This summer we've been on the end of some acerbic Gallic comments - Josh Denk isn't amused...
This summer, Swansea City have been linked with a number of French targets and have managed to land only one of them - the delightfully named and amazingly coiffured Bafetimbi Gomis. Mr. Gomis has put his best foot forward in what might well be described as “limited” action for the Swans thus far, but I do like this little number quite a bit, the quick turn-and-shoot:
It reminds me of Mr. Gomis’ hair-mate Marvin Emnes, and his number against Sunderland back in May.
Let’s enjoy that for a moment before we turn our attention to the snubs we’ve received. And the first of those comes from the manager of Montpellier HSC, Rolland Courbis:
Courbis said:
“Our players who are internationals or future internationals attract the attention of big clubs. Montpellier is a big club, but Swansea is not a big club.”
“I don’t think Swansea is the Montpellier of England. It is not in England, it is in Wales.”
So all this was about Swansea’s potential move for deep-lying midfielder Benjamin Stambouli from Montpellier. He might be a pretty solid addition to the team, but Rolland Courbis decided to pull rank, very publicly and with great effort to remain as effete as possible, in assuring the French press that Stambouli would not be leaving for some less-than-Montpellier Welsh team.
You know what, Rolland? YES. We are in Wales. Swansea is a Welsh team — the best Welsh team there is, and not by a little bit. Perhaps we need to play a “friendly” (quotes intentional) with Montpellier and show you what Welsh football is all about [bloody brilliant thought that - Ed]. In the meantime, let’s work with your claim that Montpellier is a big club.
You did win Ligue 1 in 2011-2012. There are those throughout the footballing community who would question whether or not being Ligue 1 champions is good enough to call you a big club, but let’s put those aside for a moment. What results did Montpellier achieve in their last shot at the Champions League? You were drawn in the group stage against Arsenal, Olympiakos, and Schalke. How many wins did you get?
Zero. None. Nada. You managed two draws with Schalke; you lost twice to both Arsenal and Olympiakos.
Seems like a big club might have taken more than two points from this group, especially with Olympiakos in it. Am I right or am I right?
Listen, this isn’t to say that Swansea would have fared better in such a Champions League group. I certainly wouldn’t contend that. But if you’re not good enough to pull a single win out of a group that (let’s be frank) doesn’t represent the toughest competition in the Champions League, can you really consider yourselves a big club? Bigger than Swansea, who eased past a tough Valencia side early in the Europa League last year and managed to squeeze out of the group stage and provide a real challenge to Napoli? I think all of this is relative, but what does a big club mean? And what have Montpellier done (since their flacid 2012 Champions League experience) to indicate they are a big club? Stambouli may be quite good, but I don’t think Swansea have to put up with this sort of insult from Montpellier. Big club, indeed.
OK, now let’s turn our attention to Olympique de Marseille, the place where Dimitri Payet, one of our earlier targets, plies his trade. In this case, the manager of the club decided to keep his mouth shut regarding Swansea’s stature, but that’s where Dimitri Payet stepped in:
"Am I attracted by Swansea proposition? With all respect I have for Swansea I am absolutely not attracted. Since first contact between the club and my agent, I declined the offer. I want to go on at l'OM.
"Indeed on a financial level the offer is very attractive, but being 27, I still have sporting objectives and I decided to stay. If a very big club wanted to contact me it would have done so already."
Marseille has had some ups and downs recently after a successful period, but I think this is important to note: Payet feels like he can talk about our Swans this way even though he hasn’t been able to break through with his OM team in 2013-2014.
Payet, who only moved to Marseille in the summer of 2013, accepts that the club may be prepared to let him go after admitting he did not meet his own expectations last term.
"I'm being pushed out of the club, but I can understand that. There is an economic reality behind that. My first season was average. I've expected better from myself and I guess it's also their case."
Yep, even OM didn’t want Payet to start this season; he’s been coming off the bench almost all season. And it’s no wonder:
Yes, that is the very same Dimitri Payet attempting to hit a corner kick and hitting THE SCOREBOARD INSTEAD.
Honestly? It looks like we dodged a bullet here. Swansea not big enough for Payet? We're better off without him. As for Rolland Courbis? A cursory internet search shows he's won no major trophies in his managerial career, which spans twenty-eight years. Pretty impressive for someone with such a big mouth. Perhaps unsurprisingly he's got his own daily talk-radio show called "Coach Courbis" - if I were him I would hold onto that gig as long as possible, because let's be honest, his results as a coach leave a lot to be desired.
If only Bafetimbi Gomis' compatriots had jumped on Football Manager like he did, they'd perhaps have seen we're not that small a club after all.
Big thanks to Josh for this latest piece! Make sure to give him a follow on Twitter @TheJoshDenk