18 years.

It started at exactly 7:50pm just over 330km to the north where Champions League chasing Lyon were playing host to second-placed Auxerre at the Stade Gerland.  

Auxerre had taken the lead 20 minutes earlier thanks to a strike from the opportunistic former contraband-running Pole, Ireneusz Jelen, and the game was as good as won.  

Or so the French Connection thought, as Auxerre hadn’t lost any of the other nine games this season in which Jelen had found the net.  

However, Lyon were reading from an entirely different script altogether, perhaps a French-dubbed Diehard, as just before half-time, their full-back Aly Cissokho won a penalty, which Lisandro López comfortably dispatched to level the score at 1-1.

 Back down south, Marseille fans were filtering into the Stade Vélodrome ahead of their team’s match against Rennes at 9:00pm with pocket radios clutched to their ears like mobile phones from the 1980s.

 The conversation was one-way. If Auxerre lost, which they surely wouldn’t now that Jelen had scored, Marseille could win the title for the first time since 1992 when Didier Deschamps, their current coach, was captain.

 A cry of ‘Allez l’OM’ came over the loudspeaker and the fans started their work early, running through a number of Andrew Lloyd-Webber inspired voice exercises that just might have included gargling copious bottles of Evian to loosen up their vocal chords.

Sébastien, a Marseille supporter, told L’Équipe: “It was bizarre, but we had to support Lyonnais.”

No doubt inspired by the 12th man residing in the Vélodrome and not the Gerland, the Lyonnais didn’t disappoint. Miralem Pjanic scored their second, a penalty, at 8:40pm to make it 2-1, and the Bosnian’s timing was perfect.

Auxerre were beaten and with 20 minutes still to go until kick-off Deschamps knew he couldn’t keep it from his players. There was no need for a motivational speech. Marseille’s players would each receive a €330,000 bonus if they won the title. Deschamps apparently just said: “Go play.”

 And that’s just what they did, winning 3-1 with goals from Mamadou Niang and two of their key summer signings Lucho González and Gabi Heinze.

 The wait was finally over. The word ‘deliverance’ was on everyone’s lips. Even the rain and blustery conditions couldn’t dampen what this meant to Marseille.

Flares were lit, fireworks let off and clothes shed as fans headed for the sea in search of a celebratory dip to wash off anything that remained of those 18 title-less years.

Souleymane Diawara danced with his ‘cousin’ Mamade; Didier Drogba sent several texts from London entitled: ‘We are the Champions’; and Mathieu Valbuena, Marseille’s pint-sized winger armed with a bottle of champagne, took a leaf out of Tottenham’s book, only he chose not to soak his manager, but the journalists feverishly typing up their copy in the post-match press conference.

 Deschamps kept his restraint but allowed himself a modest little fist pump. “I didn’t want to dance on the table,” he said. “I am a bad dancer.”

His players then left for a local nightclub called Mistral where Heinze demanded that the DJ play the Gypsy Kings on repeat. But ultimately the party took its cue from America’s finest hip-hop artists as Marseille didn’t stop `till six in the morning. Snoop would have been proud.

“I got up at 7:00am for the kids, but I didn’t feel like driving them to school,” recalled a groggy-looking Édouard Cissé. “I left the car to my wife…” His team-mates Steve Mandanda and Niang even trained in sunglasses to hide the bags under their eyes.

 So when the hangovers subsided, how was Marseille’s title received elsewhere in France? Speaking after Wednesday’s 3-1 defeat, Rennes coach Frédéric Antonetti said: “Marseille are not the same champions as Bordeaux were, Blanc’s side played better football. Marseille are a more Italian-style champion.”

Thursday’s edition of France Football also felt inclined to ask: Are Marseille great champions? Deschamps’ leadership qualities were hailed and rightly so, but it was Jean Fernandez, the Auxerre manager, who was named Ligue 1 Coach of the Year on Sunday.

Marseille weren’t even the best-represented club when the Team of the Year was unveiled; that recognition went to Bordeaux whose spectacular fall from grace – they were once 12 points ahead of Marseille - is credited with being a major contributor to OM’s ninth League title.

 L’Équipe vowed to reserve judgment until next season’s Champions League, picking up on the fact that Marseille couldn’t get out of the group stages this year and only grabbed Ligue 1 by the horns when they were knocked out of the Europa League in March, proving that they don’t have a good enough squad at the moment to compete on the continent.

 OM look as if they will be joined in the Champions League next season by Lille, who were also their opponents on Saturday. Deschamps’ side looked weary, but still went in at half-time 2-1 up despite having Mandanda sent off.

They held out until the final 10 minutes when Tulio De Melo equalised for Lille and Mathieu Debuchy headed in an injury time winner.

Rudi Garcia’s side are now second going into the final weekend of the season, two points ahead of Auxerre who drew at home to Lens. They can still be caught by Lyon, who were lucky to get a point away to Valenciennes on Saturday.

OL were trailing 2-1 when Dianbobo Baldé who had come on to shore things up for les Athéniens ironically scored an equalising own goal for the visitors.

Lyon are now four points back from Lille, but they have a game in hand at home to Monaco on Wednesday, before Ligue 2-bound Le Mans travel to the Gerland three days later.

Elsewhere on L’Hexagone, sixth-placed Bordeaux saw their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League disappear despite recording a 2-0 win over Sochaux at the Chaban Delmas. Laurent Blanc’s side can still make the Europa League if they defeat Lens next weekend and Paris-Saint German do them the favour of beating Montpellier.

 Marouane Chamakh was in tears as he played his last home game before before moving to Arsenal later this month.

The Emirates-bound Morocco international said: “There have been ups and downs for the club, but I’ve always had complete support here. All my family and friends were here and whatever happens, Bordeaux will stay close to my heart.” The French Connection salutes him.

RESULTS Sat May 8 Lille 3-2 Marseille, Auxerre 0-0 Lens, Valenciennes 2-2 Lyon, Montpellier 2-1 Lorient, Bordeaux 2-0 Sochaux, Rennes 2-2 Nice, Monaco 2-1 Nancy, Le Mans 1-0 PSG, Saint-Étienne 0-1 Toulouse, Grenoble 2-0 Boulogne.

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Makelele comes full circle as sleeping PSG wake to save their season

James Horncastle — Tue, 04 May 2010 08:24:00 GMT

RESULTS Fri Apr 30 Auxerre 0-0 Marseille Sun May 2 Lille 3-1 Nancy, Bordeaux 1-0 Toulouse, Valenciennes 0-0 Lorient, Rennes 1-2 Sochaux, Saint-Étienne 1-4 Lens, Boulogne 3-3 Nice, Montpellier 0-1 Lyon

In the build up to Saturday’s French Cup final, Paris Saint-Germain’s precocious centre-forward Mevlüt Erding was asked what it would mean for the club to pick up a piece of silverware at the end of one of the most tempestuous seasons in recent memory.

“It would not make us forget the results in the league, or the problems with the supporters,” he said, trying to raise a smile.

“At the same time, though, the regularity with which PSG reach the cup final proves that we are still a big club. Only we are asleep in the league. However, this cup can wake us up.”

If, as Erding insists, PSG have been asleep in Ligue 1 this season, they have certainly tossed and turned with all the restlessness of a club in grave crisis.

Equipped with an ambitious budget worth €80m, the fourth biggest in France behind Lyon, Marseille and Bordeaux, Antoine Kombouaré’s side were expected to challenge for the title this season.

They spent €15.5m on new players, adding the likes of Erding, Christophe Jallet and Grégory Coupet to a team that already included proven winners such as Claude Makélélé and Ludovic Giuly.

However, with just three games remaining this season, PSG find themselves down in 11th place, three points behind Valenciennes, the club Kombouaré left last summer. In fact, until Saturday, it looked as if Kombouaré’s first season in charge would be remembered for a fight he picked with Lorient boss Christian Gourcuff last September.

“Gourcuff needs to put down his cigar,” Kombouaré raged. “This type of guy deserves a smack in the face.”

And it wasn’t as if PSG’s problems were solely confined to the pitch either. Their fans were at war with each other, and clashes between them exacted a fatal cost on February 28 as one supporter later died from injuries sustained during a fight before PSG’s match against Marseille at the Parc de Princes.

Last week, the commission for the prevention of football violence “dissolved” five groups of PSG fans in a bid to eradicate football hooliganism. Robin Leproux, the club’s president, clearly welcomed the move. On Thursday, he admitted: “There are economic partners in Paris who don’t want to join us because PSG are not a respectable club with which to be associated.”

That may also be because prosecutors last month recommended a €150,000 fine be levied against PSG in a trial over payments to attract players.

It is alleged that agents, sponsors and officials from PSG, partly hid payments for 20 transfers between 1998 and 2005, including those for Gabi Heinze in 2001 and Nicolas Anelka in 2000, evading tax and social security authorities in the process.

Prosecutors also recommended that a €120,000 fine be levied against PSG’s sponsors Nike who are accused of hiding payments through sponsorship contracts with players such as Ronaldinho.

To make matters just that little bit more interesting, a book called Négriers du foot is due out later this month, which will allege that PSG’s 23-year-old Armenia international goalkeeper Apoula Edel is actually 28 and also known as Ambroise Beyaména back home in Cameroon.

So to say it has been something of a difficult year for PSG would be an understatement. The French Cup final represented an opportunity for salvation. After all, it has been the setting for some of PSG’s finest hours.

Since 1982 they have made the final 10 times, winning it on eight occasions. The French Cup was also the first title Kombouaré won as a player in 1993 when he scored PSG’s opener in a 3-0 victory over Nantes, the club with whom he started his career.

Playing for Nantes that day alongside Christian Karembeu, Patrice Loko and Nicolas Ouédec was a 20-year-old Makélélé. Until Saturday, it was one of the few winners’ medals missing from his almost peerless collection.

Standing in the way of PSG and Makélélé was none other than Guy Lacombe, the mustachioed Monaco coach, who discovered the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira, Johan Micoud and Sébastien Frey while in charge of Cannes in the early ‘90s.

As PSG well know, Lacombe is something of a knock out specialist, having led four different teams to domestic finals in his 20-year coaching career. Incidentally, one of those teams was PSG with whom he won the French Cup in 2006.

Eric Blahic, his former assistant at Guingamp, defines him as a ‘one shot’ coach, someone who knows how to get a result when everything rides on just one game.

So this year’s final had a rare balance to it even if PSG’s route to the Stade de France read like a who’s who of French amateur football with Aubervilliers, Evian, Vesoul and Quevilly all dispatched relatively comfortably.

The only Ligue 1 opponent Kombouaré’s side met before the final was Auxerre in the last eight, prompting one journalist from L’Équipe to quip: “Their run offers believers reason to think that God is not always hostile to PSG.”

Ultimately, as one can imagine given the season they’ve had, PSG wanted it more. Monaco were too generous with the space they afforded their opponents in the early stages, giving Erding and his partner Guillaume Hoarau several chances to pepper Stéphane Ruffier’s goal.

In many ways the final epitomised PSG’s season: they played well but ended up suffering. Erding had a cast iron penalty claim waved away after 54 minutes and the match went to extra time.

As the game grew older, Monaco looked more and more likely to snatch the victory. Lacombe’s talented young side appeared to be buoyed by the knowledge that they had already knocked out Lyon and Bordeaux earlier in the competition. Nenê, their Brazilian attacking midfielder and top goal scorer, slowly but surely began to exert more influence on the game.

But then in the 107th minute Ruffier, who had been brilliant all night despite not being 100 per cent fit, made a tired error. He parried the ball when Jallet rifled a fierce shot across his box, but couldn’t keep it down. The ball flew up in the air and hung in the middle of Monaco’s six-yard box where Hoarau was waiting unmarked to nod in PSG’s winner.

When the final whistle blew, Makélélé jumped up and down before doing a marathon of a victory lap, leaving PSG’s fans with the impression that winning this cup meant as much if not more to the retiring 37-year-old than the Champions League, European Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup all rolled into one.

Soon after collecting the cup from French president Nicolas Sarkozy, PSG’s most famous and perhaps smallest fan, Kombouaré said: “When you’re having a bad season, you need to redeem yourself somehow. At the end of the day, we will now be able to look back at this season and say it was a success.”

Sunday’s headlines stopped short of completely agreeing with the man known to PSG fans as ‘Golden Helmet’ for reasons that become clear in this fantastic video.

L’Équipe summed up what everyone else was thinking, though. Simple in its composition, their front-page read: “Paris save their season.”

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Red cards and scandals only part of the problem for Ribery

James Horncastle — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:11:00 GMT

Dancing on the edge of a volcano. That was L’Équipe’s assessment of French football last week.

While liquid hot magma and the odd cloud of ash spewed out of Iceland, other far graver things were creeping out of the woodwork on L’Hexagone, threatening to bring French football to a grinding halt.

The revelations that four prominent members of the French national team were cited in connection with a Paris-based investigation into underage prostitution made headlines across the world, bringing unprecedented scrutiny on Franck Ribéry in particular for reasons that are by now well documented.

Tempting though it is to chew over the juicy bits of a sad and sordid scandal, the French Connection would much rather spend its time reassessing Ribéry the player rather than Ribéry the man.

After all, while his sending off against Lyon last Wednesday was predictable if not in some way understandable given the circumstances in which he went into the game, it was also the latest episode in the dethronement of Kaiser Franck. Indeed, some would even say Ribéry’s crown has by now passed to Arjen Robben.

"What next...?"

But how did this happen? When Ribéry joined Bayern in a €25 million transfer from Marseille three years ago, he did more than merely justify his price tag, he was one of those rare footballers who was worth the admission fee on his own, putting bums on seats like a Broadway star.

He scored 16 goals and made 17 assists in his first season in Germany, inspiring Bayern to the league and cup double. No wonder Franz Beckenbauer likened signing Ribéry to winning the lottery.

Bavaria had a new darling, a loveable rogue who could prank the likes of Oliver Kahn and even crash the team bus on a winter tour of the Middle East and still get away with it.

All he had to do was smile his crooked smile and keep putting in mesmerising match-winning performances.

All that changed last summer, though, when the darling became the diva, and started dilly-dallying over his future amid interest from those spendaholics at Real Madrid.

German tabloid Bild grew so tired of Ribéry going all doe-eyed whenever Madrid were mentioned that they coined a new nickname for him: Mr Bullsh*t.

Of course, Ribéry could have won the media over again by letting his football do the talking, but the 27-year-old was spending more time in the treatment room than on the pitch.

Blisters, swollen toes and acute tendonitis in his left knee have restricted him to just eight starting appearances in the Bundesliga this season.

And it’s not as if he has been quiet on the sidelines either. In September when Bayern were struggling down in eighth, he told L’Équipe: “It’s important that you have faith in the coach, but with van Gaal it’s complicated. This is the first time that my contact with a coach is not positive. There’s not much feeling between us.”

Not content with setting just one cat among the pigeons, Ribéry broke out an entire kitten farm, pointing out to Raymond Domenech on more than one occasion that he produces his best football on the left-hand side.

"No Franck, Henry stays- he's the only person left less popular than me!"

In doing so, he showed little in the way of respect towards France’s captain, Thierry Henry, as that is where he plays for Les Bleus.

So with one year left on his contract at Bayern, L’Équipe felt entitled to ask whether any of Europe’s elite club sides, let alone Real Madrid, would still be interested in signing him.

Marca tried to answer that question last Tuesday, when one of their hacks wrote: “The scandal diminishes to an almost definitive extent” the prospect of Ribéry moving to the Santiago Bernabéu.

Ironically, though, one could argue that Robben is the biggest threat to Ribéry’s hopes of joining Madrid. The Dutchman was supposedly a ‘down payment’ for Ribéry last summer. But Robben’s success could make signing Ribéry an embarrassment to Florentino Perez, even if it’s for less than the €65m quoted last year.

Robben has scored 20 goals this season compared with Ribéry’s six, proving decisive in the Champions League, the competition Perez craves the most. Now he is the one being mentioned in the same breath as Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Lionel Messi, not Ribéry.

“In a week or 10 days, when the talks have been held, I will know what the situation is,” Ribéry said when asked about his future on April 15. That timeframe expired yesterday and it’s unrealistic to think that negotiations weren’t affected by recent events.

In the meantime, things are likely to get worse for Ribéry before they get better, as UEFA’s disciplinary commission is due to rule on the length of his suspension, which could rule him out of the Champions League final, should Bayern overcome Lyon and reach Madrid.

Now even Alanis Morissette would call that ironic.

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Marseille widen the gap as €100m loss revealed

James Horncastle — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:29:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat Apr 24 Nancy 0-0 Montpellier, Le Mans 1-2 Lille, Lorient 1-0 Bordeaux, Sochaux 0-3 Boulogne, Nice 2-1 Grenoble, PSG 1-1 Rennes Sun Apr 25 Toulouse 0-3 Auxerre, Lens 1-1 Valenciennes, Marseille 1-0 Saint-Étienne

Franck Ribéry wasn’t the only one associated with French Football to see red over the last few days.

L’Équipe got hold of a confidential eight-page document produced by the DNCG that revealed the sheer scale of the financial problems engulfing the game in France.

According to the DNCG, the current model is “unsupportable for the majority of clubs, in particular the small and medium-sized ones.”

French clubs tend to survive on TV and transfer revenues alone, devoting a staggering 71 per cent of turnover to paying wages. It is estimated that French football will make a net loss of around €100m across its top two divisions this season, prompting some to call for Ligue 1 to be reduced to 18 teams.

As far as matters on the pitch were concerned, Bordeaux had a full week to prepare for their trip to Lorient on Saturday, leaving fans optimistic that Laurent Blanc’s side would reverse their fortunes after three defeats in their last four league games.

Le Girondins had beaten Lorient 4-1 on two occasions already this season, so if there was ever a time to get back to winning ways it was surely this weekend.

However, despite a fine first half, Bordeaux lost again as Kevin Gameiro gave the Breton outfit a 1-0 win. Blanc’s side now look unlikely to finish in the Champions League places.

Marseille put in a clichéd performance at the weekend, showing the hallmark of champions by beating Saint-Étienne 1-0 despite being absolutely dreadful.

Of course, there were still several positives to be drawn from the result, as Didier Deschamps’ side retained their five-point lead at the top of Ligue 1 with four games remaining.

Mathieu Valbuena also scored his third goal in four games, making the leprechaun-like winger a dark horse for a place in France’s World Cup squad.

The title could almost be mathematically wrapped up next Friday when Marseille travel to second-placed Auxerre who thrashed Toulouse 3-0 on Sunday to extend their unbeaten run to 13 matches.

“The cards aren’t in our hands,” smiled Auxerre’s captain Benoît Pedretti. “If we don’t lose our next two matches against Marseille and Lyon we’ll feel very good about finishing in the top three places.”

Chapeau to Auxerre coach Jean Fernandez for exceeding expectations this season.

Elsewhere, Boulogne’s 30-year-old cult striker Grégory Thil scored his first goal since his return from eight months on the sidelines with a serious ankle injury.

Fans of the Ligue 2-bound side were left pondering what might have been as had Thil been fit for the entire season Boulogne might have stayed up.

His 78 goals over the last five seasons have seen Boulogne move up three divisions and will be needed next year, although he might not still be around with several clubs interested in his signature.

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Marseille hold the aces in French title race, despite car trouble

James Horncastle — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 09:49:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat Apr 17 Boulogne 1-2 Marseille, Auxerre 4-1 Lorient, Rennes 0-0 Nancy, Valenciennes 0-1 Le Mans, Nice 0-0 Lens, Grenoble 2-2 Sochaux, Bordeaux 2-2 Lyon Sun Apr 18 Montpellier 1-1 Toulouse, Lille 4-0 Monaco, Saint-Étienne 0-0 PSG

When Didier Deschamps took charge of Marseille last summer one could be forgiven for thinking he hopped in his Citreon C5 and rode the length and breadth of Europe sticking up posters that read: “Winners, L’OM needs you.”

After all, Dédé was the last person to win the league with Marseille nearly 17 years ago when he captained them as a precocious 25-year-old water carrying midfielder. Since then, they’ve taken a leaf out of Otis Redding’s book, adapted it a bit and lost that winning feeling.

Thankfully though, Deschamps’s imaginary posters got the desired response. Marseille spent a staggering €41.3m on no fewer than 10 players, including Gabi Heinze, Souleymane Diawara, Lucho González and former West Ham United flop Édouard Cissé.

L’Équipe’s hacks - perhaps stranded in one of Monaco’s casinos on account of the volcanic ash - branded Marseille’s key signings ‘the Four Aces’.

In all, they have won nine league titles between them, adding experience to a group that, with the exception of Hatem Ben Arfa and Brandao, wasn’t used to picking up silverware.

“They are players who know how difficult it is to win things,” Deschamps said after Wednesday’s 1-0 victory over Sochaux. “They have a role on the pitch, but also one off it too."

“When you want a team to keep winning, it’s important to have winners. They must communicate that spirit and also what it takes to impose yourself at a high level. That is seen through words, exchanges, but above all through actions,” Deschamps added, clearly feeling vindicated by his summer strategy.

Since their victory in the League Cup final against Bordeaux on March 27, Marseille have swept all before them, opening up a five-point lead at the top of Le Championnat.

They have a swagger and a character that hasn’t been seen for years, as was evident on Saturday night.

L’OM were due in Boulogne for their fifth match in two weeks. The pesky volcanic ash meant that they had to fly to Auxerre and then take a four-hour bus journey north just to get to the ironically named Stade de la Libération, rendering an already marathon schedule a veritable Tour de France.

