Laurent sees things in Blanc and white
Sexism storm the latest to engulf PSG
ALL WE need now is for Laurent Blanc to produce some religious intolerance and he’ll have completed one of football’s most inglorious hattricks. This is the man, Paris St Germain coach at the moment, who fretted during a commission to address the ills of his country’s national team that Les Bleus had become too black.
In 2011 when he was national coach and talking about how football centres in France were organised, he said: ‘You have the impression that they really train the same prototype of players, big, strong, powerful...
‘What is there that is currently big, strong, powerful? “The blacks”.
Then Blanc said other criteria should be used to bring in players ‘with our culture, our history’. He was arguing for colour-quotas. ‘Our culture’ in his case seemed to be separate from his notion of what the culture of a black French man might be.
At first he denied saying it and finally, irrevocable proof having been produced, was forced to admit it.This from a man who won the World Cup and Euro 2000 alongside the likes of Marcel Desailly, Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet, Christian Karembeu, Lilian Thuram.
Last week, Blanc was asked by a female Swedish journalist what had inspired him to move from the earlyseason 4-4-2 to the currently attractive and successful 4-3-3 and what his objectives for that formation were.
Not only a fair question, a decent one too given that PSG and Blanc are drawing major plaudits for not only their league lead but their chances of eliminating Bayer Leverkusen in the knockout round then going on to win the Champions League.
The reporter, Aftonbladet’s Johanna Frändén, asked: ‘You started the season with 4-4-2, but switched to 4-3-3 after a few games...’
Blanc: ‘So, women who talk tactics in football, it’s so beautiful... I think it’s fantastic! You know what 4-3-3 means, right?
Frändén: ‘Yeah, that’s my profession.’
Blanc: ‘I mean, there ARE many ways to play... ha ha, I’m just kidding.’
It caused a media storm around Europe, one about which the PSG owner Nasser Al-Khelaifi will have felt conflicted. Blanc was well down the list of successors to Carlo Ancelotti when he eventually took over in the summer. Already not No 1 choice,
His side may be impressive but plenty don’t share his ‘culture’
this wasn’t the way a new coach was supposed to add lustre to the brand.
Yet Blanc has clicked with PSG in a football sense. Legendary St Etienne French title-winner and respected commentator Jean-Michel Larqué argues: ‘Except for Bayern, I don’t see any other teams better than PSG. Blanc introduced reforms right at the start of the season and it has totally paid off for him.
‘You see “Ibra” (Zlatan Ibrahimovic) going off in the middle of the match with a big smile on his face. The likes of Lucas or Javier Pastore, expensive signings, are sitting on the bench without a word of complaint. It is a reflection of the healthy team spirit within this squad.’
There are two key achievements which have led to this bubbling excitement. The aforementioned move to 4-3-3 has yielded more goals, domestically and in Europe, and put PSG eight points better off than at the same stage last season.
He may be extraordinarily maladroit with words and the creator of some seriously bad press, but Blanc is in credit with his club. The second credit is that he has fostered a fighting spirit. Thus far a squad which Ancelotti found, let’s say testing, is eating out of his hand.
This weekend PSG face one of their nearest pursuers, Lille, in what remains a genuine David v Goliath contest.
Impressive though his side has become, there will be some who don’t share ‘his culture, his history’ and some in Sweden, too, who’ll be rooting for Lille.