In an exclusive interview with Get French Football News, former France defender Marcel Desailly has said that he doesn’t believe Arsenal defender William Saliba’s “individual qualities to be above average” and added that he believes he needs to “acclimatise” to assimilate into France’s backline. 

After a loan spell at Olympique de Marseille, Saliba broke into the Arsenal first-team last season. Not only did he immediately cement his place in an Arsenal side that went on to finish second in the Premier League, but he was also included in the Premier League Team of the Season. 

However, Desailly, who played 116 times for Les Bleus between 1993 and 2004, believes that Saliba has to do more to displace the current duo of Dayot Upamecano and Ibrahima Konaté.

“Upamecano, and Konaté – their association is fabulous. And more than that – I think that, individually, they maybe have a level above what we saw with Varane and Umtiti. But before they can express their individuality at a very high level, their association needs to be good,” Desailly told GFFN.

He added, “Then there is the one at Arsenal too (William Saliba) – he hasn’t yet had the game time to adapt to that necessary association. I don’t believe his individual qualities to be above average. He’s at a very, very high level but not extraordinary. So before absorbing the international level, he needs to acclimatise to those associations. As things stand I don’t know how to associate him with Konate or with Upamecano so that he can excel and develop all the talent that he has in him.”

GFFN | Jeremy Smith, Luke Entwistle

Martinez mocked Mbappé in the wake of Argentina’s World Cup final victory. The Paris Saint-Germain forward netted past Aston Villa goalkeeper Martinez on four occasions during the final (including once in the penalty shoot-out). Post-match, Martinez called for a minute’s silence for the now-France captain before immediately breaking that silence and leading the chants in the dressing room. He then posed with a doll of the Frenchman during the trophy celebrations back in Argentina. 

Martinez made an apology of sorts in February, stating that he “didn’t want to hurt anyone” and that it was just “a joke” with his teammates that should “never have left the dressing room.” 

However, the Yashin Trophy winner spoke much more highly of Mbappé in Paris. The PSG forward came third in this year’s edition of the Ballon d’Or, behind Erling Haaland and winner Lionel Messi, however, Martinez has backed Mbappé to win the prestigious prize “lots” of times in the coming years.

“It isn’t because of nothing that he is considered one of the best in the world. I have a lot of respect for him as a player and as a person. Kylian is an example to follow. He is phenomenal. Winning a World Cup, and scoring a hat-trick in the final in the following edition, all the French people should be proud of a player like him. When Leo (Messi) and (Cristiano) Ronaldo retire, Kylian will follow the same path as them. He will win a lot of Ballon d’Or,” said Martinez. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

El-Mourabet is on the fringes of the first team. During pre-season, he often trained with the first team and even featured in two pre-season friendlies. However, he has yet to feature in an official match for his hometown club. El-Mourabet, who has received a call-up to Morocco’s U20 side, plays largely for the club’s Groupe Élite team. His performances with this side have attracted interest from Ligue 1 rivals Reims, as well as Eredivisie side FC Utrecht. 

El-Mourabet is currently on a trainee contract with Les Alsaciens, which is set to expire in 2025. The Moroccan youth international is a talented left-footed midfielder who came through the ranks playing for the French youth futsal sides. Since Strasbourg’s takeover from BlueCo, there has been a reticence to sell their brightest prospects. It remains to be seen whether RCSA would be open to a sale in this instance. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

As one of France’s greatest central defenders, what do you think of Les Bleus’ current crop of centre-backs?

I think that France have great individuals on the defensive side. But it’s more linked to associations than individuality. We had the Umtiti-Varane pairing, which was fabulous.

Like you and Laurent Blanc!

Yes. The difference is that– through our clubs, over the 15 years I was in the France team – we were able to retain our level and to keep our places as indisputable starters in big clubs. And that association enabled France to benefit from a fabulous central defence. But now the page has turned. Umtiti and Varane – world champions – that’s brilliant – but it seems like they weren’t able to retain that intensity. And that’s surely one of the reasons why we are now seeing a new generation coming through. In Umtiti’s case, it wasn’t by choice, while Varane chose to take his international retirement because he saw that he no longer had the capacity to maintain his level, whether with his club or internationally. So he had to make a choice.

