Sports and bold proclamations go hand and hand. Babe Ruth’s called shot, Joe Namath’s guarantee, and now Blanc’s promise? The third one might not be as classic as the first two, but you have to admit that new French coach Laurent Blanc is doing things in an extremely bold and inventive way for the French national team.
After taking over a team of sulking crybabies that completely embarrassed their nation and personal careers by their mutinous behavior over the World Cup (including their refusal to even practice with their coach), Blanc first decided to inact one unique gesture towards the intolerant World Cup squad. He didn’t pick a single player for his upcoming August friendly that was included in the shamed Domenich led team and supposedly Blanc will continue to overlook some former key players due to their cruel and unacceptable behavior this summer.
But Blanc shocked even more fans of the French national team when he made this bold prediction or proclamation in an interview with sports daily L’Equipe:
It’s Euro 2012 or I’m going. I will be judged on results. It’s not my thing to keep going when I’ve failed.
And what a ballsy thing to say when it’s not in your contract and no one would expect you to raise the stakes on your own. Now of course most managers of top eight squads would be fired if they failed to qualify for Euro 2012 (including England’s in 2008), but considering the team Blanc has taken over and the situation they are currently in, I think the coach would have a bit more leniency then your typical first year coach if he really wanted it.
But Blanc is putting himself out there to the critics and allowing the world to see that he will not accept mediocrity. In fact the coach is willing to put his own job on the line for the greater good of the team. Once again I like the move because although it is asinine, it shows everybody that the guy has great expectations for his squad and isn’t afraid to fail.
Sure Blanc is a bit of a cowboy and is is proclaiming something that is a bit irrevelant right now considering the Euro Cup isn’t until 2012, but the decision to set a bar for your team gives everybody a goal to shoot for and it proves that their coach will not accept humilation on a global level.
And France could use that.
photo credit: Abdullah AL-Naser
