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| The President's men...Clichy and Nasri (left) arrive for training ahead of last night's Euro 2012 qualifier against Luxembourg in Metz |
I think it is not. Blanc looks very much a protégé of Arsene Wenger and if the logic can be stretched further, he has the temperament to be a future Arsenal manager when Wenger finally conks out.
With four Arsenal players already nailed-on starters in Blanc’s team, he must have seen things about them that tickled his fancy. Clichy, Nasri, Sagna and Diaby are all integral to Blanc’s team now and have played in almost all of the four French games since the end of the World Cup.
It’s a new team now.
Very different from the squabbling rabble that Raymond Domenech brought to South Africa. Of course, the fallout from the Nicholas Anelka saga very much embarrassed everyone connected to the former World champions but credit must go to the French FA for doing the right thing and dissing Anelka and his cohorts. Unloved, unproductive and unwanted, Anelka managed to divide the team with his mood swings and older players who should have known better like William Gallas and Patrice Evra allowed him to end their international careers prematurely.
Blanc obviously needed a clean slate to start from and he seems to have a good grasp of the job already.
Forget all the talk about international managers having a bit-part job. It is definitely a full-on assignment and one with as much challenges and strain as club management. Ask Fabio Capello for one.
Previous French managers have all built teams of flair and panache that wooed all who saw France play and have established Les Bleus as a team of class for about three decades now. Michel Hidalgo who assembled the trinity of Jean Tigana, Alain Giresse and Luis Fernandez under the captainship of the mercurial Michel Platini, laid the groundwork for subsequent years and years of success. Together, all the four aforementioned players were known as the carre magique – Magic Square – and it was clear why they had that moniker.
From winning the European championship under Hidalgo in 1984, France has remained an ever-present in the pantheon of great sides and adding the 1998 World Cup title under the urbane Aime Jacquet was a well-deserved crowning achievement.
Blessed with a glut of Franco-African talents, France play with flair and possess the sort of expansive game that clumsy England can only dream of.
Before Jacquet however, the duopoly of Henri Michel and Gerrard Houllier oversaw a barren period in French national football. After Jacquet, the taciturn Roger Lemmerre, Jacques Santini and later Domenech took up the mantle with little results but despite that, there was no denying the excitement and verve that French football produces. At least for all the bad press and aggravation he generated, Domenech got to the World Cup finals in 2006, losing only on penalties to Italy.
However, even that achievement was tainted by Domenech’s desperate recall of retiring veterans Claude Makelele, Lilian Thuram and Zinedine Zidane.More than anything else, it showed Domenech as a man lacking confidence both in himself and the players he entrusted with the job. It was a move that undermined his authority for so long and finally exploded in his face in South Africa this summer.
Blanc clearly has learnt from such mistake. Out of the window have gone the likes of Gallas, Eric Abidal and Evra who all possess the seed of rebellion within them. Blanc rightly chose to promote many fringe players like Clichy and Benzema and in that, he has sent a very clear message that this is a team very much in his own image. Affectionately known as ‘The President’ and capped 97 times by France between 1989 and 2000, he understands the demands of donning the national team colours – something which the likes of Anelka had little regard for.
Allied to his quest for control, is his love for flair and invention. Therein lies his affection for the Arsenal way. The mantra of high-speed passing and movement as preached by none other than Wenger.
That apart however is the philosophy that has governed Arsenal this past half-a-decade. The idea that young players nurtured and kept together would develop alongside each other, with complete allegiance to their mentor. This approach often leads to mistakes and stop-start performances as we saw in that defeat in Paris to Belarus last month, and may look like trial-and error.
However like Wenger, Blanc has time on his side to experiment and impose his will on this side. He enjoys the absolute trust and backing of the French FA. Florent Malouda apart who is captain, almost all the players of the current squad owe their appearances to Blanc. Players like Alou Diarra, Steven Mandanda, Karim Benzema, Loic Remy and even Clichy would never have had a look-in under the paranoid Domenech.
Now, the world is at their feet. Better still, le coq sportif is theirs for the taking.
Which goes a long way to explain why Blanc and the Arsenal boys are a very natural fit.
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