It’s a micro event that says a lot. For one of the first times in 12 years at the head of the French team, Didier Deschamps was entitled to a small volley of whistles when his name was announced by the announcer before the kick-off of France-Belgium, this Monday, September 9.
“I didn’t hear, I was in the locker room,” the coach said at a press conference after his team’s 3-1 victory. “Criticism is part of the life of a footballer, a coach, a selector. There is room for everything, I don’t say he is wrong or he is right, that’s how it is… I start from the principle that it is up to me to set objectives, directions, I am not stubborn or obtuse but I act because I believe that it is the right time.”
The Basque assures that he has “no problem with that”. “Even if I knew that for various reasons, I didn’t have a lot of unconditional supporters in Lyon”, he said, enigmatically, with a smile. A few minutes earlier, Didier Deschamps had already stated on TF1 that the whistles have “no influence on” him, while implying that they were perhaps experienced differently by the players.
A prolonged booing for Bradley Barcola
When the starting eleven and substitutes were announced, other names were given a cold reception by the Décines-Charpieu crowd, such as those of Kylian Mbappé, Bardley Barcola and Matteo Guendouzi.
If for the first, the public’s discontent can be linked to his performances, well below his standards in 2024, or his controversial outings in the press, for the second, it is more his transfer to PSG in the summer of 2023 that is being singled out. As for the Lazio midfielder, the public undoubtedly blames him for his time at OM, but the whistles did not follow during the match.
From their entry into the game (67th minute), Kylian Mbappé and Bradley Barcola were greeted by a new salvo of whistles. They were even more pronounced for the new Parisian, whose every touch of the ball until the final whistle was accompanied by an outcry.
“If it had gone wrong tonight…”
These boos did not escape the coach’s ear. “I only heard the ones for Bradley. I’m not going to point the finger at one club more than another, but that’s the only regret when you’re going to play in the provinces, this type of reaction,” the former Monaco coach reacted to journalists.
“When we come, we support the French team, so the whistles… That people are unhappy, disappointed, that they show it, why not, but there when the players are on the field… I don’t think it’s for the good of the French team,” he further lamented to the broadcaster’s microphone.
The three points won against Belgium allow Les Bleus to reposition themselves in this Nations League. They should also calm the storm clouds that were gathering above Didier Deschamps, even if the criticisms about the wear and tear of power and the quality of the French game will not fade away all at once. The coach himself acknowledged: “If it had gone badly tonight, it would have been my party.”
- RMC Sport
