Weekend Reading Material

By: Martha | July 12th, 2008

This picture is unrelated to anything.

•The only eye-witness report of last night’s match that I can find is here. It doesn’t sound like it was as big of a debacle as the scoreline suggests, but it’s hard for me to tell because Google translate really wrecks havoc with the story. In good news, Remy reportedly played really well. As for the rest, fatigue, as can be expected, was a problem, but so were individual errors in front of goal, which is worrying. (One hopes, I guess, that they were a function of fatigue, and won’t become habit. Maybe.) Also worrying is the fact that Letizi picked up a knock during his 45 minutes of action; he’ll be reexamined today.

•If his short interview with L’Equipe can be believed, Baky’s in a great mood, and is happy to return to training on Monday. He still wants to go to OM and makes no secret of it, but it doesn’t look like he plans to do any (more) pouting, which is nice to hear.

•And Antonetti will be happy to have Baky back — he’s going to welcome him “as a father welcomes his son … Even if, sometimes, there are tensions family.” That said, he understands Baky wanting to leave, and doesn’t sound like he has any interested in standing in his way: “Our policy is clear. The players remain in Nice two or three years. It is a springboard. You can not then tell them to stay.” Man. Like I said in the comments on yesterday’s post, I like Antonetti, and how matter-of-fact he usually is — no one’s going to get him to talk about wild goals, or to praise a new player (Remy, for example) as the savior. The team is what it is, and everyone has work to do.

•There’s only a short excerpt from the interview Remy did with France Football online, but what’s there is encouraging, if he’s really as modest as willing to work as his words suggest.

•Chaouki Ben Saada also gave a frank interview this week, talking about his weaknesses, and his commitment to improving his game. I don’t know much about this guy, but everything I hear makes me respect him more as a person — you’ve got to be pretty special to not only follow your childhood team down to Ligue 2, but also sign a new contract with them when you know you’re leaving, just to make sure they get value for you when you’re sold. Talking like he does in the interview only reinforces that good impression.

Good weekend, everyone — assuming nothing earth-shattering happens tomorrow, I’ll see you on Monday.