This Is The End of Les Bleus As We Know Them

I feel the same way, Titi.

I don’t want to say “I told you so” but, I told you so. The implosion of Les Bleus in 2010 is almost complete.

On the day before their World Cup opener against Uruguay, I detailed how Les Bleus were completely falling apart due to infighting. Cliques formed amongst the 23 players, pitting some against each other, and everyone hated Raymond Domenech. I was mocked as too pessimistic and gullible about the stories of dissent within the squad, called a poor fan for wanting France to lose as a way of proving I was right about Domenech (which I never did; I knew I was right, but I never wanted France to lose), and roundly criticized for not being supportive of the national side. And those were just the nice comments.

I, and numerous other fans of Les Bleus, urged the benching of Sindey Govou and Jeremy Toulalan in favor of Thierry Henry and Abou Diaby. What did Raymond do? He started Diaby (YAY!) at the expense of Florent Malouda (HUH?), who had been the lone bright spot for the past several matches. Everyone wondered why the Chelsea winger had been excluded until rumours began to emerge that he had gotten into an argument with Domenech over tactics. It turns out that the ridiculous gaffer had wanted to play Malouda on the left as a defensive midfielder, meaning that he would have had two DMs (with Toulalan the other) in his 4-3-3 formation.

Malouda said all the right things in public (“I play where I am told”; “there was no argument with the coach”), but it was yet another sign that behind the scenes everything was falling apart. To make things worse, Domenech continued to vacillate on his tactical and line-up decisions. As it became clearer and clearer that Nicolas Anelka and Franck Ribery were marginalizing Yoann Gourcuff due to his oversized ego (H/T to The Dame of Extra Time, who emailed me to note that they had “put Gourcuff in their “burn-book”), Ray-Ray did the one thing guaranteed to shatter the young midfielder and dropped him from the team for the match against Mexico.

That match, which has caused so much consternation (and liver damage) at Chez NY Kid, provided a brief hope as the line-up was first revealed. Seeing Malouda and Diaby both starting, I stupidly assumed that Toulalan had been dropped. Imagine my despair when I saw that he had in fact dropped Gourcuff, keeping that useless nonce Toulalan on the field to watch attacking midfielders zoom by as he looked on slack-jawed and slow of foot (naturally, he would pick up his inevitable yellow card, which thankfully keeps him out of the match against South Africa). However, Raymond had at least (on first glance) shifted back to a 4-2-3-1 formation, which allowed Diaby to cover for some of Toulalan’s mistakes with both of them as DMs. With Ribery, Malouda and Govou (for f**k’s sake, the man is absolutely profligate in front of goal!) acting as wingers and a striker in the hole, however, that left Anelka to operate up top all by his lonesome. The result: Le Sulk, frustrated at his isolation on offense and inability to receive the ball where he wanted it, spent the first half of the match literally walking on the pitch, and thus spent the second half off of it.

Now news comes out that the reason that Anelka was dropped at the half in favor of Andre-Pierre Gignac is that when Domenech told the Chelsea striker to stop retreating so deeply to the ball, Anelka responded with “Go f**k yourself, you son of a whore.” Well, I suppose that’s one way of informing your coach that you disagree with his tactical decisions. Not surprisingly, the Fédération Française de Football found this to be unacceptable (as did French president Nicolas Sarkozy) although it’s clear that most fans of Les Bleus would love to have the chance to say the same thing to Domenech. When FFF president Jean-Pierre Escalettes demanded an apology from Anelka and the latter refused, he was immediately sent home.

The official FFF statement reads: “The behavior of Nicolas Anelka toward the national coach, Raymond Domenech, is totally unacceptable for the Fédération Française de Football, French football, and the values that it upholds.” Added Roselyne Bachelot, the French Minister of Sport, “the players need to remember that they are wearing the colors of France, and that they are considered role models for many young individuals. This demands that they maintain tact and dignity.” WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

In the past few days (before the announcement of Anelka’s departure), I have watched news programs from all of the major television stations in France and the recurring theme throughout has been that this team is entirely dysfunctional. In separate interviews, Evra, Malouda and Toulalan have all admitted that the squad is divided and that these tensions prevent them from operating as a unit. Pundits agree that there is a massive amount of talent available for the side, but they are a collection of individuals rather than a team. Guess what? I’ve been saying that for months.

Aime Jacquet (who lead the side to the 1998 World Cup title), Bixente Lizarazu (the fullback from that Cup-winning side), and Zinedine Zidane (really, do I need to tell you who he is?) have all been highly critical of Domenech, and of Les Bleus in general. On the news the other night, Emmanuel Petit (defensive midfielder on the 1998 side) went so far as to say that watching Domenech in the technical area of the Mexico match made him physically ill.

Apparently Petit wasn’t the only one put off by Domenech on the touchline, as Gourcuff, Titi and Djibril Cisse all went out of their way to “warm up” as far as possible from Ray-Ray when he informed them that they might be entering the match.

For a variety of reasons (age, performance, need for housecleaning) many of the current players are not likely to feature under Laurent Blanc when he takes over at the end of World Cup 2010. Of those who started the match against Mexico, Eric Abidal, William Gallas, Govou, and Anelka have almost certainly played their last match for the national side, as has my beloved Titi. Regardless of changes made by Lolo, it is unlikely that he will drop either Ribery or Gourcuff, and thus he will still have a problem on his hands. It’s no secret that Ribery is insistent that Les Bleus belong to him (which is why he never worked well with Titi), and he will cause consternation for Blanc with his demands that: (a) he be made captain; and (b) Gourcuff submit to him as the primary playmaker.

Will that work? No less than World Cup-leading goalscorer and French legend Just Fontaine doesn’t think so, noting “Ribéry? One day, we had the stupidity to say that he was the brains of the team and since then he has believed it. He dribbles past seven players but then the eighth one takes the ball off him.”

The fact is, this team never came together as a team because they were more concerned with themselves as individuals. But here’s the thing – it’s the responsibility of the gaffer to realize that certain elements aren’t working well together and to make changes accordingly. After the disastrous Euro 2008 campaign everyone could see that Les Bleus were headed for a wreck if they maintained their current course, and there were only two options: (1) change the players; or (2) change the manager. Once it became clear that the FFF desired to have a side comprised of the best players in France regardless of their ability to work with one another, the intelligent thing to do would have been to find a more strong-willed manager who could whip them into shape. Instead, they fell in love all over again with Domenech. His girlfriend refused his proposal after Euro 2008 (smart girl!), but Jean-Pierre Escalettes didn’t, even though everyone else could see that the marriage would end in disaster.

As it turns out, Raymond Domenech is the real enfant terrible of French football, and the FFF spoiled him at the expense of advancement of the national side.

Oh, and Ray? Given that Anelka has gone home and it is likely Titi’s last match for the national side, if you don’t put him in the starting XI on Tuesday, well…go f**k yourself.