Let’s Check in With Barthez

February 13th, 2007 | by: Laurie |

I’m thinking it’s not a good thing for me to write about players with love and TLC in my heart. It didn’t work out so well for Trezeguet last week. And now…well, let’s have a look at my second-favorite** former Bleu, Nantes goalkeeper Fabien Barthez.

As you’ll surely remember, Fabien signed with Nantes toward the end of last year as their last great hope to help them keep from getting sucked down into the relegation cesspool. At that time they were squarely in the relegation zone, sitting second-from-last on the Ligue 1 table.

And for a time, life was good. Barthez started well. They had a couple of wins and edged their way upwards. If I’m not mistaken, they even had a couple of pleasant weeks where they were only FOURTH-to-last. Maybe even FIFTH! Oh, those were heady times!

But alas, things have started to head south again. The most recent game with Barthez in goal? 5-2, Valenciennes. And Valenciennes isn’t actually that good, hanging onto fifteenth place out of twenty teams. Ouch.

And where does this leave Nantes on the table? Let’s see…that would be…second from bottom. Again.

I’m sorry, Fabien. This is all my fault. I will not write affectionately about you and your delightful quirks and eccentricities ever again. That should make things all bettter.

(**As I have said before: Duh. Starts with a Z and ends with a headbutt.)

France World Cup Blog RSS Feed

http://pandasthatwontscrewtosavetheirspecies.blogspot.com whb

Sorry, Laurie… I can’t agree on Barthez. He looked horrible for most of the summer and I’m kind of glad we gave him the boot. (and by “we” I mean les bleus.)
http://france.worldcupblog.org Laurie

Whb, I’m not necessarily thinking he should be back in Bleu. (Actually, the thought kind of terrifies me.) But I would like to see him pull something out of his hat for Nantes.

Erratic play and eccentricities and all, Barthez has always made me smile. I’ve always thought he deserved better than to go out as “Barthez n’a rien arreté” (Barthez didn’t stop anything) in the Coup de Boule song.

(But I’m glad to have Coupet between the posts.)
MB

Although I agree with you Laurie in that I love Barthez for his entertainment,eccentricity (recall the 78th minute fumble against Portugal) and his ability to put a smile on my face, Gregory Coupet without a doubt is the far superior goalkeeper and although I am sad to see Fabien no longer in a France jersey, goalkeeper is one position that Les Bleus do not have to worry about with Coupet and backup Mickael Landreau both established players.
http://france.worldcupblog.org Laurie

Ah, yes, the 78th minute fumble against Portugal. Which led one blogger I read to shout at her screen, “Yo! Barthez! Ever hear of opposable thumbs?!”