Now, Upamecano, and Konate – their association is fabulous. And more than that – I think that, individually, they maybe have a level above what we saw with Varane and Umtiti. But before they can express their individuality at a very high level, their association needs to be good.

Then there is the one at Arsenal too (William Saliba) – he hasn’t yet had the game time to adapt to that necessary association. I don’t believe his individual qualities to be above average. He’s at a very, very high level but not extraordinary. So before absorbing the international level, he needs to acclimatise to those associations. As things stand I don’t know how to associate him with Konate or with Upamecano so that he can excel and develop all the talent that he has in him.

Do you have an explanation as to why France struggles to find top fullbacks – to the extent that Deschamps often plays centre-backs as fullbacks?

He has a defence of four and [at right back] he had the choice between Pavard and Kounde. Kounde, without being exceptional, at least on the defensive side there is some quality. In terms of going forward, he’s not as good as Pavard. But we have four candidates for two places on each side and yes, compared to the potential of the centre-backs, there is a bit of a dip in quality when it comes to the full-backs – even if the Hernandez brothers show stability for their club and for France, guaranteeing tactical intelligence, in terms of going forward and dropping back into the defensive block. We do, however, have players of a very high level, otherwise, France wouldn’t have reached the World Cup final, albeit protected by a midfield which is dense, powerful and strong, which controls the ball and has a tactical intelligence within the team which compensates the fact that the full-backs don’t push up.

But on the left, when it’s Hernandez with Mbappe, it’s hard to take the baton from Mbappe – you can give him an option but it’s not you who is going to make the difference. Mbappe will use the option that you give him in order to make the difference. The same on the right – Griezmann’s tactical intelligence doesn’t give the option for Pavard or Kounde to express themselves – he stays wide or he takes the ball and cuts inside to create chances – so today we have fullbacks who are maybe just a little below the top, but who adapt to the philosophy and the need of this France team.

Two of the young centre-backs, Disasi and Badiashile, are at your former club Chelsea. The London club are struggling a little despite spending a billion pounds. How do you see the club right now?

It’s strange because you can’t criticise people who have succeeded professionally and who have decided to invest – they have consulted the board, they have had dozens of meetings for each player whom they bring in, to adapt them to the philosophy, to the future needs of the club in relation to the player’s potential. So it’s very hard to criticize. The only thing that I’d say though is that it is an error of communication. They are carried away by the potential that each player that they’ve bought has, because they’ve forgotten about one element, knowing that to play football at the highest level, to attain what we call in French “la culture de la gagne” – the winning mentality – you need experience – nascent talent is never enough to presume immediate performance. And that’s the only thing where I’d say they’ve made a mistake, where they keep thinking, with the coach Pochettino, “No, this year we’ll be title challengers with the team that we have”.

Right from the start of the season, you could see that they can’t be title challengers – it was obvious. But they have put together players of great potential and have positioned themselves in terms of “business” – because if they didn’t buy the players now for a little above value, they wouldn’t have been able to buy them later. So the only thing is they need to know how to educate the supporters by telling them “Hang on – we’re going to have a year or two of transition but after that – wow – we’ve built up enormous potential”.

But the fans and the media don’t want to hear that – they’ve seen the investment, they want immediate results. But that’s what I think of Chelsea’s idea – Pochettino isn’t a coach who has built up his philosophy like a Mourinho, a Tuchel – he’s a coach who needs to coach top players, top teams. And now he needs to rethink all his coaching to adapt to players who are in theory at a very high level but for whom you need to recreate the basic foundations of play.

It’s funny that you’re talking about Chelsea and the need for patience. I’ve heard you say similar about Milan. And moving on to your third big club – Marseille – I think it’s similar there – there is always an expectation, an impatience to succeed immediately. What do you think of Marseille right now?