The fact Boulogne went into the game 19th in Ligue 1, mattered little. After all, Laurent Guyot’s men have picked up points against Bordeaux and Lyon in 2010, and are fighting for their lives, albeit quite unsuccessfully as their run of four defeats in five games amply demonstrated.

However, rather than a banana skin, this was an opportunity Marseille couldn’t afford to miss. Bordeaux were hosting Lyon in a re-match of their Champions League quarter-final, a re-match that would knock one if not both of L’OM’s seasoned rivals out of the title race. If Marseille put Boulogne to the sword, their 17 years of hurt would be closer to being over.

Little by little, though, the tension was mounting. Mamadou Niang, Ligue 1’s leading goalscorer, slapped a fan on his way out of Marseille’s training ground after the peasant put his mucky little hands on the Senegal international’s sparkling Ferrari 360.

Lucho promptly followed Niang’s lead, only he misjudged the turning out of the exit and scuffed his Audi R8 on the railings.

However, regardless of the pressure, L’OM - to paraphrase Deschamps - now had the winners to keep winning.

Marseille took the lead just before half-time in Boulogne when Mathieu Valbuena cut in from the right-hand side and rifled the ball past Jean-François Bédenik. Things got really interesting a little later though, when Boulogne equalised through Jérémy Blayac with just eight minutes remaining.

Rather than resign themselves to a draw, Marseille went looking for a win. Dédé had brought on Taye Taiwo for Niang midway through the second half and his introduction proved inspired.

The Nigeria international, who scored the winner against Lyon last month, fizzed a cross into the box in stoppage time, which found Brandao’s head and then poor Yoann Lachor’s hand, winning a last gasp penalty.

As the referee’s watch struck 95 minutes, Taiwo stepped up to the spot and beat Bédenik to secure the three points that preserved Marseille’s five-point lead at the top of Le Championnat.

“My players have the desire to get the best possible result in every match. We’re in top spot and we’ll do what we can to stay there,” Deschamps smiled in his post-match press conference. “It’s great to be in front and to be winning.”

Meanwhile, Bordeaux and Lyon were knocking seven bells out of each other and both ended up on the canvas, drawing 2-2 in a bad-tempered game that saw three players sent off in injury time.

“One draw, two losers,” read the headline in L’Équipe on Sunday morning. Bordeaux and Lyon are now 11 and nine points back respectively, the latter focusing on their Champions League semi-final with Bayern Munich, volcanic ash permitting.

The threat to Marseille’s title aspirations now comes from Auxerre whose impressive 4-1 victory over Lorient keeps them second, setting up a potential decider against Deschamps’s men in two weeks’ time.

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France’s strikers run dry ahead of World Cup

James Horncastle — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:24:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat Apr 10 Le Mans 2-2 Montpellier, Lorient 1-1 Rennes, Monaco 2-1 Valenciennes, Toulouse 4-0 Grenoble, Sochaux 0-2 Saint-Étienne, Lens 3-0 Boulogne, PSG 3-1 Bordeaux Sun Apr 11 Lyon 1-1 Lille, Nancy 0-1 Auxerre, Marseille 4-1 Nice

With just under two months to go before France’s opening World Cup match against Uruguay in Cape Town, Raymond Domenech is no doubt sat in a rickety old caravan on the French seafront. He has his headscarf on, incense burning, and the lights down low.

He is poring over his horoscopes, humming to himself, while looking up inquisitively at the glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to the caravan’s ceiling for a cosmic indication as to who should make his 23-man squad for the finals in South Africa.

After his revelations in the build-up to Euro 2008, The French Connection knows Domenech doesn’t like having a Leo in defence.

So why, we ask, did Ray get all in a tizzy when French football’s most famous Leo, Arsenal defender William Gallas, suffered a relapse of a calf injury after being rushed back to play against Barcelona last month?

Surely, the stars were aligning in Ray’s favour. But no, The French Connection was wrong. “I’m livid and p*ssed off,” he raged. “It’s outrageous and irresponsible to have played him so early after the injury. It’s scandalous. He’d better be fit for the World Cup.”

"There there, William, I won't let that nasty Mr Wenger hurt you again"

Could the pressure, or God forbid the sheer scale of his unpopularity, finally be getting to the unflappable Ray? Surely not!

But last month’s 2-0 defeat at home to Spain has yet to be swept under the carpet, partly because his players had their confidence shot to pieces and are using interviews with the press like a shrink’s patients use his couch.

A hack from the newspaper Le Progrès practically found Lyon midfielder Jérémy Toulalan hunched up in the foetal position, saying: “Are they gone yet?”

OK that’s not quite true, but Toulalan was certainly emotionally scarred by the experience. “The federation is doing nothing to help us. There was no worse choice than Spain for our confidence. I have never felt so humiliated and helpless than against Spain and Barcelona last season.”

It wasn’t long before Nicolas Anelka, the striker formerly known as Le Sulk, reprised his old moniker and had a truly epic moan even by his own high standards.

Speaking to Orange Sport last week, Anelka said: “We can’t continue to take lessons in football like we suffered against Spain for example. We have to work to find an answer, if not it’s just not possible, we’ll be coming home after the three (first round) matches.”

Having only just got started, Anelka grabbed the microphone and spat a few more barbed lines perhaps inspired from former France international Youri Djorkaeff’s recent foray into rap, although even the hip-hop loving French Connection concedes that such an eventuality is distinctly unlikely – I mean just listen to Vivre dans ta lumière...

“You can’t go and lose 2-0 like that – it was truly ridiculous,” Anelka grimaced. “We were ‘killed’ on the pitch. It was a case of Division One against Division Four. That’s the truth – it was like professionals taking on amateurs.”

And while it’s easy though not unjustifiable to hold Domenech completely responsible for France’s uninspiring performances, such a viewpoint would also be akin to blaming a pilot for a plane crash in which the engines failed, as the country’s strikers have also been misfiring this season.

A recent article in France Football asked: “Where have all the French goalscorers gone?”

A year ago, three Frenchman, André-Pierre Gignac, Guillaume Hoarau and Karim Benzema, all finished in the top four of Le Championnat’s scoring charts. They were hailed as a new generation of French strikers, capable of replacing Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet and Nicolas Anelka.

Now there are only three in the top 10, and Gignac and Hoarau aren’t among them, essentially because they have both had an injury-ravaged season in Ligue 1.

This in itself wouldn’t have caused Domenech too many sleepless nights had France’s first choice strikers been scoring freely in Spain and England. However, Henry (3), Benzema (7) and Anelka (8) have scored just 18 League goals between them this season; the former two aren’t even regulars at Barcelona and Real Madrid.

A growing reliance on foreign centre-forwards is partly to blame, according to the recently retired Steve Savidan, France’s favourite former dustman turned cult striker.

"Let's just start punching them in"

“The big clubs have turned towards foreign players to reinforce their attacks,” he said.

“This doesn’t mean to say that they are not focusing a lot on French strikers. It means that there are also very interesting merchandising prospects behind foreign players. And that these players generally possess more experience of big competitions like the Champions League.”

A cursory glance at Ligue 1 reveals Savidan to be right. Of the 20 teams in Le Championnat, 13 have a foreigner as a top scorer. Lyon are a case in point, favouring Lisandro López to Bafétimbi Gomis for reasons pertaining to experience, how they fit in the team’s system with the Argentine almost always favoured in a 4-2-3-1 formation, and perhaps, as Savidan points out, their marketability.

All of which gives Domenech a bit of a headache ahead of this summer’s World Cup.

And while it’s romantic to think that Ray might take Kevin Gameiro, Lorient’s instinctive 22-year-old striker who is the best placed Frenchman in Ligue 1’s scoring charts or even Nice’s Loïc Rémy, the bottom line is France have uncertainty up front ahead of the finals.

Of course, a prolific striker isn’t a pre-requisite for World Cup glory as Aimé Jacquet showed in 1998, relying on the much-derided Stéphane Guivarc’h who didn’t score a single goal.

He nevertheless played a crucial and undervalued role in the French side, holding the ball up to play in the likes of Zinedine Zidane while also acting as the team’s first defender.

However, depending on goals from positions other than those up front is a risk and one Domenech will be looking to somehow avoid in South Africa.

"Maybe things will go better for me at Newcastle..."

The French Connection’s Amuse-Bouche...

1) When you’re fighting a relegation battle, everyone needs to be on the same page, especially if there is ever to be a famous Great Escape.

The players need faith, a glimmer of hope. It can come from anywhere, only in Grenoble it’s unlikely to come from the president. Asked to sum up their situation last week, Pierre Wantiez said: “Depressing. Our fate is already sealed. I’m not really a believer and I don’t know if anyone believes we will stay in Ligue 1 but I don’t.”

Wantiez was put out of his misery on Saturday, as Toulouse inflicted a 4-0 defeat on his side, making their relegation a certainty.

2) While Lyon and Bordeaux contested the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday, Marseille hosted Sochaux for what Didier Deschamps termed their own Champions League match.

His side won 3-0 and went top again on Sunday night with a convincing 4-1 victory over Nice. Five consecutive victories make Marseille the favourites to win their first League title since 1992, and an impressive double.

3) PSG did Marseille a favour by recording their first win over Bordeaux for nearly two years. Michaël Ciani, the Bordeaux centre-back, was once again in the headlines for the wrong reasons.

Ciani tried to be clever on a routine clearance and ended up putting his goalkeeper Ulrich Ramé under such pressure that the veteran made a last ditch challenge and got sent off. Bordeaux lost 3-1, suffering their fourth defeat in five matches.

Laurent Blanc’s side now lie fifth and have the third worst defence in Ligue 1 in 2010. Unfortunately they look likely to be dismantled in the summer.

4) Lyon booked their first ever place in the Champions League semi-finals where they will play Bayern Munich. Les Gones have a good record against the German giants, having lost just two of their six encounters since the 2000-01 season.

They also tend to do well in Germany, winning at Werder Bremen, Stuttgart, Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern all in the last nine years.

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Punch drunk Bordeaux hit the canvas as Lyon surge

James Horncastle — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:52:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat Apr 3 Bordeaux 1-2 Nancy, Valenciennes 1-0 Lille, Rennes 1-2 Lyon, Grenoble 1-2 Lorient, Nice 0-0 Sochaux, Saint-Etienne 2-0 Le Mans, Montpellier 0-0 Monaco Sun Apr 4 Marseille 1-0 Lens, Boulogne 1-1 Toulouse, Auxerre 1-1 PSG

It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine Bordeaux goalkeeper Cédric Carrasso being a fan of Billy Ocean let alone Boyzone.

Either way he seemed very familiar with the lines from their hit song When The Going Gets Tough at the weekend. And needless to say it wasn’t in aid of Comic Relief.

