For the first time in 12 years at the helm of the French team, Didier Deschamps is facing a wave of protest from the French public in a stadium. On Monday evening, during the reception of Belgium at the Groupama Stadium, his name was whistled during the announcement of the line-up, along with Kylian Mbappé, Bradley Barcola and Matteo Guendouzi. A behavior that Jean-Michel Larqué cannot stomach.
“I’ve been saying it for months: since there’s been ‘Deschamps bashing’ and the French team has been pilloried, this French public is a public of spoiled children,” he fumed on the show Rothen s’enflamme this Tuesday on RMC. “That they show their disappointment during the match because they’re not happy, I understand that. Even before a player takes his first steps on a pitch like Barcola or Mbappé or when the coach has not yet played the match is whistled when he has given lots of extraordinary emotions for 12 years, I don’t understand it and I don’t accept it.”
A public with a “short memory”
Captain Larqué also attacks those who have a “short memory” regarding the results of the French team since Didier Deschamps’ arrival at the helm (two World Cup finals, one at the Euro, one victory in the League of Nations). “Have a bit of memory and gratitude. French football has never had the results that Didier Deschamps has had over the last 12 years. Generally speaking, being against Deschamps, against Barcola because he left, it annoys me, even if I know that they have a short memory.”
But what does the main person concerned think of the treatment reserved by the supporters? “I didn’t hear the whistles,” simply commented “DD” after the victory against Belgium. “I was in the locker room (…) 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,” he explained at a press conference. “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.”
- RMC Sport
