Well, I know most of us have tried to block out the France escapade that played out during the Euro 2008 tournament- at least I have. But, humor me for a moment, as we revisit that dark place….and follow the latest twist that may reveal why Nasri was left out of the France squad.
According to Gallas’s biography, there were two incident over the tournament in which he felt Nasri was disrespectful to older members of the France team…
Fight #1
During a training in Switzerland , the players form teams of three to pass the ball to each other. Gallas forms a team with Samir Nasri and another young player. As part of the exercise, Nasri and the other player are suppose to alert Gallas as to when the pass arrives to him- which he and the other young player fail to do. Gallas, tells the young players to “speak, my boys, give me the information [when the ball arrives].” One of the young players makes the smart decision to take the criticism and remain silent- that player was not Nasri. Instead, Nasri decides to give as good as he’s getting and snaps back at Gallas, “You have to know before the ball arrives, you have to know it yourselves when it arrives!” Gallas, being obsessed with deference to age and experience (both of which, obviously, advantage him) does not take kindly to this sass and instead of deescalating the conflict, decides to become even more condescending, “How do you speak to me? Who do you think you are? You’re only a 20-year-old! I am not your friend!” But, of course, this really isn’t much a threat to Nasri, who doesn’t seem to care about having William Gallas as a BFF, and he decides to let him know…”Me neither, I am not your friend!” The shouting apparentl continues (which begs the question why a mature adult from the coaching squad did not intervene) with Nasri continuing to engage Gallas and antagonize him by requesting that he “lower his voice” and “speak less loudly.”
Fight #2
During training for the tournament, Henry did not travel with the team on a few occasions- and on those occasions Nasri chose to sit in his seat. Well, apparently, no one told Nasri that the team operated like high school with assigned seats- so once Henry returned back to the team, his seat check immediately went into affect. According to Gallas’s biography, Nasri was not respectful enough to honor this unspoken rule, and he just wasn’t going to stand for it (even though it didn’t concern him one bit). So, Gallas takes it upon himself to confront Nasri over this serious breach of decorum – and demands (not asks) that he move so Henry can reclaim his throne on the bus. Now, this time Nasri says nothing in response to Gallas and moves as requested (err, demanded). Which, ironically, Gallas also finds to be disrespectful…
So why is this being brought up again?
Because at the time, Nasri displayed remarkable maturity and didn’t respond to Gallas’s serious breach of confidentiality. Back then, Nasri instead that the ordeal had been completely overblown and that it was unfair to blame his behavior for the on-field fiascos…seeing as though he hardly played, its hard to disagree with that.
But now things have changed. First, Gallas is expected to leave Arsenal on a free transfer so Nasri won’t have to deal with him on a day-to-day basis. Which isn’t really different from how they deal with each now because according to Nasri they two do not speak each other. And Nasri isn’t the only one giving Gallas the silent treatment- apparently 5 other Arsenal players feel the same way. Now, there is no guarantee that those players are French….but this situation could provide us with some interesting insight on why Nasri and potentially other young members of the France squad were not chosen in Domenech’s list of 30 players last week. Nasri has asked Domenech to explain his decision, emphasizing that he respects the coach’s decision, but he “hears” he’s being reproached for behavior….
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