Bordeaux had just lost their third game in a row, something that hasn’t happened since 2007. A 2-1 defeat at home to Nancy knocked them off the top of Le Championnat for the first time in over three months.

They were now fourth, their lowest position all season and for Carrasso, it was definitely time for the tough to get going. “The beautiful Bordeaux is finished,” he grimaced. “Now we need to rediscover the rage.”

Stood beside him was Alou Diarra, Bordeaux’s captain and resident Alpha Male. And he wasn’t happy either. He was already getting tough. “We deserve what we get,” he said moodily. “I don’t know if it’s physical or psychological, but we need to rapidly find a response, because, if not, we cannot hope to realise our objectives this season.”

Contrary to his players though, Laurent Blanc didn’t look the least bit surprised by his side’s worrying form.

Earlier in the week, he didn’t so much write off Bordeaux’s chances as simply play them down and try to take the pressure off his players. However, he probably dealt their morale a further blow instead.

You can’t buy experience at the supermarket

“Marseille and Lyon are two clubs who are better than us. They are two clubs who possess more quality players than Bordeaux,” Blanc insisted. “I said at the start of the season that we have adequate enough players for the Champions League. I wasn’t wrong. But you can’t buy experience at the supermarket.”

Unfortunately for him, Bordeaux can’t buy a win at the moment, and they don’t have the same amount of points as Madame Blanc on her Tesco Clubcard either.

In fact, since the winter break les Girondins have collected just 13 points from the possible 30 available, a record that would see them 14th – just four points outside of the relegation zone - if the season had started on January 17.

Bordeaux are still only a point off the top and do have two games in hand against Le Mans and Valenciennes, but, as Diarra admitted on Saturday, les Girondins could lose to anyone at the moment.

Blanc’s assessment of Bordeaux’s squad was harsh but nonetheless entirely fair. Marc Planus’ knee injury has made it brutally apparent that Blanc lacks alternatives at the back. After all, Bordeaux very nearly conceded more goals in March than they did in the first four months of the season.

Planus’ replacement at centre-back, Ludovic Sane, is actually a holding midfielder. Aged 23, he only signed a professional contract last year.

‘Insanity’ has started just eight games in Ligue 1 this season and was found wanting in the first leg of Bordeaux’s Champions League quarter-final against Lyon last Tuesday, something that didn’t exactly go unnoticed.

Hurry up, this is the Champions League!

France’s most famous pundit, Jean-Michel Larqué, even felt compelled to shout from his TF1 commentary position: “Ludovic boy, hurry up, this is the Champions League!” Larqué had his Uzi out that night as he also repeatedly took aim at Bordeaux’s other centre-back Michaël Ciani, referring to him as “poor Michael” four times from the 57th to the 80th minute.

Ciani understandably took exception. “The majority of people watch the match on TF1 because they have no choice,” he retorted. “Larqué takes advantage of this and does what he wants. I know he wants to shoot me down. He doesn’t want me to go to the World Cup. His idea is to get it into people’s heads that I am hopeless.”

Blanc is evidently concerned, though. He brought in Henrique for Sane on Saturday and it remains to be seen whether the latter was rested for the second leg against Lyon or unceremoniously dropped.

Sunday’s edition of L’Équipe didn’t make happy reading for Bordeaux either, what with its headline proclaiming Lyon’s extraordinary resurrection.

Les Gones returned to the top of Le Championnat for the first time since October at the weekend, impressively coming from behind to beat Rennes 2-1 away from home.

Claude Puel’s team selection provided a case in point for Blanc’s argument that squad size actually matters. Puel took a significant risk in starting without Anthony Réveillère, Cris and Jérémy Toulalan, as Rennes had won their last four games on the bounce. But the gamble ultimately paid off.

“Every game we have left is massive, and it was important that we used out strength in depth tonight,” said Puel, rubbing salt in Blanc’s wounds.

His side have made up 14 points on Bordeaux in their last 12 matches and even putting their 3-1 aggregate lead aside, Lyon perhaps deserve to be considered favourites to reach the Champions League semi-finals on form alone.

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Blanc an unhappy clown as Lyon down Bordeaux

James Horncastle — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 11:52:00 GMT

Bordeaux and Lyon greeted being drawn together in the Champions League quarter-finals with the kind of phoney bonhomie that was reminiscent of the line from The Godfather Part II when Michael Corleone takes out a cigarette and recalls his father advising him to keep his friends close and his enemies closer.

“We were chatting with Jean-Michel Aulas before the draw and agreed we did not want to face each other,” Bordeaux president Jean-Louis Triaud admitted to Eurosport. Thankfully, the affable Triaud chose not to continue The Godfather parallel and have his counterpart at Lyon whacked.

And while things didn’t exactly go to the mattresses, the whole affair did inevitably turn nasty. There was no Sicilian Message for Lyon manager Claude Puel and his players, only a phone call from Bordeaux’s offices to those of LFP president Frederic Thiriez.

Bordeaux made Thiriez an offer he could have refused, asking him to move Lyon’s match against Grenoble on Friday to the following day, so Blanc’s side, who were playing the League Cup final on Saturday, would have the same amount of time to prepare for the quarter-final first leg as their opponents. Capisce?

Anyway, that’s enough with these allusions to The Godfather. Admittedly, The French Connection should have followed Triaud’s example about two pars ago, but Puel was fuming as the much-maligned Thiriez accepted Bordeaux’s proposal. “Don’t talk to me about fairness when you know how things go, when Blanc directly calls the League president to try and influence him,” he raged.

And yet if Puel wasn’t so busy seeing red and powering a steam engine with the sheer amount of hot air pouring out of his ears, he would have no doubt recognised what a wonderful moment this is for French football.

After all, France would have a representative in the semi-finals of the Champions League no matter what for the first time since 2004. Only debt-loving England had as many teams as France left in the competition.

For Lyon, who were knocked out at the quarter-final stage three years running between 2004 and 2006, it was a real chance to break new ground. “We are not afraid of anything,” smirked Anthony Réveillère, Lyon’s 30-year-old right-back. “I’ve played in three, everything is decided by the smallest details. Being the outsider or the favourite doesn’t mean a thing.”

For Bordeaux, it was their first appearance in the quarter-finals since 1988 when the eventual winners, Guus Hiddink’s PSV Eindhoven, edged them out on away goals. “Just getting this far is a real achievement,” smiled Marouane Chamakh, the Moroccan striker who has a Chelsea haircut, but seems ever closer to a move to Arsenal.

But just as in Stalingrad, the sniping continued.

Aulas simply couldn’t let Grenoble-gate go. Speaking to Le Parisien on Monday, he said: “I thought that Bordeaux were sure of themselves, but when I saw them nit-picking for us to play on Saturday, I realised that Blanc was less confident than I imagined.”

Fresh from branding France’s performance against Spain earlier this month “a humiliation”, Lyon midfielder Jérémy Toulalan wagged his silver tongue once more, expressing his disappointment at not drawing ‘a foreign team who are a little bigger’.

Hugo Lloris, the Lyon and France No.1, even had the temerity to say: “We’re not playing against Bordeaux, we’re playing against ourselves.”

Never one to shy away from a slanging match, Chamakh hit back by revealing that “Bordeaux would have preferred to avoid playing Lyon because it doesn’t feel like a big European night.” The expression Touché probably then fell from his lips.

So it’s little wonder that Blanc predicted there would be “some spice” at his pre-match press conference. Mind games or not, the pressure was now more on his shoulders than Puel’s.

Bordeaux’s 3-1 defeat to Marseille in the League Cup final on Saturday couldn’t be ignored as they were facing another French team only this time in Europe.

And while Bordeaux had recorded more points than any other team in the group stages, also keeping clean sheets in each of their last three European away matches, Lyon had put in the more memorable performances, winning at Anfield and drawing at the Santiago Bernabéu.

December’s meeting between the two sides saw Bordeaux win 1-0 at the Gerland, but only in the 86th minute.

Alou Diarra, their influential captain, was magnificent on that evening, but he was suspended for Tuesday’s clash, while Toulalan who missed the game in December was back for Lyon.

In fact, if the season had started after Christmas, Lyon would be top of Ligue 1 instead of being just two points behind Bordeaux. So like an angry snowball covered in patches of yellow, careening down the side of a mountain, picking up momentum and leaving bodies in its wake, Lyon smashed into Bordeaux with some force.

Lisandro López, the bearded Argentinian gunslinger, took advantage of a mistake made by Bordeaux defender Michaël Ciani after just 10 minutes to give Lyon the lead.

Chamakh equalised almost immediately, scoring his 11th header of the season, but Lyon showed a proclivity for guerrilla warfare, lulling their opponents into a false sense of security, before launching an ambush.

Michel Bastos re-established Lyon’s advantage after half an hour, profiting on another uncharacteristic lapse in the Bordeaux defence to curl a lovely shot beyond former Crystal Palace ‘keeper Cédric Carrasso.

Only then did Bordeaux start to really dominate the play, carving out two great chances after the interval – one for Chamakh who forced Hugo Lloris into a great save and another for Wendel who hit the bar.

The match’s status as an instant classic was confirmed when Bordeaux full-back Mathieu Chalmé was judged to have handled in the box with 13 minutes remaining; López made no mistake, slotting his penalty away to give Lyon a 3-1 lead that left Bordeaux reeling.

Jean Makoun and Sidney Govou could have piled yet more misery on les Girondins, but it was job done for Lyon.

The victory was bittersweet for López whose match-winning performance was tainted by an undeserved yellow card that rules him out of the second leg. And despite stats showing that 77 per cent of teams with a 3-1 lead in the first leg go through at this stage of the competition, Puel was left thinking about what might have been.

“There is a little regret that we did not score a fourth,” he bristled. “The second leg is open. I know how good they are. They are a team who put lots of pressure on any side.”

Meanwhile, Blanc tried putting a shine on things, praising his players. “I might surprise you by saying I’m very happy with how my team performed tonight. It has been a long time since I’d seen them play that way.”

However, there is a definite sense that Blanc was actually the unhappy clown, smiling on the outside while frowning on the inside. His team have now suffered back-to-back 3-1 defeats to their title rivals, losing five of their last 12 matches.

Needless to say, the final straight is not the place to have a wobble.

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Deschamps and Marseille happy to win the cup nobody wanted

James Horncastle — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:21:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat Mar 27 Lyon 2-0 Grenoble Sun Mar 28 Le Mans 1-3 Rennes, Lorient 4-0 Saint-Étienne, Toulouse 0-2 Nice, PSG 3-0 Boulogne, Nancy 5-1 Lens, Lille 4-1 Montpellier

As if wearing a skanky T-shirt on which was written the cringe-inducing slogan ‘been there, done that and all I got was this lousy trophy’, Bordeaux manager Laurent Blanc treated this weekend’s League Cup final against Marseille with the kind of disdain that left no one under the illusion that he considered it to be a major inconvenience.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Blanc gave such a master class in the art of escapology that it would have even left the legendary Harry Houdini clapping and shouting: “Bravo, Bravo!”

