Uproar at silent protest at Marseille, as manager is called a Japanese chicken. « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
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by Billy le chien
I do like to keep the occasional eye on French football, particularly our loan player, ex-player and indeed the surrogate Man City that Paris St Germain has become. But of course now there is Marseille, and I must say I had no idea how amusing a club could be (although over the years the Tinies have given us a chuckle or three).
But first, before OM (as we call them in the trade) the results…
This weekend Lorient lost 3-1 away to Stade Brestois 29. Campbell played throughout, but Sunu (no longer one of ours of course), just came on for the second half. Marseilles beat Dijon 3-2 while Lyon managed by Remi Garde beat St Etienne 2-0. PSG, the Man City of the league, made it six wins in a row by beating Caen 4-2.
And so what of Marseille beyond that result?
In their last five games in all competitions (league cup, Champs League, and 3 league) Marseille have won 2, lost 2 and drawn 1, which is CRISIS written very large, down by the docks where the boats from Algiers pull up.
Two weeks ago a group of fans called for the sacking of the Didier Deschamps, the manager, putting up banners to that effect in the stadium.
Vincent Labrune the President rebuffed this saying the club “is like a big family and in any big family there are differing opinions. I can understand the fans’ disappointment, but as Margarita [the rather attractive lady owner of the club] has said, Didier is the right man for the job.”
Now I realise that saying the owner of the club is attractive is sexist, in that I have never said that about a male owner of a team on Untold. So I am going to start searching for an attractive male owner of an English club. All suggestions to Untold as usual.
But back to France. Marseille then beat Barcelona 4-2 in the under 19s cup, so all was fine until L’Equipe said the manager “is not untouchable”. What I assume happened next is that Deschamps got a copy of Mr Wenger’s message to the Arsenal AGM but got the translation back into French wrong and said (translated back into English) “Is everybody at the club pulling in the same direction? I don’t want to say more, there are enough complications. I don’t want to go into things you already know about, I know about, and a lot of people know about. Maybe I’ll come back to this soon.”
Which I reckon makes it clear.
In response L’Equipe pointed out that Marseille have scored three goals from open play all season and hit the target with just ten out of 152 shots.
Then the fans upped the situation by arranging that the players should walk out and be greeted by … silence with the fans having vowed to give the team ‘grève d’encouragements‘ (no vocal support). The banners (which they do quite well on the coast said)…
– ‘Silence, we’re sinking’ – ‘Millionaires in life, down-and-outs on the pitch’
– ’36 more points to avoid relegation’
José Anigo the sporting director, then talked to local journalists and said of the coach: “It’s time to stop blaming different people. It’s irresponsible to come out with stuff like that in the current climate.”
He then called the boss something akin to a mechanical Japanese cartoon chicken.
Now I don’t know if you have ever been called a mechanical Japanese cartoon chicken, but I have to say it stretched my French a little to get this. It does however seem to be a rather strong insult no matter how it is translated.
Didier Deschamps then said, “Never, in 27 years of my professional life, have I heard such abusive words said about me. Nobody has the monopoly when it comes to love for this club. I love Olympique Marseille too.”
In the aftermath the president of the club tried to look authoritative so he imposed a fine on Mr Anigo (the sporting director, as I have mentioned), but didn’t tell anyone how much the fine was. “More than ever before, the interests of Olympique de Marseille need to be placed ahead of the interests of individuals,” the president declared.
The (rather attractive) owner said nothing, but has in the past said she might sell up.
OM then took on Lens (currently 18th out of 20 in the second division – a league that has as its current leaders a club with the wonderful name of Clermont Foot). OM won the league cup match 4-0 and got some applause from the crowd. It was a bit like Manchester Untidy against Aldershot (or Torquay if you listen to Radio 5).
They then held a press conference in which a journalist said, “Has normality now returned the club?”
“I don’t know,” said the manager.
Honest, I’m not making this up.
Here’s the league table.
| 1 | Paris Saint-Germain | +15 | 12 | 29 |
| 2 | Montpellier Hérault SC | +12 | 12 | 26 |
| 3 | LOSC Lille Métropole | +9 | 12 | 23 |
| 4 | Olympique Lyonnais | +7 | 12 | 23 |
| 5 | Toulouse FC | +3 | 12 | 22 |
| 6 | Stade Rennais FC | +6 | 12 | 21 |
| 7 | FC Lorient | +1 | 12 | 17 |
| 8 | AS Saint-Etienne | -4 | 12 | 16 |
| 9 | Olympique de Marseille | +1 | 12 | 15 |
| 10 | SM Caen | -2 | 12 | 15 |
| 11 | FC Sochaux-Montbéliard | -6 | 12 | 14 |
| 12 | Stade Brestois 29 | 0 | 12 | 12 |
| 13 | AJ Auxerre | -1 | 12 | 12 |
| 14 | Evian TG FC | -3 | 12 | 12 |
| 15 | Girondins de Bordeaux | -4 | 12 | 12 |
| 16 | OGC Nice | 0 | 12 | 11 |
| 17 | Dijon FCO | -12 | 12 | 11 |
| 18 | Valenciennes FC | -1 | 12 | 10 |
| 19 | AS Nancy Lorraine | -7 | 12 | 8 |
| 20 | AC Ajaccio | -14 | 12 | 7 |
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