Bordeaux: borderline lunacy

Until the Marouane Chamakh farce began, we had nothing against Bordeaux. Liked the city (though not too much), loved the (overpriced) wine, respected Laurent Blanc’s championship-winning achievements, albeit in a relatively weak league. Mais zut alors! M Blanc and his equally blank president have sorely tested our patience, and the entente cordiale …

In deference to the French half or, rather, third of its name, Salut! Sunderland had lately suspended hostilities against Bordeaux, hostilities aimed not so much at its fans* as at its arrogant, hard-of-thinking management.

But the latest outburst from the French champions’ president Jean-Louis Triaud cannot be overlooked. Having first claimed, along with the Bordeaux manager Laurent Blanc that Sunderland was not a big enough club to sign Marouane Chamakh, he now says the deciding factor was Lilian Laslandes’s “depressing” spell on Wearside.

We have already dealt with the pathetic big club/small club argument, drawing attention to the French team’s abysmally low gates given their status as “big club” Ligue 1 title holders. We have also asked incoveniently where Bordeaux might finish if forced to play in a proper top flight. Eighth or ninth in the Premier League maybe?

And now the Laslandes-was-depressed explanation, one that really takes le biscuit and suggests Bordeaux are finally verging on insanity. If old Lilian was feeling low while at Sunderland, could that not be because, even allowing for the wretched service he received from players who thought we still had a big target man up front, he wasn’t actually good enough for the Premier?

And it would have done his morale no good to be done for drink driving after being persuaded on a night out with teammates that a few more swigs would do no harm. If I remember correctly, the SAFC-supporting policeman who stopped him found it hard to sympathise.

As has been pointed out elsewhere, Sunderland AFC is in entirely different hands now. So Triaud’s ridiculous comments might as well be about a different club altogether. Time for him to pipe down. Or, if he prefers, to fermez la gueule!