France’s striking stars face Blanc bullet

NEW France coach Laurent Blanc has laid down the law to the senior players behind the strike action at the World Cup and will meet with them in the next few days to determine their international futures.

Blanc was unveiled as Raymond Domenech’s replacement yesterday and wasted little time in making major changes in the international set-up. His first action was to re-instate Henri Emile as general manager, the role he took when Les Bleus, with Blanc in the side, won the 1998 World Cup.

Blanc broke his silence on his feelings about France’s behaviour in South Africa and the four players reported to be at the forefront of the strike action ­ Patrice Evra, Franck Ribery, Eric Abidal and William Gallas ­ are all likely to miss out on a call-up for France’s friendly against Norway next month. The latter two may never play under Blanc though the former pair may get another chance. “In future I will pick the best players available in terms of ability, team spirit and mentality,” he said.

“There are very few people who can tell you what really happened over there, but I think I know a few of them. And if I have an interview with them, they will tell me what really happened. So it’s a delicate situation, and there are certainly meetings to have. Then I have to make a choice on sporting grounds, first of all, and in terms of behaviour for the new players who will form this France team.”

The ex-Bordeaux coach also drew a line under the Domenech era by insisting that games with the media were a thing of the past. “There will be no more games of hide and seek with the press,” he said. “It never leads to something positive. We can smile a bit, as we’re not going to the guillotine ­ even though I get the impression that I’m heading for it. That’s the way it goes. I hope this climate will change with results. What I want to get across, is that even though it’s hard for everyone, I want to draw a line through the past. The past has no future. What interests me is the future.”

Blanc also accepted he was coming into the job from a different starting point to the one he expected. “What bothers me is that, after the World Cup, a new coach should be able to lean on a hard core of players,” he said. “But after what happened, this hard core is not even a melon’s pip. There’s a lot of work to de done. My task is to find a hard core within this team.”

The new coach impressed the French media with his opening comments yesterday , with one high-profile reporter admitting: “We got more sense out of him in one hour than we did in six years under Domenech.”

The fact that his predecessor’s reign ended in controversy, mutiny and ignominy still angered Blanc. “What shocked me the most, what disappointed me the most, was the behaviour of the squad during the public training session 48 hours before the match against South Africa. That’s what upset me the most.

“In my opinion the decision (to go on strike) was badly thought through, because the impact it would have at every level wasn’t analysed properly. This was done at a training session open to the media, so the impact was even bigger. I am still angry at this decision, but as for whether there will be sanctions, it’s not up to me.”

Blanc went on to admit that with the new Fifa rankings likely to leave France out of the top ten, confidence would be at rock-bottom among his players. “Individually and collectively, it’s easier to have confident players at your disposal, whereas now I will get players whose confidence is low, who went through hard times. That’s not the best way to prepare the future.

“But we need to be a bit humble, given that we’re in a total rebuilding phase. It’s true that it’s going to be hard. When I was at Bordeaux I used to say that when you’ve eaten Chantilly, it’s hard to go back to fresh cream.”

Meanwhile, Paraguay coach Gerardo Martino resigned yesterday following his team’s elimination from the World Cup.

Martino’s men made it to the quarter-finals before losing 1-0 to Spain thanks to a late David Villa strike.

“My four years are over,” Martino said. “But I will stay around to help find a successor.”

Paraguay finished top of Group F, which also contained Slovakia, New Zealand and Italy and then beat Japan in the on a penalty shootout.