It’s like other clubs – some of whom have more potential – in terms of hopes. I find that often the club, or rather the supporters – or the media that is affiliated to the club – the local paper La Provence and others – influence too much the idea that in the past we were always title challengers so we should be continuing in the same dynamic. In modern football all clubs invest, and all clubs have players of quality.

If you don’t have international starters in your team you can’t expect to be challenging for titles. And they deceive themselves – they start the season with “hopes”, knowing that when you look at the squad player by player, you realise that you’re more likely playing for a place in mid-table, a bit better if you can generate a positive dynamic and with a bit of luck. If those two elements come together, maybe we can challenge and finish in the top 6. But they’re doing themselves a disservice. And that’s what winds me up sometimes, similarly to what I said with Chelsea – the evidence is there and it’s the same with Marseille.

Gattuso – great – I respect him a lot – but he doesn’t have the squad. There isn’t the squad. When you look at all the positions. They all still need to learn, and there isn’t that added value – that no.10, that playmaker who can put away a free kick or make a difference at any moment. Look at players that they’ve had like the Chilean – Alexis Sanchez – who are past their best. I’m not sure if they still have that desire within them, and we place all our hopes on their ability, whereas now at Inter Milan – if he was still a great player like they claimed – he’d be a regular starter. But Sanchez’s stats since he arrived at Inter? He might not yet have started a single match. You see what I mean? So it’s lots of different things.

But the club owes it to itself to constantly expect to be a title challenger. And we’re a bit frustrated at Marseille, where we have the feeling that the owner [Frank McCourt] isn’t really invested. He has delegated to a president who is super-smart – but it’s all very well being smart – if there is no money, if there isn’t the budget to buy your first choices, you’re going to struggle. And France no longer attracts first choices. You have Italy, Spain, England – which means that it’s super hard to find that Uruguayan, that Argentinian, that player from Africa, to find that gem. It’s super hard.

Marcel Desailly was speaking on behalf of GamblingZone.

GFFN | Jeremy Smith

Manager Fabio Grosso was injured during the attack, which took place in the area surrounding the Véldrome. Projectiles thrown by OM fans smashed the glass of the Lyon team bus. A bottle was then thrown through the open window, striking Grosso just above his left eye. The wound required stitches and with Grosso unable to take his place in the dugout, the game was abandoned, just minutes before the scheduled kick-off time. 

600 Lyon fans also made the trip to Marseille and were also attacked on their approach to the stadium. Aulas, who was stripped of his presidential role by John Textor earlier this year, has now called for OM to be sanctioned for the incidents. The LFP are currently not investigating the incident as the incidents took place outside of the stadium and therefore sanctioning the incident falls outside of their jurisdiction. 

Aulas calls for racist gestures in Lyon away-end to be punished

“You can’t be completely exonerated from responsibility,” Aulas told L’Équipe. “Football, the club (OM) and of course, the public security services all have a share of responsibility in this affair, especially since it was foreseeable.”

Asked specifically whether he believes that Marseille should be sanctioned for the incident, he replied, “I will leave it to the people responsible for deciding and ask them to decide with their soul and conscience, but a very heavy sanction is needed. Otherwise, next time, there will be deaths. Fabio could have lost his eye.”

Aulas also called for those who made racist gestures in Lyon’s away end to be punished. Footage has shown supporters within Lyon’s travelling section making Nazi salutes and monkey gestures towards Marseille fans. “It’s unacceptable [..] it is easy to find those that did it. There are cameras. They need to be sentenced and excluded,” said Aulas. The LFP announced on Tuesday that an investigation has been opened into the incidents. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

Salisu didn’t arrive at the club peak fitness following his €15m move. He didn’t immediately integrate the first-team set-up, but he had been training with his new teammates in recent weeks, alluding to an imminent return. Adi Hütter even evoked the idea that the former Southampton centre-back would feature after the September international break.