The Great Blanc, as he is known in the magic circle, somehow managed to extricate himself from even broaching the subject of the League Cup for a staggering 20 minutes.

“It’s always a pleasure to play a final,” Blanc said, checking his watch and doing his best not to roll his eyes. “The only problem is that we have a big match, which is very important for the club, the staff and the players, coming up against Lyon.”

"Well, I can think of one competition I care about more than the League Cup..."

After winning the League Cup three times in the last seven years, it’s no exaggeration to say that Bordeaux no longer take the competition all that seriously, nor does it figure as high as before on their list of priorities, not with a Champions League quarter-final coming up against Lyon on Tuesday anyway.

But if we’re honest, it’s not as if they have to do much to win it either. The current format sees last year’s top four in Ligue 1 automatically receive a bye to the last 16 of the competition, and if that isn’t enough of an advantage they are also kept apart until the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, Marouane Chamakh, Bordeaux’s headstrong striker, was sat alongside Blanc with the relaxed demeanour of a Bond villain stroking a League Cup shaped cat.

After laughing deeply for around two minutes, he put his little finger to his lips and asked: “What other competition allows you to win a trophy after playing just five matches?”

Chamakh then had his ‘No Mr Bond, I want you to die’ moment, showing all the hubris of a much taller and Moroccan Napoleon Bonaparte whose ability with his head had led to the prospect of a move to Arsenal and not exile to Elba. “It’s not the League Cup,” he quipped. “It’s the Bordeaux Cup.”

It’s also unsurprising that Bordeaux’s all too nonchalant attitude started rubbing people up the wrong way. In fact, when Blanc didn’t exactly discourage the idea of playing a B team, Rennes manager Frédéric Antonetti practically started slapping his head and blowing a raspberry. “They want to cancel the League Cup, I think it’s bullsh*t,” he raged.

Lyon were also understandably seething after Bordeaux succeeded in getting their rival’s Ligue 1 match against Grenoble on Friday moved to the following day so that both teams would now have the same amount of time to prepare for Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final.

“Don’t talk to me about fairness when you know how things go, when Blanc directly calls the League president to try and influence him,” Claude Puel said, all the while shaking his fist in Bordeaux’s general direction.

But what about Marseille in all this? After all they were finalists too. And they actually wanted to win the Cup of no one cares.

"I was the World Cup winning captain", "No, I was!"

When asked how he would approach his first final with L’OM, Didier Deschamps produced a wry smile and said: “But it’s not my first final with them…”

Lest we forget, Deschamps actually captained the last Marseille side to win any silverware 17 years ago, something not lost on the French media.

The question he now had to answer was a simple one: Could he coach the next one? “I have not come here today to have a walk-on part,” sneered French football’s answer to Clint Eastwood. “I have come for the victory.”

There is a sense with Deschamps that his desire to win is so strong that even when play-fighting with his children at home he’d be looking for a knock out punch and then for his adoring wife to lift his arm in victory before the rapturous applause of the household furniture.

This is a man who has been to 16 major finals, winning the World Cup, the European Championship and the Champions League. That’s why Deschamps said: “I don’t see Bordeaux coming to the Stade de France just to be tourists.”

The very notion of playing a final as if it were merely jumpers for goalposts down the local park was an insult to him.

And with only three points now separating Bordeaux and Marseille in Ligue 1, it wasn’t lost on Deschamps that this final might be a title decider, or at the very least a psychological launch pad to bigger and better things for a club starved of success.

Sooner or later, Blanc also realised as much, fielding close to a full strength team, including Gourcuff and Chamakh, in recognition that a) Marseille meant business b) they would pose a bigger threat than last year’s finalists, Ligue 2 side Vannes, and c) public pressure now demanded that Bordeaux show the competition some respect.

And right from the start les Girondins befitted their status as French champions and holders, dominating possession for most of the first half.

Diawara cared about the League Cup, evidently

When Marseille’s captain and top scorer Mamadou Niang went off injured just after the interval, the momentum appeared to swing even further in Bordeaux’s favour.

That was until Deschamps brought on Mathieu ‘Mad Dog’ Valbuena, the attacking midfielder who had come up through Bordeaux’s youth ranks only to be cut after being deemed not good enough for a professional contract.

Obviously feeling he had something to prove, Valbuena made an instant impact, winning the corner from which Marseille took the lead.

Souleymane Diawara, L’OM’s towering centre-back who left Bordeaux in the summer, got in front of his marker and powered a header beyond Ulrich Rame just after the hour-mark before pointedly kissing the Marseille badge.

From then on, it was one-way traffic. Seven minutes later Hatem Ben Arfa found Valbuena in the box who showed absolutely no hesitation in doubling his side’s lead.

The knock out blow came in the 77th minute when that man again - Valbuena - lashed in a free-kick, which deflected off Mathieu Chalmé, making it 3-0.

Bordeaux did eventually get a consolation goal through Ludovic Sané, but Marseille’s 6149-day wait for silverware was over.

Mandanda won the 'biggest egg-cup' competition at the Marseille village fate

The Cup of no one cares clearly mattered a great deal to L’OM. It was particularly charged with emotion because Robert Louis-Dreyfus, the club’s patron who had spent millions of pounds rebuilding the club after Marseille’s return to Ligue 1 in 1997 following the incredible corruption scandal that saw them relegated, hadn’t lived to see them win anything under his presidency.

He tragically died in July last year after a long battle with leukemia.

“This is the most beautiful homage possible to him and his wife and children who were in the stadium to see it,” Deschamps smiled. “It’s a feeling of immense joy for everybody, above all the players.”

DD had done it again. And just as on July 12, 1998 when he was suspended for the World Cup final against Brazil at the Stade de France, Blanc had to watch from the sidelines as Deschamps lifted yet another trophy.

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Amateurs reach French Cup semi-finals

James Horncastle — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:34:00 GMT

Imagine a land where cup competitions don’t need TV company hyperbole or a dusty rummage through the archives to find some romance.

A place where a fairytale cup run isn’t based on spending millions of petrodollars and then plunging the club into financial oblivion, instead entrusting postmen, bricklayers and those poor b**tards who work in call centres with making the impossible that little bit possible – and giving the masses, the real people and not the prawn sandwich brigade, some joie de vivre.

Ladies and gentleman, fear not, that place is not far away. The French Connection would like to humbly present Exhibit A – the retro-chic throwback magnificence that is the French Cup.

And the blog feels absolutely no shame in saying that while there was some hyperbole present in that last sentence, we can positively assure you that no soundtrack from The Verve was necessary, nor were any animals harmed in the making of the latest French Connection.

THE PREPARATION: MINI-GOLF, SOAPS & WII SPORTS

Our story starts in a three-star hotel in Forges-les-Eaux, a small spa town in Upper-Normandy where an amateur football team called Quevilly have gathered ahead of Tuesday night’s French Cup quarter-final against Ligue 1’s relegation-threatened Boulogne.

Their journey started on a cold October Saturday against AS Plateau, who they beat 4-0 on what can only be described as a Sunday league pitch.

Eight rounds later, fourth division Quevilly, among whom there is a policeman, a supermarket shelf stacker and some students, have somehow claimed the scalps of Ligue 2 side Angers and Ligue 1 high-flyers Stade Rennais, currently the seventh best team in France. “When you join this club,” Quevilly manager Régis Brouard told L’Équipe on Tuesday, “they tell you about the history. We now need to write a new page.”

Brouard was referring to Quevilly’s much-heralded cup pedigree. Formed in 1902 by local businessman Amable Lozai, who used to employ some of the club’s players in his naval repairs company, Quevilly reached the French Cup final in 1927 when they lost to Marseille.

In 1968 they eliminated Lyon on the way to the semi-finals, becoming the first third division side to reach that stage of the competition for 44 years. It’s little wonder that, anticipating another giant-killing exploit, Quevilly midfielder Pierrick Lebourg joked earlier this week: “All the world will talk about us – even the hairdressers.”

Considering the weight of history, cynics unsurprisingly expected Quevilly to crack. After all, they had been ‘stewing’ in Forges-les-Eaux since Sunday. But Brouard wasn’t going to let the pressure get to them, nor was he going to allow his boys “to stay in their rooms playing their stupid computer games” – although some of them did apparently get a Wii Sports tournament underway.

No, Brouard decided to ‘discipline’ his players by organising a round of mini-golf instead. He didn’t get in the way of them going to the casino either, even after his assistant David Fouquet caught some of the players red-handed having an unhealthy pizza evening – through pictures posted on Facebook.

“They’re all good sports,” Brouard laughed. “I know that they will all be in their digs come 11 o’clock.” Midfielder Fodie Traoré agreed. He had been given leave to spend his days watching French soap The Fire of Love. “It allows us to think about other things, without thinking too hard,” Traoré mused.

So despite all the expectation, Quevilly were utterly detached. Brouard had somehow managed to relax his players into believing that they really didn’t have anything to lose. And yet destiny – whatever that is – also appeared to be on their side.

Cédric Vanoukia, the team’s Guadeloupian right-back, who spent the 2006-07 season without a club after three potentially career-ending operations, received a present from his former Brest team-mate who had since gone on to bigger and better things.

His name was Franck Ribéry and after France’s friendly match against Spain earlier this month, the Bayern Munich winger gave Vanoukia a pair of boots especially for the cup. “Now it’s up to you to bring me to the Stade de France,” Ribéry joked with his old friend.

Only it now seems it really is no joke. Sat in the dressing room at the Stade Robert-Diochon last night, Brouard gave a team talk that put Al Pacino’s Any Given Sunday pep-chat in the shade.

Behind him were three large pieces of paper pinned to a notice board on which was written: “We need to be: Pragmatiques, Courageux, Intelligents, Rigoureux.”

AND SO TO BATTLE

Inspired? Well, it obviously had the desired effect. Just over 90 minutes later, winger Anthony Laup was beaming: “It all went as planned.” Quevilly hadn't just beaten Boulogne. They had hammered them 3-1, racing into a 2-0 lead before the half-hour mark thanks to goals from Florian Coquio and Laup.

However, after the sheer elation of going in front an eerie calm descended on the Robert-Diochon. Quevilly weren’t playing at home – they were forced to move the fixture to nearby Rouen, as their ground wasn’t big enough. But the players looked at ease, especially following Laup’s goal.

After all, Quevilly had set a record for not conceding in any of their previous eight cup ties this season. In that morning’s edition, L’Équipe had even proclaimed that “they defend like professionals”.

Hicham Rhoufir, the team’s impeccably groomed goalkeeper who had only ever been deemed good enough to be unfashionable Rouen’s third string glove-lover, had revealed how he prepares for matches by watching YouTube clips of his idol, Bernard ‘the Cat’ Lama.

