Secret recording debunks Laurent Blanc sainthood theory

May 5th, 2011 | by: jeff | View Comments

According to the L.A. Times and Paul Doyle in the Guardian, a secret recording has emerged of Laurent Blanc actually saying the horrible things he has recently been accused of having said.

So I owe Mediapart an apology for some references to their being media whores. And hacks. Sorry.

But some of you would not be fit for jury duty. An accusation is not proof of guilt. An elaborate accusation is not proof a guilt. An audio recording whose authenticity is effectively confirmed by Blanc by apologizing to those who may have been offended is, for me, proof of guilt.

Presumably the recording is now widely available, the writer in the L.A. Times writes as if she has heard it first hand.

During a planning session to secretly exclude minorities from training academies, Blanc, according to Paul Doyle’s article, said, “You have the impression that they really train the same prototype of players: big, strong, powerful … What is there that is currently big, strong, powerful? The blacks. That’s the way it is. It’s a current fact. God knows that in the training centres and football schools there are loads of them.”

This is the outrageous quote that I previously described as an obvious fabrication.

Laurent Blanc did not have the sense to realize that someone in the room was so offended by this line of discussion that he was secretly recording the discussion to expose Blanc, and others.

What’s a fitting response? Stateside, he would already be out of a job, I think, likely having “resigned.”

I’m sick at the thought of a replacement manager who might not pick my new favorite player, Yann M’Vila. And Blanc was just figuring out to play Menez on the right. This can not be happening. Goodbye defensive solidity. We did not take you for granted during your brief appearance.