However, it was announced in mid-September that he would undergo surgery on a pubalgia (groin) injury after feeling “persistent pain” during the international break. However, Salisu now looks to be edging closer to a return. Monaco held an open training session on Wednesday morning and Salisu was present and training with the rest of his teammates.His return will be a welcome one. Les Monégasques are currently decimated by injuries in defence with players such as Guillermo Maripán and Soungoutou Magassa working their way back to fitness. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

Monaco have been forced into the market to sign a left-back after Caio Henrique suffered an ACL injury that could potentially rule him out until the end of the campaign. Ismael Jakobs has replaced the Brazilian in Adi Hütter’s starting XI, however, he will be absent for several weeks when he represents Senegal at AFCON. 

LFP rules stipulate that French teams can make one ‘joker’ signing outside of the January and summer transfer windows in the event of losing a player to injury, as Monaco have. The replacement has to be bought from another French club. 

Monaco now look set to complete the signing of Ouattara, who according to L’Équipe, will join for around €2m. Foot Mercato add that the Franc U20 left-back will sign a four-and-a-half-year deal with the Principality club. Ouattara is already in Monaco ahead of the imminent move. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

Lyon’s team bus was attacked en route to the Vélodrome on Sunday night. Manager Fabio Grosso was injured during the attack, requiring stitches to a wound just above his left eye. 600 Lyon supporters made the trip to Marseille and they were also attacked on their way to the stadium. 

However, once within the Vélodrome, Lyon fans are accused of making nazi salutes and also making monkey gestures towards the Marseille fans, whilst also brandishing their passports. The game was ultimately abandoned just moments before the scheduled kick-off time. A new date for the encounter is yet to be set. 

In a press release, the LFP have confirmed that they will investigate the behaviour of the Lyon fans, “in view of the gravity of the instance.” The LFP discipline committee will make a decision on Wednesday 22nd November. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

Messi secured his eighth Ballon d’Or during Monday night’s ceremony in Paris. It comes after a year in which he won the World Cup in Qatar, as well as the Ligue 1 title with Paris Saint-Germain. The Argentinian played a starring role in the World Cup final. However, Messi was outscored by Haaland, as well as PSG teammate Kylian Mbappé, who himself scored a hat-trick in the World Cup final, but ended up on the losing side. Messi scored 38 goals in the 2022/23 season, 16 fewer than Mbappé and 18 fewer than Haaland, the winner of the Gerd Müller award. 

Messi “not even the best player at his club” – Rothen

Rothen was therefore highly critical of the decision to award Messi the prestigious trophy. “It’s shameful! Of course, it’s shameful! For me, Haaland should have won it. Between August 2022 and June 2023, what criteria lead us to believe that Messi is better than the rest? There is basically no criterion where he is the number one. If we speak about trophies, he is behind Haaland, even if he did win the World Cup. Haaland won everything with Manchester City and of course, you can’t compare based on the World Cup because Haaland is Norwegian,” said Rothen. 

He added, “Haaland beat all of the records […] even at PSG, Messi wasn’t above the rest. He wasn’t even the best player at the club. It’s problematic that the guy who gets the Ballon d’Or, who is supposed to be the best player in the world, wasn’t even the best player at his club. For three or four years, Messi has not been the best player in the world. We need to stop this madness. And in these four years, he has won two Ballon d’Ors. So, for me, it’s shameful. I can’t believe my eyes.”

Messi now plays his club football for Inter Miami after leaving PSG in the summer. After receiving his eighth award, he said that he believes it will be his last Ballon d’Or. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle

Ouattara’s move to AS Monaco is on the verge of completion. Having lost Caio Henrique to an ACL injury, which could rule him out until the end of the campaign, Monaco are short of options at left-back. Ismail Jakobs has since filled in and will likely be expected to do so for much of the remainder of the campaign, however, he will be absent for several weeks when he represents Senegal in the AFCON. 

Monaco are permitted to make one ‘joker’ transfer, having lost Henrique to injury. The rule stipulates that in the event of a considerable injury, French clubs can buy one player, on the condition that they are bought from another French club. Les Monégasques now look set to sign France U20 left-back Ouattara. He is already in the Principality ahead of the move. 

GFFN | Luke Entwistle