(The bold is the added part of this original piece and probably the biggest reason why everything in France has went to shit)
If you have been living under a rock and not paying any attention to what is going on in the World Cup, you would know that the French national team is on the brink of anarchy (if it hasn't hit that point yet).
They've tied and lost their first two games between Uruguay and Mexico respectively. And they haven't even had a sniff on goal. With that Nicolas Anelka was axed from the side because of a tirade between him and their outgoing manager Raymond Domenech.
Yesterday, the team refused to train because of the decision to send Anelka home which caused Technical Directors to quit and fitness trainers to question the French players committment. Along with other in-fighting like William Gallas being jealous of Patrice Evra being captain. Franck Ribery and Yoann Gourcuff going at it in an airplane. And leading players not passing the ball to other teammates and campaigning other players to play.
One would think after hearing all this that all the blame would be shouldered on the players. However the whole Federation at large has to have some blame in this instance. With their handling of a manager that the players don't respect and the fact that they have already named a new manager after this tournament. They have got this all wrong.
I have said this hundreds and hundreds of times. How Raymond Domenech has kept his job this long is a mystery to me? He has not shown any of the qualities of a manager who knows what he is doing. And during matches, he looks like a statue. When there are managers like Diego Maradona, who looks like a cheerleader out there but still is getting his team into the second round of this tournament. There should be no reason why a team laden with talent should not be able to do the same.
I understand that after the 06 World Cup that he had "earned" (even though I think they got to that final in spite of Domenech) the right to carry his team into the Euro 2008 tournament. I believe that is when everything unraveled for this once proud footballing country. That is where constant in-fighting was a regular and they stumbled out of the tournament not even making it out of the first round. They could not even get a win against Romania who were suppose to be the whipping boys of the tournament.
In any proud, important footballing country, that would have been the end of Raymond Domenech's reign as manager. However I don't know whether they were trying to groom Laurent Blanc to the post or what but they decided to give this crackpot manager another two years. He has already lost the respect of his players at this point and the team was always in constant turmoil. Bringing in a manager like Paul Le Guen or Gerard Houllier would have at least brought some sibilance of stability. But no, the French Federation felt like they had their man who was going to do the job.
They stumbled through World Cup qualifying and in fact needed to go into a playoff to win the spot in the World Cup. Of course then the handball around the world happened that got France through when they probably should not have gotten them through.
Understandable once you get into the World Cup tournament that you should not fire your manager unless there are unreconciled differences. But when players openly challenged his rule a couple of months before the biggest tournament of the world. Domenech stumbling along for the last four years. We have to pin some of the blame on French Football.
Then you strip Thierry Henry of his captain's armband and only give him a limited role on the side. We know that he isn't at his prime anymore but he is the only one that can lift this team. I think most players on that team love and respect Henry. And stripping a legend of the French game his captainacy shows the rest of the squad that you do not know what you're doing and you do not care about the morale of the rest of the team. Domenech and the higher ups should have at least rewarded him for getting them here. Remember he did set-up the controversial goal.
Now you have to choose a new captain. And you should know that everyone thinks that they should be the captain of the team. The only one that you can bring an united front with is the captain you just stripped. So whomever they chose as captain wouldn't be everyone's choice and probably would not be ready for this responsibility with just a month left before their tournament started. So of course let's just put Patrice Evra into the firing lines further upsetting William Gallas because after Henry he probably feels like he should be captain of this team but there is no one in that starting lineup that deserves the armband.
And when it couldn't get worse, they decided to name Laurent Blanc the manager of the French National Team after the World Cup. Now this isn't a shot against Blanc, actually I am glad he is going to be manager. However when you name a new manager before the World Cup starts it is never going to end well.
You would think that players should love to play for their country in a World Cup because they may never get a chance to play for one again. It won't work when players hate their manager, players hate each other, and players hate the federation that they are playing for because they have treated them like shit for four years since great Zidane left the side. They might regret this later but they aren't going to play for a man who they know is going to be gone after this Tuesday's game (I am predicting them go by the waste side against South Africa). They have not played for him ever since the 06 World Cup so what makes anyone to think that they would play for him now?
Now we go to Patrice Evra's claim that there is a traitor amongst the ranks. I believe that even though these players do not like each other. They have a mutual hate for the French Football Federation and their manager so when Nicolas Anelka left they were quite sad and disappointed that such information was leaked out to the media. And I have a feeling that they know a player wouldn't do that to another player so they looked right at the FFF who hasn't been kind to the players any this tournament and has been criticizing them the whole way through. So it is no wonder that they didn't train on Sunday. They did not do that to the manager because if that was the case they wouldn't have been training at all this tournament, they were sticking it to the whole Federation for get ridding one of their fellow teammates.
They will show up on the field on Tuesday against South Africa physically but will they be there mentally I have no clue. However one thing is for certain, we will be watching this train-wrecked finally go off the cliff...
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