France national team coach Didier Deschamps believes that Theo Hernandez does not have the same spark that he did two years ago, while he also spoke about some of Mike Maignan’s difficulties.
Deschamps gave an interview to La Gazzetta dello Sport in view of the upcoming European Championship, a tournament which France start as being among the favourites along with England, and he spoke about a couple of Milan players.
He started by discussing Theo Hernandez, a player that is the subject of a lot of speculation regarding a potential move to Bayern Munich or another top European club, and he revealed an interesting detail about the full-back.
“We talked about it in March. In general there isn’t the same enthusiasm as the Scudetto season, but it seemed to me that he was happy at Milan where he was also the captain, as a foreign player. However, organising a tour in Australia in full national team retreat, it’s not very nice,” he said.
Deschamps was also asked about Maignan who is widely regarded to have had a sub-par season by his usual very high standards. The France boss was asked if the incident of racial abuse in Udinese might have destabilised him.
“These are things that should never happen again. That episode hurt him, it wasn’t the first time. The mental factor can have repercussions on a physical level.
“But, it must be said that the previous season was extraordinary, so potentially there is no need to worry, even if he has been less well in the last period due to some small injuries.”
Finally, the 55-year-old was questioned on the idea of Inter’s Marcus Thuram inheriting the starting spot from Olivier Giroud, given he will retire from international football once Euro 2024 is done.
“Marcus had a good season with Inter, improving his effectiveness, in harmony with Lautaro Martinez. Marcus can play across the attack.
“He doesn’t have the same characteristics as Olivier, but he can be his heir. And even if it is the last European Championship for Giroud, it is important to count on his experience.”
Yeah. Most Milan players lacked the ambition and enthusiasm this season. That’s why there was a 20p gap between Inter & Milan. Attitude is everything. If you don’t feel like winning you will not win. Simple.
This is what happens when you fire the living legend who is around the players every week to tell them that we want to fckin win everything. The direction is pretty clear all the time that we’re fine enough with top 4 and now he’s just a Barbie that they dress with shtty Puma clothes to push people to spend money. Let’s see if Fonseca the Ukrainian emperor can instill that mentality of winning but it seems like he was not appointed to do that, he’s just a caretaker to clinch UCL money while the direction is looking for business ventures.
@ Bartholomeo if anyone needs to be around these players everyday to tell them they want to win everything then we have a huge problem. These are professional athletes getting paid tons of money, not 5 year old kids.
Exactly.
No, thats the result when you think you are scudetto cotender but get bullied by rival in early season. Quality gap was too high makes the ego get humbled and the whole squad lost his spirit.
This is something I 100% agree on, attitude and character is so important in team sport, yet its attributes you don’t necessarily see on paper or in numbers and why Money ball strategy is not the smartest.
I can see this being his farewell season, he is young and would want to win more, but clearly our management doesn’t share the same ambitions to win like players like him do. It would be better for him to join clubs like Real and Bayern or even Juventus where the management is much more ambitious in their quest to win.
Juve cannot afford him. No way
I wouldn’t be enthusiastic either if I was run by uncle sam
Missing that family feeling it’s all corporate now
You can be run by uncle Sam and still have the mentality for great things.
Take Arsenal for example. So close to dethroning the best team in the past 20 years.
Ambition is something that wasn’t lacking with Maldini & Massara.
Was exactly what was predicted would happen
Can you predict when milan will win again?
Ambition is what got them fired, as soon as Maldini mentioned Redbird have to invest in the interview with cbs he got fired
This is why we needed a guy like Conte. For attitude and character which he guarantees in his clubs
I was thinking the same thing during these coaching rumors. Conte would’ve brought the best out of Leao. Players with so much talent always need a tough coach.
He has never been a Milan fan ever since juve, if he played for juve you would never hear such comment from him
– His idol who’s the main reason he joined Milan got sacked without any respect
– His mentor for 5 years who helped him improved into a better player just got sacked too
– His legendary French team mates left Milan and will retire
– He ended last season with no trophies and got beaten 5-2 in a unnecesaary friendly match with Roma
Yeah no wonder Theo lacks of enthusiasm lol.
Oh add to the list:
– The guy who will be the new manager looks mediocre af
– Tons of rumors about he will left Milan for Munich which is big chance could be true but not his intention since the new management talked about selling important players if the offers is right.
Yeah his morale and enthusiasm definitely at the bottom and i can’t blame him.
People here were laughing us off when we all pointed to this exact issue. Theo, Tomori, Leao, Maignan all said they came because of Maldini. These same players had horrendous last season.
But who can blame them when this management made it clear everyone has a price. There’s no family vibe anymore, it’s all generic, corporate and hyperconsumption oriented. A cheap and fast entertainment on demand as only Americans know.
Professional footballers shouldn’t have good or bad performances based on who is sitting in the front office. That’s a cop out.
This. Does every other team have their own maldinis? Nope. Very few do. Do the players of other clubs act grumpy because there’s no legend(s) watching them train each day? Highly doubt that.
They get big bucks to do their work. Properly. Not at 50%.
« The mental factor can have repercussions on a physical level. »
Says Didier Deschamps, who won the Champions League as Marseille captain, won the World Cup and Euro as France captain, won the World Cup as France coach.
Yeah, he’s referring to the racial abuse, not “Moneyball Moncada”, “Gerry”, “hedge funds”, “profits” or the hiring and firing of coaches abd directors.
Teams don’t have to have someone who was an icon in the management team but we happened to do it that way because we lacked a presence who could attract good players. And who better than a goat contender. And yes they are professionals who will have to adjust to circumstances but remember what’s happened has happened and the fact remains that a significant figure in Milans history was there to oversee operations and the results are there for us to see. Important results. It’s not like he was disliked amongst the team to say that well everyone would be happier that he left. For all intents and purposes, he was close to the players and the team reciprocated the same. Forget Maldini the Milan great for a second and just say former director who the team liked alot and was close to and yes that loss would impact players in some way on a human level. But they carry on too yes as professionals.
Maldini and Ibra made these guys punch way above their weight and way ahead of schedule
Professional footballers are still HUMAN who have emotions, they are not robots.
That’s why the family vibe in Milan can help players to played better and achieved maximum result. Just look at the golden days of Ancelotti era where plenty of players said they felt comfortable played in Milan because of Ancelotti, the staff, and even Galliani showed closed relations like they are family and not just co-workers or boss and their employee.
Now Ancelotti did the same thing in Madrid and look what he achieved last night.
I’d also equate it to Fergies team as well. They were so close as a team and management.
They accomplished great things because they felt safe.
I’m halfway through reading the book of Shevchenko and that really confirms that Galliani & especially Berlusconi treated everyone as family. They (well, actually the doctor who worked for him) even arranged a heart plant for Sheva’s father.
*heart transplant
Does he really say that Theo had less enthusiasm or Milan as a whole? I wouldn’t say we were that good last year either. Even if Leao, Maignan and Theo was better. I think this year was an improvement really. At the same time I would that we were at our best and most fun the year before the Scudetto. When Zlatan played more and we didn’t rely solely on Giroud as a striker.
I think it will be fun to se how we will play when we maybe get a more mobile striker who can combine better with Leao and Pulisic. I remember the game with Okafor on top how fluent our game was. But with Jovic or Giroud that just doesn’t happen. That’s why I really hope to bring in Zirkzee. He would be so fun to see in our team.
Where was the improvement?
– Losing the top games in all competitions, including 1-5 against Inter and 1-2 against Inter so they could clinch the Scudetto at home in front of our face?
– Having the worse defensive records in years?
– Having a lousy midfield starting Krunic, Reijnders or Adli that was destroyed by top opponents?
– Completing a stupid mercato where we sold a cornerstone midfielder and fan favorite to then miss top players like Thuram, Scamacca, Lukaku or Taremi and recruit average players who needed months to settle?
– Having the most injuries in Europe?
That season has been rated 5.5/10 by Italian media. Now we have Paulo Fonseca, a coach who was only coveted by almighty Marseille, 8th in Ligue 1, despite many top clubs looking for a new coach. Now there are rumours that Théo, Mike, Bennacer, Leao could leave. Now there are reports that we’ll miss Buongiorno, Zirkee, Sesko, etc. Inter, Juventus, Napoli and Roma already strengthening their teams while we were taking pictures with koalas.
“Where was the improvement?”
Just a 2 sec glimpse at the standings show a 3 place climb. Yeah. There’s the proof of improvement. Didn’t even have to really look for such thing.
From 4th to 2nd. What’s the reward? This is not the Olympics, there is no silver or bronze medals.
I noticed that you and the confident fans always omit the European competitions.
4th by luck, we are 5th if not because of Juventus, and whats the reward? UEL spot if you want to talk about European Competition lol
Please check the 2022/23 Serie A standings again, we were 4th and this is why we played in the UCL, in which we were eliminated in December. Just to remind you, Juventus was penalized because they cheated allegedly, leading to a sporting advantage over other teams.
No wonder why world class players lack enthusiasm when they know they are playing in second-tier competitions after the first part of the season while we were already out of Serie A contention at this time.
CL was tough. EL was a failure. But Success comes gradually. You don’t go from 5th to 1st in a season.
in the last 4 years we finished
2nd
5th
1st
2nd
It’s not all Doom & Gloom. Can we improve? Absolutely! Has it been a failure? Hardly.
Well that’s one way to measure improvement. We did go from 4th to second. We improved by…..takes out reading glasses….oh 5 points lol. Scored more goals (almost same as in 21/22 with the old team), that’s an improvement. Conceded more than last year…that’s not an improvement, dumped out of the UCL in the group stage…that’s not an improvement. It’s not clear if we did have a serious improvement.
Last season we lost four(!) times against inter. Remeber that?
Do you miss Saele and Messias, Vranx, etc?
Of course we missed buying some players. But they we all just rumours. Milan can’t dictate everything about where players go. In that case we would get Mbappé this year cause he is free agent cause all free agents want to come to us just cause there are rumours. Who knows if Thuram wanted to ho to us? Maybe he felt that Inter was better for him. It’s not all money or Maldini who gets players. