What is the problem between Corinne Deacon and Les Bleues?

Corinne Deacon on the Blue Bench in the fall of 2019. -

• Already tense, the relationship between Corinne Deacon and the OL internationals seems to have reached a point of no return after captain Amandine Henry did not hold back.

• The coach, who has been extended for a year to adapt to the postponement of the Euro, enjoys the unfailing support of Noël Le Graët.

• Focused on the qualifiers for Euro 2021, Corinne Deacon promised that she would respond in time to criticism.

A choreographed ballet, or at least the idea that we have in the profession.

First, we are thinking of taking news, since Corinne Deacon has been locked up at home since her positive Covid-19 test - she is in great shape and has not infected anyone -, then a few innocent questions while so that we can come to the point with elegance, and finally the hallali, each in turn.

Despite the distance imposed by the video, Thursday at Clairefontaine, it was a press conference in the rules of the art when you really expect something.

Oh, nothing about Macedonia, the opponent of the Blue Friday in the qualifiers for Euro 2021, but all about the galimatias of confusion that escorts the French news since last week and the non-selection of Amandine Henry.

"I read a lot of wrong things"

Corinne Deacon played her score to perfection, giving us just what is needed, not too much, not too little: "I have heard a lot of things, things that are wrong or wrong, and I will have to be able to give my point of view.

But honestly, on the eve of an international match, my priority is the group, the fact that it lives well.

It will be time to talk about that later, but now is not the time to hear from me ”.

The time will come, therefore.

It is that the coach of the Blue is taking full face in recent days.

🗨️ @DomArmand: "The France team does not belong to anyone, not even the Lyonnaises. We must also accept that Corinne Deacon makes choices and tries things" 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/SJIcDlfBuY

- Late Football Club (@LateFootClub) October 22, 2020

You could say that her absence from an internship she runs from her sofa has loosened a few tongues, but it's been a while since the mustard rose to the noses of each other.

Finally, especially Lyonnaises, white-hot from previous episodes, like in a good Netflix series.

The withdrawal of the captaincy to Wendie Renard when he arrived, criticism of Eugénie Le Sommer for the poverty of his World Cup in 2019, Bouhaddi who withdraws from the game because of disagreement with his management, and finally, it was said, the no -selection for the October rally of Amandine Henry, the captain of the Bleues and her best player or not far.

A decision which blew up the last dikes of convenience.

The Lyonnaises complain to Le Graët

Deacon's explanation, before she fell ill?

"I called her to tell her that I was not taking her at this stage to give her time to return to her best level after her injury".

Everyone can do the accounts on their own: Henry had resumed three games with OL, while others, however summoned (Bilbaut, Clemaron, Gayoro), have not set foot on the field lately.

Her teammates in club and in selection took it all the badly as they had rushed the day before Christmas the Graët, visiting Lyon to give a medal to the Lyonnaise European champions for the fifth time in a row.

Their message, in essence?

"It can't go on like this any longer."

The response of the president of the Fed?

"I can't do anything for you."

Henry's absence the next day was therefore interpreted internally as low-level revenge, almost an act of war.

And the madness of the reactions behind left speechless Fabien Petit, the former advisor of Valérie Gauvin, always very aware of the psychology of the tricolor group: "Media releases of this ilk on men's football, I've never seen that. .

Everyone must behave professionally, a club is not selection ”.

What Corinne Deacon recalled without making it out of the box, in her welcome videoconference on Monday at Clairefontaine: “I told them that my job was to select.

So I select.

I can understand that some are disappointed not to see such and such, but those decisions are mine.

I respect certain choices, certain speeches, I think it would be good to do the same for me ”.

"My job is making people jealous"

Reference to the bursts of interventions of the Lyon clan or affiliated.

Wendie Renard, first, who went to the front on Canal + after a championship match: "In a company, if we arrive every morning and we had disagreements with the boss, we are not serene, we are not calm.

It cannot continue ”.

Then Reynald Pedros, former coach of the house, on the same channel:

“I lived for two years with these players, and for two years we recovered girls after the selection who were psychologically very affected.

There are some players who left for the France team with a ball in their stomachs, who did not necessarily want to go but they went there by obligation because it was the France team, and because it was the nation and the blue jersey.

And when they came back, we had discussions to morally try to put them back afloat ”

Remarks so vindictive that the former Nantes left-hander saw fit to specify then that, no, he was not targeting the place of Deacon, if ever there were any doubts about his intentions.

Amused response from the person concerned: “This role belongs to me, I know that my position is very coveted and makes people jealous when I read certain statements.

It's fair game ”.

Contacted by us, Pedros did not wish to extend his reflection.

Just like Sonia Souid, Henry's very influential agent, yet very annoyed with AFP by the situation of her player: “She was not expecting it, it's shocking.

I do not know if she is trying to prick her but it is a very hard message, even if we understood that no one was untouchable with Deacon ”.