And while he did eventually concede just before the break, Quevilly’s chances of progressing to the semi-finals never really looked in any doubt, certainly not after Abdel Majide Ouahbi re-established their two-goal advantage on 67 minutes. In recording a historic 3-1 victory, Quevilly became only the third team from the fourth division to reach the final four of the French Cup.

Back in the dressing room, a chant of “Souleymane” went up. The Quevilly players were invoking the example of Marseille defender Souleymane Diawara, who had promised to pay for his team-mates to have a champagne meal at a restaurant if they beat French champions Bordeaux.

Brouard understood immediately. He had paid for his players to go to a nightclub after their victory over Angers and then to go to a restaurant following their exploits against Rennes. Yesterday, he had to dig deeper, shouting his players another meal.

The lads have already booked a holiday to Spain with their bonuses, but the real reward is a semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain.

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Tight title race as Marseille gain at Lyon’s expense

James Horncastle — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:16:00 GMT

Sitting in a humble little establishment along the waterfront in Marseille on Saturday after a wedding, The French Connection was looking for inspiration – and, after one too many glasses of vin rouge, some dignity.

Seeing a plate of Moules Marinieres still untouched in front of the blog, a straggly-haired man with a face like a pack of pork and apple sausages tried to engage in some harmless small talk. His name was René and like a cold Parisien or someone just a little worse for wear, The French Connection tried in vain to avoid eye contact.

That is until the not-to-be-deterred René tried with some success to compare the now cold and unappetising Moules Marinieres with the current situation at the top of Ligue 1. “The more open the mussel,” he opined, “the better the season.”

Having initially thought René quite unstable and worthy of being sectioned under the mental health act, The French Connection thanked him for his bizarrely illuminating gnomic gastronomic anecdote. There was clearly some method in this man’s madness.

A cursory glance at L’Équipe revealed that with just 10 games remaining this season, the title race was indeed wide open. In fact, there were now just three points separating first and sixth place in the table.

Cries were heard from the press boxes up and down the country as journalists and commentators pinched themselves to check that it was in fact real. And with good reason too, as in seven of the last 11 years in France, the gap at the top at this stage of the season was 15 points or more.

RESULTS Sat Mar 20 Auxerre 2-1 Le Mans, Boulogne 2-0 Lorient, Rennes 4-1 Toulouse, Grenoble 0-0 Monaco, Nice 1-0 PSG, St. Etienne 0-0 Nancy, Lens 0-0 Sochaux Sun Mar 21 Bordeaux 3-1 Lille, Montpellier 2-1 Valenciennes, Marseilles 2-1 Lyon

And to make things that little bit more intriguing, this weekend featured what a French bunch of Sky Sports producers would no doubt call a Super Dimanche.

Top of the table Bordeaux played fourth-placed Lille while Lyon travelled to Marseille with November’s entertaining yet utterly absurd 5-5 draw still fresh in everyone’s minds. “It will be decisive,” Marseille midfielder Benoît Cheyrou told France Football last Thursday.

“Above all," continued the brother of former Liverpool flop Bruno, "if there is a winner as that team will then be in the ascendancy both mathematically and psychologically.”

"Psst! Benny! Build it up in the press!"

Cheyrou was perhaps still a little bit scarred from Lyon’s last trip to the Vélodrome in May 2009, when Marseille suffered a heartbreaking 3-1 defeat that effectively ended their chances of winning Ligue 1 for the first time in 16 years.

Lyon’s goalscorers that day, Karim Benzema and Juninho, are no longer around and while Claude Puel’s current side have started 2010 better than anyone else in Ligue 1 the consensus is - even among Bordeaux players like Marouane Chamakh - that Marseille are the most serious challengers to Les Girondins’ crown this season.

So Sunday night’s game was another acid test of Marseille’s credentials. The first such examination came on Thursday when Didier Deschamps’ side had the chance to exact revenge on Benfica – nearly 20 years after Vata’s imitation of Diego Maradona’s Hand of God infamously knocked L’OM out of the Champions League semi-finals.

The occasion this time was the last 16 of the Europa League, but Marseille were surprisingly knocked out again, leaving Deschamps hurt and under pressure.

Progress to the quarter-finals of a major (if often derided) European competition would have surely taken attention away from Marseille’s recent stuttering form in Ligue 1. L’OM had drawn their last three games in the League, making Sunday’s clash with Lyon all the more important for France’s best-supported team.

And yet ever since the winter break, there has been the distinct feeling that Deschamps has actually found what really makes Marseille tick.

HOW DESCHAMPS' MARSEILLE WORK

In the summer, he inherited from Eric Gerets a talented but ultimately frustrating side that played a 4-3-3 formation with the accent on solidity in midfield. Whereas the Belgian tactician tended to use two anchormen and a playmaker, Deschamps has inverted the midfield triangle.

Former West Ham midfielder Édouard Cissé is now the only designated holding player, while Cheyrou and summer signing Lucho González are pushed further forward and charged with participating in the attacks, where the frustrating but richly talented Hatem Ben Arfa and Mathieu Valbuena flank the versatile Mamadou Niang.

Deschamps’ pièce de résistance has been in converting a reluctant Stéphane Mbia into a makeshift centre-back, taking advantage of the Cameroonian midfielder’s height and strength in the tackle to shore up a defence missing Gabriel Heinze’s presence.

And Didi’s efforts have borne fruit. Marseille are averaging more points, scoring more goals and conceding fewer than in the first half of the season, despite Steve Mandanda saving just 63.5% of shots on goal, the worst record in Ligue 1.

"Yay! It worked!"

So as kick-off approached on Sunday, there were grounds for optimism, but the pressure hadn’t diminished. Bordeaux, Auxerre and Montpellier had all won, meaning a defeat would leave Marseille six points off the pace.

Deschamps was also very concerned that Thursday’s efforts would ultimately cost his side while Cheyrou, whose performances this season earned him a long overdue call-up to the France national team, was ruled out along with Fabrice Abriel and Bakari Koné.

However, Lyon had significant problems of their own. Friday’s Champions League quarter-final draw, which pitted them against Bordeaux, papered over one rather large and unsavoury crack.

Speaking to L’Équipe on Wednesday, a disgruntled Sidney Govou revealed that he wanted to leave Lyon in the summer after falling out with the club’s management. Lyon had stripped Govou of the captain’s armband last October after a report in Le Progres claimed he had been drunk at a tennis tournament.

“I have no relationship [with Puel],” he whined. “I don’t like his man-management. I know you can’t let the players do what they want, but I regret the lack of understanding between us.”

And if that wasn’t bad enough, Puel had more than his fair share of injury problems to deal with too, as he was forced to drop Jérémy Toulalan - Lyon’s midfield metronome - back into defence in place of Jean-Alain Boumsong.

His attempts to downplay the bearing the match might eventually have on the title race were also unconvincing as Bordeaux – who were by now five points in front of them - also have a game in hand, as do Marseille.

And after becoming the first Lyon manager in seven years not to win the League last season – something even the hapless former Portsmouth manager Alain Perrin couldn’t screw up – Puel is in a Manuel Pellegrini-type situation where anything other than a major breakthrough in Europe will not be tolerated if the Ligue 1 title doesn’t follow.

So it wasn’t entirely surprising that Sunday’s encounter was almost the polar opposite of November’s memorable 5-5 draw. As is often the case between two teams of a high level, it was the trees and not the wood that stood out; the individuals were the ones who ultimately proved decisive, not the collective.

Having weathered a storm in the first half, Marseille took the lead thanks to a looping shot from Charles Kaboré after 68 minutes. But Lyon looked worthy of a goal. They had struck the woodwork for the 13th time this season in the first half and their equaliser - a powerful Bafétimbi Gomis header off a Kim Kallstrom free-kick in the 81st minute - had clearly been coming.

So you can imagine how the Lyon jaw dropped when barely 60 seconds later, Taye Taiwo, Marseille’s Nigerian full-back, bombed forward and launched a missile of a shot that beat Hugo Lloris and quite possibly destroyed Claude Puel’s chances of winning the title and keeping his job beyond the end of this season. The match ended 2-1 and Marseille had their revenge for last May.

"Taiwo... Two-one!"

“The players are getting to know each other better and better, and I’m starting to get to know them better and better as well,” Deschamps smiled after the game. Marseille are now fourth in Ligue 1, three points behind Bordeaux – who they face in the French Cup final on Saturday.

However, the question on everyone’s lips today is: Having captained the last Marseille side to win the League in 1993, can Deschamps now coach the next one?

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Lyon miss chance to go top after a slap from ASSE

James Horncastle — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:24:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat Mar 13 Monaco 0-0 Bordeaux, Montpellier 1-1 Auxerre, Lorient 1-0 Lens, Nancy 1-3 Boulogne, PSG 4-1 Sochaux, Le Mans 0-1 Nice, Lyon 1-1 Saint- Étienne Sun Mar 14 Lille 1-0 Grenoble, Valenciennes 0-2 Rennes, Toulouse 1-1 Marseille
Ligue Un results, fixtures & table

Thanks to a shaven head and a tribal tattoo on his temple in homage to his idol, mixed martial artist Wanderlei Silva - aka the Axe Murderer - Saint-Étienne goalkeeper Jérémie Janot tends to look as if he is up for a fight.

But appearances can be deceiving. Janot just happens to be one of French football’s good guys. The 32-year-old is a one-club man and a particularly humble soul having never been considered Saint- Étienne’s No 1 in 14 years with Les Verts.

He wears the No 16 because, as one Saint-Étienne fan told the French Connection, that’s near enough the number of challengers the Frenchman has seen off during his time at the club. It’s little wonder that they call Janot the Executioner.

However, at the weekend, he was doing his level best to act like a hard man. Saint-Étienne travelled to Lyon on Saturday for what many still consider to be the original French derby.

Jérémie Janot - not an axe murderer...

Speaking to France Football last week, Janot said: “For me, Lyon are a beautiful machine that gravitates around football’s upper echelons and wins titles. But on an emotional level they are the enemy. The rivalry that exists between ASSE and OL is the purest and the toughest.”

In 10 matches against Lyon, Janot has never won, losing on eight occasions. And while Lyon celebrated knocking out Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday night, Saint-Étienne sat and watched from 16th place in Ligue 1, just six points clear of the relegation zone.

It also bears remembering that Les Verts only just survived last year, finishing fourth from bottom.

But once upon a time it was a completely different story. In fact, the roles were reversed. It was April 1961 when a man with a pipe firmly stuck in his craw strolled confidently into the boardroom at Saint-Étienne’s Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.

His name was Roger Rocher, a local entrepreneur, who over three decades would not only change Saint-Étienne’s fortunes, but also the very landscape of French football.

After promotion from the second division in 1963, Saint-Étienne would win nine League titles and six French Cups in 17 years.

