Firing Blancs: Zlatan and PSG crisis could see the coach sacked before Barcelona clash Laurent Blancs job is on the line ahead of Wednesday evenings match against Caen as the champion struggles to replicate its form of last term. It is a unique phenomenon of modern football that a club still unbeaten this season can be classed ‘in crisis’, yet that is precisely where Laurent Blanc finds his Paris Saint-Germain side. Results have certainly not gone the Parc des Princes team’s way since the beginning of the campaign, with five draws from eight competitive matches this term, but during Blanc’s reign, which dates back to the summer of 2013, PSG has lost only six times. The board – ever eager to be portrayed as one of Europe’s leading sides – is starting to get an itchy trigger finger, and according to one anonymous tip to Le Parisien at the weekend, failure to beat Caen or Toulouse in successive away matches over the course of the next week will see the end of the coach. MORE: U.S. Soccer stands by Solo | Chicharito in photos | Soccer WAGs President Nasser Al-Khelaifi, however, has backed the former Bordeaux coach. Blancs job is not in danger, PSGs chief told the media after a disappointing 1-1 draw with Lyon at the weekend. He will be with us until the end of the season. Our current form is not the level expected of PSG, though, thats for sure.” In an interview with France Football published on Tuesday, Jeremy Menez, who departed for AC Milan in the summer, hinted at some of the problems the club is currently experiencing and suggested the club is more keen to have fan-friendly figures in the squad than effective professionals. “Today, it is perhaps better to be a foreigner at PSG,” he stated. “Lucas, he has been there for two years, and he has scored three goals. But he cost 40 million euros more [than me]. And he is Brazilian. “Me, I am French and a Parisian. I don’t have Twitter or Instagram where I can send messages or pretty photos. I do not make films for social networks. I do not say: “Long live Paris! Long live Paris!” in order to make myself liked. I am not like that.” Certainly, there is little doubt that PSG has been image obsessed since the takeover by QSI, transforming the squad, the badge, the clientele and even giving the Parc des Princes an attractive face lift over the summer. But by doing this, the club has pandered to star players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva, who continue to dominate the dressing room, and there are multiple reports suggesting that their influence is overriding. Over the course of PSG’s last two outings, against Ajax and Lyon, Ibrahimovic has been the clubs poorest player yet received a stay of execution from the coach when it came to making his changes on both occasions. “Zlatan is in a little difficulty at the moment and we have to do everything we can to help him,” the coach conceded on Tuesday. “Certain great players can’t be replaced. He’s a leader of the team so it’s normal. Zlatan is a competitor. When he scores, he wants to score again – he’s a monster of professionalism.” Franck Leboeuf criticized Blanc’s tendency to make “very predictable” changes on Monday, hinting at the coach’s reticence to replace Ibrahimovic but probably more taking a shot at the apparently untouchable Edinson Cavani. The Uruguayan has actually scored in each of the last two games but has done very little else productive in the role out wide he has been shoehorned into for the last year. Perhaps a more telling indicator of the power key figures have in the squad came after the fixture at the weekend. Ibrahimovic was first to claim that the team needs to “wake up”, only for Blanc to subsequently agree. The coach had previously offered only mild criticism towards his squad but a jagged barb towards the press with a sarcastic response at the mention of crisis. Ibrahimovic also criticized the media: “I said there were problems on the field, but you only talk about problems away from the pitch.” Effectively managing egos in the dressing room was one of Blanc’s great failings as France coach, which was a broadly successful spell but concluded lamely at Euro 2012. It seems such problems are starting to become an issue once more for the 48-year-old. Claude Makelele was key in keeping star players in line last season, but the former Chelsea midfielder took leave in the summer to begin his own head coaching career and the cohesiveness of the squad appears to have disappeared along with the 2002 Champions League winner. A key link in the chain of command between squad and management has been lost. PSG’s life has certainly been complicated by an extremely curtailed preseason program owing to the World Cup – Ligue 1 started at least one week before any of Europe’s major championships – but results have not been up to par. It is up to Blanc to take a grip of the situation, and if he cannot, he may no longer be in charge by the time Barcelona travels to Parc des Princes next Tuesday.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 16:42:29 +0000
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