The frank character of the coach's collar was indeed included in the

.

At the federation, it is even whispered that she had been chosen for her profile "righter of wrongs", just to tame a locker room a little too sure of himself, sometimes.

Fabien Petit: “When Corinne was recruited, she met all the criteria.

Former player, former international, former coach, a woman, with experience in the top male level, she ticked all the boxes ”.

Apart from that of communication, of course.

Despite a shy opening during the 2019 World Cup, Deacon does not particularly like the media exercise or the interviews to defend his apple, which does not help to plead his case, when the wind blows strong as at the moment. .

“I don't speak much in the media, it's not my hobbyhorse.

I work, I am focused on the field ”.

Management that is too authoritarian according to some

Opposite its detractors interfere least for portraying in a light uninviting: authoritarian, distant, cold, paranoid, taking air policy officer when she overhears a member of staff to discuss

with a player, according to RMC.

A management in the breeches, that the oldest, used to being associated with important decisions in their club, find it difficult to bear.

"It's sad to see the atmosphere at daggers drawn that there is within the group, blows a figure of women's football tricolor.

Deacon undoubtedly has faults, but we have the impression that no coach ever does the trick, so the problem is deeper.

Touch.

To have observed from more or less far the life of the Blues in great competition since their emergence in 2011, it's always the same story.

When he arrives, the coach is a genius, and when he is eliminated, usually in the quarterfinals, he is the last of the incompetents.

Bini?

From free-thinker with revolutionary intuitions to coach too fanciful for a football in full professionalization.

Bergeroo and Echouafni?

From peerless tacticians concerned with the smallest detail to notorious incompetent, already among the boys.

Before the disappointment of the summer of 2019, Deacon was also unanimously considered, at least in public, as THE coach who would take the French women's team a step forward, before falling out of favor like the others.

Deacon will speak with the players concerned

Except this time, Le Graët did not want to know anything.

He maintained his confidence in her, even extending her contract for one year to adapt to the postponement of Euro 2021 to 2022. “She is not in danger.

I like her, she has character.

Her job is not easy, and communication is not what she prefers, but she does her job well, she has a lot of heart.

I remind you that France is 3rd in the world.

The president of the 3F even raised the straps of some during an impromptu lunch on Wednesday at Clairefontaine, demanding that each (e) make an effort.

Although absent, Deacon appreciated: “The president from the beginning has been loud and clear about his support for me and especially for my function.

I think it was important for some players to hear what he had to say ”.

Is the bond of trust irreparably broken between the coach and her most capped elements after this tumultuous new episode?

That's the $ 100,000 question, although the slingshot isn't as extensive as you might think.

There are also members of the France group who believe that they have nothing to reproach their coach, well aware of the balance of power.

“I prefer to wait until this camp has passed to talk physically with the players who have spoken.

But it's a minority, and I think it's better to focus on the France group ”.

"That we do not want to go to the France team because we want another coach, I find that ubiquitous, judge Fabien Petit.

Everyone must stay in their place.

This climate in the France team is not the one we would like, but isn't it better for it to happen now rather than three months before the Euro?

The federation, the clubs, the players must talk to each other, and not through the media.

Resentments exist, but they have also sometimes helped to explain themselves in order to find a better balance.

We have to find a consensus on how to operate ”.

OL 's only official voice to speak, Olivier Blanc, now number 1 leader of the female entity, did not hide in the

the relational difficulties between the coach and the institution.

But he swept away the persistent rumor of a long-standing antagonism, due to Lyon's refusal to follow up on Deacon's candidacy for the post of coach in 2014. He also assured that the players of his club had no intention of go on a hunger strike.

“The OL players want everything to be done to win the Euro.

Today they feel badly in the France team, they can see that they are not at their level, they have talked a little with Corinne Deacon and with the president ”.

Corinne Deacon, February 26, 2020 at the headquarters of the FFF.

- CHRISTOPHE SAIDI / SIPA

"The coach also makes efforts"

Some have shown some pledges of good faith, even if it is often lip service.

Thus, Amel Majri, the only European champion to grant an individual interview this week, she explained to the

, that the last gathering in September, hosted solo by Deacon since her deputy had the coronavirus, s 'went well: “We were in the exchange, it went well, there was no particular problem.

It was a good, relaxed atmosphere ”.

Eugenie Le Sommer, top scorer in the history of the Blue, seems ready, too, to look forward: "I do not want to go into details, but the coach is also making efforts, trying to make things easier on a daily basis ”.

Will that be enough to patch up a badly damaged relationship?

Gérard Prêcheur, another former OL now coach of a women's team in China, seems to seriously doubt it in the columns of

 : “Noël Le Graët debauched her in Clermont-Ferrand, it's a personal choice.

I think her status as a woman protects her.

No results, no game production, tensions with the players… It would be a man, he would have been hanged in the public square after his dismal failure in the World Cup.

His trial is delayed, but it is well underway, nonetheless.

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