It was a truly unprecedented spell of dominance that was punctuated by famous European nights, no more so than in 1976 when Robert Herbin’s legendary side reached the final of the European Cup at Hampden Park, only to lose 1-0 to Bayern Munich after twice hitting the woodwork.

Jacques Santini (remember him?) hits the Bayern woodwork

Neighbours Lyon were undoubtedly in the shadows. Saint-Étienne had ruffled their feathers on more than one occasion before. Pierre Faurand, Rocher’s predecessor, got a real kick out of poking fun at them.

In 1957, three years after Saint-Étienne won their first League title, he decided to refurbish the Geoffroy-Guichard and for a time, it seemed likely that they would have to ground-share with Lyon. But Faurand laughed off the suggestion. “We’re maybe going to Paris,” he said. “We can’t go to Lyon. The supporters wouldn’t settle for that.”

Rocher would prove a different animal altogether, though, and one with considerably more bite. Having worked in Saint-Étienne’s mines from the age of 17 to 27, he revelled in getting one over those arty-types who lived 40 miles away in a city more famous for nouvelle cuisine and cinema than football.

When he died in 1997, Lyon were still five years away from winning Ligue 1 for the first time, something he probably cherished.

One of his finest hours inevitably came at Lyon’s expense in 1969 when Saint- Étienne beat them 7-1 just three days after knocking Bayern out of the European Cup. “In football,” he quipped. “Saint- Étienne will always be the capital and Lyon its suburb.”

When Les Verts went to the Stade Gerland the following March, Lyon understandably tried to rough them up.

The fans threw cheese baskets on to the pitch and Salif Keita, Saint- Étienne’s powerful Malian striker, was fouled so much that he said: “I had to put on two sets of shin guards: one for the front and the other for the backs of my legs.” Keita made four assists and scored once on that day in another memorable victory.

Such was the degree of Saint- Étienne’s superiority in those days that they could often conjure a win with only 10 men.

In 1978, Oswaldo Piazza, their talismanic Argentinian defender, expressed his desire to spend Christmas back in South America. So during a derby that December - with the result already assured - he was allowed to leave the pitch, jump in a cab and catch a flight home.

However, it would all begin to unravel in spectacular fashion in 1982 when an investigation was launched into the club’s finances that would lead to Rocher being sentenced to four years in prison for embezzlement.

Aulas insists on holding press conferences on a ski-slope

Saint- Étienne were relegated two years later and things would never be the same again. In 1987, Jean-Michel Aulas, a software entrepreneur, bought Lyon and the tide finally changed.

As the 99th derby approached on Saturday evening, Saint- Étienne fans were all too aware of that much. If they weren’t then there was no shortage of Lyon supporters to remind them that it’s now been 16 years and 21 derbies since Saint- Étienne could claim the bragging rights, something L’Équipe was also keen to underline.

“For Les Verts it’s not just a bad run,” wrote Vincent Duluc. “It’s a curse.”

And yet there was an undercurrent of optimism as the team sitting on the banks of the Loire travelled to the one that sits on the Rhone. Both may be flowing in different directions, one to the Atlantic, the other to the Mediterranean, but on Saturday they would be equal as is always emphasised in the lore of the derby, football’s great leveller.

Lyon would surely be physically and mentally tired after their exertions at the Santiago Bernabéu in midweek. Europe had already made them pay this season. In October, they returned from Anfield with an illustrious 2-1 win over Liverpool, only to then lose 4-1 to Nice.

Their progress in the Champions League had also benefited Saint- Étienne in other ways. “It’s true that their qualification brings us a bonus of €1m from the transfer of Bafétimbi Gomis,” Rolland Romeyer, one of Saint- Étienne’s two presidents, smiled at the weekend

And the pressure was on Lyon anyway, as League leaders Bordeaux had lost to Auxerre on Wednesday and then drew against Monaco earlier on Saturday. If Claude Puel’s side won, they would go joint top in Ligue 1.

But it wasn’t to be. Saint- Étienne took the lead just before half time through their 20-year-old revelation Emmanuel Rivière, a graduate from the club’s academy, who has now scored seven of his eight goals in 2010.

He thrived on the uncertainty of Lyon’s backline, which was different in its configuration for the third game in a row and perhaps more importantly without Jean-Alain Boumsong.

"You're my best mate, you are..."

Puel changed things at the interval, bringing on Lisandro López and the bearded Argentinean soon proved decisive. The 27-year-old scored Lyon’s equaliser and his 12th League goal this season with 11 minutes to go in circumstances which only served to demonstrate the way in which the roles of the two sides has reversed over the last 20 years or so. ]

Loic Perrin, the Saint- Étienne full-back, who was born and bred in the town, signalled to the bench that he would have to come off. His manager, Christophe Galtier had already been planning a change elsewhere on the pitch. Kevin Mirallas was ready to come on for Gonzalo Bergessio, the Saint- Étienne striker.

So a replacement for the now incapacitated Perrin wasn’t ready. In the space of time it took Perrin’s substitute, Guirane N’Daw, to get out of his tracksuit, Lyon launched a long ball forward that found Lopez’s head.

The ball looped over Janot in the Saint- Étienne goal, bounced off the far post and just crossed the line. It finished 1-1.

Unlike the great Saint- Étienne sides of old, this one couldn’t beat Lyon when down to 10 men. However, it had been a valiant effort and Janot was clearly happy. “This was one of the best derbies for a long time,” he told Orange Sport.

“We had a big first half, but Lyon reacted in the second like they did in Madrid.” Galtier had a few little regrets, but the fight for survival goes on and the lessons of the past can hopefully inspire this Saint- Étienne side to bigger and better things to come.

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Will Lyon bring Real back to reality?

Tim Stannard — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:11:00 GMT

BLOGSWAP! Ahead of the Real Madrid vs Lyon game, FFT.com's La Liga Loca stalwart Tim Stannard explains why tonight's game could spell the end of a very expensive dream

The director of Marca is not so much tempting fate as parading Penelope Cruz in front of it with €500 bills stuck to her a**e.

With the dubious declaration that Real Madrid’s narrower-than-Jesus-Navas’-horizons victory over Sevilla on Saturday night had kicked off “a new chapter in the story of the greatest team in history,” Eduardo Inda has surely delivered another early departure from the Champions League for Manuel Pellegrini’s men.

After all, the Madridista press has been here before. Three weeks ago the victory-predicting vibe in the Spanish capital was that Real would surely break their five years of knockout failure and move through to the quarter-finals.

FEATURE, Tue Feb 16: Madrid ready for their annual knock-out round

Florentino Pérez’s prize-fighters were on an unstoppable path that would end with La Décima in the Santiago Bernabeu. What’s more, all they were facing in the Round of 16 clash was a side cursed with being both French and not very good to boot.

But then it turned out that Lyon were considerably better than everyone thought and Real Madrid were a lot worse.

FEATURE, Wed Feb 17: Knock-out curse threatens Pellegrini and Pérez

However, that truth simply wasn’t tolerated by the media-controlling Madrid masters.

So the local press blamed Mahamadou Diarra rather than Cristiano and Kaká for the deserved 1-0 defeat in the Stade Gerland and went back to applauding their €250m men as they taught the likes of Tenerife lessons they would never forget.

Fall guy: Not the only hack to trouble Diarra

This inability to face unpalatable reality has returned in force this week, with Marca and AS seeing subsequent victories over Villarreal, the Canary Island club and Sevilla as proof positive that Lyon will be fed to the lions on Wednesday night.

The fact that Madrid did not manage that rather crucial away goal has been ignored.

The fact that lower-league Alcorcón held Madrid for 81 minutes at the Santiago Bernabeu has been ignored.

The fact that the only three decent teams who have played in Madrid’s home this season - Milan, Villarreal and Sevilla - have scored seven goals has been ignored.

Heck, even the fact that ever-reliable Guti is set to start in place of the suspended Xabi Alonso has been ignored.

Instead, the visitors to the Bernabeu on Wednesday are “going to experience an inferno,” warns Marca on the notoriously hostile Santiago Bernabeu which only really gets narky when either Madrid aren’t winning after 22 minutes or the overhead heaters aren’t turned on.

“It will be a thrilling atmosphere with the crowd backing them for 90 minutes and wearing down the moral of the rival team,” continues the paper. “Lyon could feel frustration and panic.”

The truth is that only Real Madrid will be experiencing frustration and panic on Wednesday night. Wafting down the Castellano along with the overwhelming whiff of Cristiano Ronaldo’s aftershave, the Santiago Bernabeu is producing a tangible smell of fear.

The fear of becoming the laughing stock of Europe, having shipped the globe’s greatest to Spain only for them to be good enough to overcome Espanyol.

The fear of Florentino Pérez that his side will remain sidelined in Europe for another season.

And the fear that a Champions League disaster could give Barcelona all the incentive they could ever need to lift the trophy once again in the Santiago Bernabeu.

The French Connection's James Horncastle guests on La Liga Loca: Real stake their money on Lyon surrender

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Blanc faces his past and alternative presents with Montpellier

James Horncastle — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:30:00 GMT

RESULTS Sat Mar 6 Auxerre 1-0 Valenciennes, Boulogne 0-0 Olympique Lyon , Lens 1-1 PSG, Nice 2-3 Nancy, Saint-Étienne 1-1 Lille, Sochaux 1-0 Toulouse, Stade Rennes 1-0 Monaco Sun Mar 7 Bordeaux 1-1 Montpellier, Grenoble 1-1 Le Mans, Olympique Marseille 1-1 Lorient
Ligue Un results, fixtures & table

Back in April 2007, the phone rang for Laurent Blanc. He had been out of football for nearly four years after calling time on a truly magnificent playing career.

On the end of the line was Michel Mézy, the tired-looking director of sport at Montpellier, the club with whom Blanc has started out as a player in 1983, making 251 appearances over eight years.

Montpellier had been relegated from the top flight in 2004 and were now in real danger of plummeting to French football’s third tier. They were 18th in Ligue 2 with just four games remaining.

Mézy was looking for a saviour and Blanc was the man he’d chosen to replace the beleaguered Jean-François Domergue. But there was one problem. Blanc, who had never coached at that point, simply didn’t want the job.

Montpellier's Blanc in 1991. Name his opponent...

“Blanc was offered the post, but he wasn’t interested. He wanted to wait and look around,” recalled Laurent Niccolin, Montpellier’s Fatty Arbuckle-like president.

A short while later, Blanc would accept his first ever coaching position at Bordeaux and the rest, they say, is history.

Niccolin would ultimately entrust his bench to the controversial Rolland Courbis, who had led Marseille to the UEFA Cup final in 1999 just three years after being seriously injured in a shooting at the seaside resort of Hyères.

Courbis would not only save Montpellier, but also guide them back to Ligue 1 last May for the first time in five years. “Blanc didn’t accept the mission and it made sense,” he said over the weekend. “He had never coached before. He couldn't start out in that position so close to the end of the season.

