France Foto: Arriving in Style

May 26th, 2008 | by: Laurie |

This is one of the two helicopters that arrived at Tignes (where the team has been retreating, pre-friendlies) carrying the Lyonnais. Nothing’s too good for our boys, eh?

(This is part of a fun “Diaporama” of photos of the most-recently-arrived players on the fff site.)

And while we’re at it, let’s toss in one of Sidney Govou.

Not many people could make this outfit work, but our Sidney somehow manages. Barely.

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http://lyon.theoffside.com Inara

Interesting that Ben Arfa was in a separate helicopter from Squillaci and Benzema.
http://france.worldcupblog.org Laurie

Inara, did you ever get the story about what happened between them?
http://lyon.theoffside.com Inara

Ben Arfa apparently didn’t credit Benzema for the assist on his goal against PSG back in the fall, which in turn pissed off Benzema. And that’s why they are no longer BFFS. Supposedly.

The Squillaci issue is more clear cut. During training two months ago, Squillaci tackled Ben Arfa pretty hard, who then swore something (obviously offensive) at Squillaci. After practice, Squillaci chased Ben Arfa down and demanded that he repeat what he said earlier, but Ben Arfa darted away, and the two players had to be separated. At the time, I thought it was just a training bust up, which happens all the time – players running on so much adrenaline all the time are bound to explode on occasion – but it might have been a more serious event than what we first thought.
Storm

In the dressing room (where Ben Afra and Toto were asked to retreat to after their little tete a tete during training and in front of journalists) Ben Afra hit Squillaci in the back (not exactly a brave thing to do). For Toto the issue was finished. I think thats why Ben Afra lost a lot of friends in the dressing room.
I have a horrible feeling that he may become one of those players who spends a whole career never quite gaining the mental maturity he needs to really make the most of his immense talent.
Doumé

Man, that is pretty stupid. Guys, come on! Get it together!
Jean-Michel

So much for team chemistry. I thought Domenech was big on that and the Squillaci beef was well documented by the French media. This has list of cut players all over it.