A scale doesn’t lie. July 2012, after three trying seasons, Didier Deschamps left Olympique de Marseille (OM) exhausted and full. “Over there, I saw that he was getting bigger, that he was often in the fridge but I didn’t say anything to him because at that moment he was not ready to hear it”, confides his wife, Claude Deschamps, in the documentary Didier facing Deschamps, broadcast on TF1 in 2019.
Despite everything, his record speaks for himself. While OM had been crying famine for seventeen years, Deschamps placed on the table a title of champion of France (2010) and three League Cups (2010, 2011 and 2012). However, the man leaves tired and the coach ruminates against these ungrateful supporters with him and whom he perceives as the armed arm of José Anigo, this sports director to whom he no longer says hello.
“In a few months, it takes several years, confirms Christophe Hutteau, agent for striker Mathieu Valbuena. The pressure was terrible at that time, there is not even a picture of what we have experienced [André] Villas-Boas this season [alors entraîneur de l’OM, sur le départ], even with the invasion of the Commandery. “
Summer 2009 is hot
As a player and captain, Deschamps experienced the grandeur and decadence of the Tapie years (1989-1994), with a detour to Bordeaux between 1990 and 1991. On his return, in June 2009, the Marseille context managed to confuse him. The president of the supervisory board, Vincent Labrune, organizes the fall of the president, Pape Diouf, at the origin of the arrival of the new coach. As the maneuver can be seen, Labrune leaves it to Jean-Claude Dassier, hitherto TF1’s news director, the task of warming him up as president of the club. Sick, the owner, Robert Louis-Dreyfus, died on July 4, 2009.
In summary, the summer of 2009 is hot and Didier Deschamps regrets the tranquility of his villa in Cap-d’Ail (Alpes-Maritimes). But he has to work. Since leaving Juventus in 2007, he has said no a lot (Bordeaux, Lens, Saint-Etienne, Manchester City). He also changed agents. Jean-Pierre Bernès replaced the historic Jeannot Werth. Everything except a detail in Marseille where the name of the former general manager refers to the VA-OM affair.
“From the start, the goal was announced. He wants to build a team with guys of character and who have already won ”, Edouard Cissé, former OM player
With the agreement of Jean-Claude Dassier, perfect novice in football, Didier Deschamps tries to install his agent at the center of the game to guide recruitment. Out of the question for Vincent Labrune. The coach complies, but the damage is done. Anigo holds back this attempted intrusion on his flowerbeds and bides his time for the counterattack.
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