"It was a job that could only be done by a veteran. If I were in his place, I wouldn't have accepted the job either. Montpellier might have been saved with him too, but I find it normal that he didn’t want to risk being burnt.”

Courbis would leave Montpellier by mutual consent before the start of this season as his chequered past began to catch up with him. He was arrested while assuming his commentary position at the Stade Vélodrome on September 19 and sent to prison the following day for his role in financial irregularities regarding transfer deals at Marseille from 1997 to 1999.

He was released on parole last month.

Time to go: Courbis in court

So with this backdrop in mind it’s no understatement to say that little was expected of Montpellier on their return to Ligue 1. Courbis’s replacement René Girard had spent much of his coaching career with the French Football Federation, most notably in charge of the Under-21s from 2004 to 2008.

Girard hadn’t managed a club since his short spell with Strasbourg 12 years ago. At his official unveiling, Girard was under no illusion of the task ahead of him, acknowledging that the team was “relatively young and inexperienced for Ligue 1.”

And yet on Sunday night, just nine months after Girard took the job, Montpellier travelled to Bordeaux for an unlikely top-of-the-table clash that brimmed with romance. Level on points with the French champions, who also happen to have two games in hand, Montpellier were predictably cast as David in the battle against Blanc’s Goliath.

A study in France Football on Friday showed just how big a gulf lay between the two teams. Bordeaux's budget is said to be a staggering £65m greater than Montpellier’s, while Bordeaux’s star playmaker Yoann Gourcuff earns nearly £65,000 a week more than Montpellier’s highest-paid player, Emir Spahic.

Spahic robs Gourcuff. Not like that

If financial might isn’t a sufficient indicator of strength, Bordeaux could also count on a vast advantage in terms of experience. Montpellier fans were told how the average Bordeaux player has 60 more top-flight games under his belt and that among their opponents were 11 regular international footballers. Montpellier shouldn’t even have a chance.

But oddly enough, come Sunday night the pressure was undoubtedly on Bordeaux. The usually reserved Blanc lost his cool at a press conference on Friday. The League had just announced that the Girondins would have to play four matches over the next 11 days to make up for two fixtures that had been postponed due to bad weather and moved because of cup commitments.

Blanc called the decision “devoid of sporting fairness,” adding that “it goes against what the League has done so far, namely protecting clubs involved in the Champions League.”

There was also increased speculation about his future, no doubt coinciding with France’s disastrous 2-0 defeat to Spain at the Stade de France on Wednesday night. A poll conducted last month made Blanc the clear favourite to succeed Raymond Domenech with 13% more of the vote than Marseille boss Didier Deschamps.

And yet more fuel was added to the fire by a reporter from the newspaper Sud-Ouest who hinted that Blanc’s replacement at Bordeaux had already been found, shouting: “Pass on my regards to Éric Gerets."

Meanwhile, Girard looked at ease. “I just hope that we’re up to such a big occasion, that what’s at stake doesn’t eclipse the match itself. But the fact that we’re going there with our top-flight survival ensured means that we’ll be relaxed. It’s an excellent challenge,” he said.

And why not, you might say? Montpellier had already realised their primary objective this season. They had everything to play for and nothing to lose. Girard’s side had already beaten Lyon at the Stade Gerland in December. His top scorer Victor Hugo Montano had found six of his nine goals away from home.

And Girard was also going back to the place where he’d made his name as a tough-tackling midfielder in the 1980s. He had fond memories of Bordeaux, having played there for eight years, winning three League titles and two French Cups alongside Patrick Battiston and Marius Trésor.

Style counsel: Girard and Blanc strut their stuff

So like a derby against their former selves, Blanc and Girard faced off in one of the most entertaining and bizarre encounters of the season. The continued absence of captain Alou Diarra prompted Blanc to change his system ever so slightly – out went the tried and tested 4-2-3-1 and in came an ambitious 4-1-3-2, which would allow the talented Gourcuff more freedom behind the strikers.

Conversely, Girard stuck with the 4-3-3 that has served Montpellier so well this season. Knocked out of both cup competitions early on in the campaign, he has been able to field practically the same XI every week and his team, by now, play from memory.

But even the best-laid plans go awry. Bordeaux’s recently capped centre-back Mickaël Ciani was sent off for bringing down Montano in the box just after half an hour. Tino Costa – the Argentinian midfielder who has been an absolute revelation this season – stepped up for Montpellier but Cédric Carasso saved.

NEWS Sun Mar 7 Penalty pain for Montpellier at Bordeaux

Four minutes before half time, the summer signing from Toulouse would face another spot-kick. Carasso saved again and somehow Bordeaux went in at the interval on level terms. Blanc’s side have given away seven penalties this season, but thanks to Carasso they have never conceded a goal from one at home.

Ooh, I did it again: Carasso saves his second penalty of the night

Girard now had a problem. Montpellier have been most successful this year on the counter-attack. But they were now faced with a numerical advantage and more possession than usual. Showing their experience, Bordeaux managed the situation better and Marouane Chamakh put them ahead just before the hour mark, scoring only his second non-header this season.

Looking every bit like champions, Bordeaux were triumphing in adversity. They were on the verge of victory. But then Costa – who isn’t nicknamed the new Juninho for nothing – stood over a free-kick deep in stoppage time. He struck the ball low and marveled as the hitherto magnificent Carasso spilled it over the line.

Montpellier had equalised at the death. It was their ninth goal this season scored in the last five minutes – more than any other team in Ligue 1.

Montpellier celebrate yet another late late show

Like their manager, who famously once drew a line on the pitch with the sole of his boot and dared his opponent to cross it, Montpellier proved they never give up without a fight. The dream is still alive.

Montpellier might – they just might – become only the fourth newly-promoted side to win the title and the first since Monaco in 1978. A lot will depend on how Bordeaux, Lyon and Marseille deal with their congested fixture lists.

But for now, Montpellier are still joint top, higher than they have ever been at this stage of the season.

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Marseille fans boycott France's clasico, so PSG fans fight each other

James Horncastle — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:30:00 GMT

Welcome to yet another new regular FourFourTwo.com feature. Let James Horncastle take you to Paris, where fans fight amongst each other...

It’s fair to say Gabriel Heinze is no stranger to controversy. When the Argentina international found himself out of the starting line-up at Manchester United in 2007, he openly solicited a move to their hated rivals Liverpool.

Encouraged by Rafa Benitez, Heinze clearly liked the idea of becoming the first player since Phil Chisnall 46 years ago to cross from Old Trafford to Anfield.

He didn’t get his way. Sir Alex Ferguson blocked the transfer, drawing criticism especially when Liverpool met United’s asking price of £6.8m.

So when Heinze - who ended up moving to Real Madrid - found himself surplus to requirements again in the summer, he didn’t take the easy way out. There was interest from France, notably from Marseille, and the 31-year-old leapt at the chance.

And why wouldn’t he? Before joining United, Heinze had played in France for three years at Paris Saint-Germain – whose fiercest rivals, lest we forget, are none other than Marseille.

It must be said in Heinze’s defence that he would have liked to go back to PSG, but new manager Antoine Kombouaré had faith in Mamadou Sakho, a gifted yet error-prone 20-year-old from the club’s academy.

Heinze: Not popular in Paris

Still, you get the feeling that of the several offers presented to Heinze and his representatives in the summer, there must surely have been one that was trouble-free and uncomplicated.

But obviously that wouldn’t have been to the taste of Heinze, who by now seems to relish the bitterness he inspires in others.

So it’ll come as no surprise that Heinze was one of the focal points – or should we say flash-points - ahead of last Sunday’s clasico between Marseille and PSG at the Parc des Princes. “I spent three formidable years in Paris,” Heinze said, before his trigger-happy personality decided to add: “I will do everything to win the match.”

Recently retired midfielder Fabrice Fiorèse decided to come forward and remind Heinze what kind of a welcome he could expect. After all, he had first-hand experience of the PSG fans’ wrath when he moved to Marseille in 2004.

On Fiorèse’s return to the Parc in November that year, he needed police protection just to take a corner.

Touché! The banner tells the story

Heinze wasn’t the only prospective target, though. Two other Marseille players, Edouard Cissé and Fabrice Abriel, could also consider themselves on the hit list, having upped and left PSG earlier in their careers.

Hatem Ben Arfa, the hugely talented but temperamental playmaker who grew up in in southwestern Parisian suburb Châtenay-Malabry, also admitted to France Football that while playing at the Parc feels like a second home, the fans tend to mock him.

Strangely though, all four players emerged not only victorious – with a stunning 3-0 victory, Marseille’s biggest at the Parc – but also relatively unscathed. For the PSG fans had decided to take aim not at Marseille, but at each other.

"Let's have a riot!" "Oh, alright then."

Throughout the match, rival sets of PSG supporters from the Virage Auteuil and the Kop of Boulogne exchanged abuse. In fact, they only turned their attention to the team when Benoit Cheyrou scored Marseille’s third and final goal in the 71st minute and then it was to chant “thank you, Paris” and “une équipe de ***”.

Once the game ended, the inevitable happened, as fights that had already broken out before kick off resumed outside the ground. Ever since the Tigris Mystic, a collective of ultras from the Virage Auteuil, dissolved in 2006, splinter groups, most notably the Supras and Authentiks, have challenged those from the Kop of Boulogne.

In the week leading up to the match it looked like a ceasefire had been called. But once Marseille fans announced that they were boycotting the fixture, the latest Paris peace treaty was revealed to be a fig leaf.

The empty away end - well, corner

Riot police charged and tear gas was launched as the area around the Parc became a warzone. A 38-year-old member of the Kop of Boulogne was left in a coma after being attacked by a rival group based in the Tribune d’Auteuil.

Enough was enough. Action had to be taken. The city reverberated to echoes of November 2006, when a member of the Boulogne Boys was shot dead to protect an Israeli supporter under attack following a UEFA Cup match against Hapoel Tel Aviv.

On Tuesday, PSG’s chairman Robin Leproux revealed that the club would try to stop the violence by no longer selling tickets for away games. “Violence is at its height, we have reached a new level of urban guerilla warfare," read a statement on PSG’s website.

The police edge nervously forward

"Until further notice, we shall not sell tickets to our supporters for our away games. It’s a far-reaching and distressing decision but I have to ensure the safety of all.”

The French Minister of the Interior Brice Hortefeux backed Leproux’s decision ahead of PSG’s trip to Lens on Saturday, especially in light of clashes between the club’s fans in Lille on January 16.

However, putting the deplorable violence to one side for a minute, L’Equipe raised a perfectly valid existential point regarding the almost unprecedented nature of PSG’s situation. “There were no Marseille supporters at the Parc des Princes. And, in the end, there weren’t any people there to support PSG.”

If a football club is required to be financially solvent to remain a going concern, surely it also needs a fan base as well? Lying in 12th place with just one win in the League in 2010, PSG are in crisis but above all they are on their own.

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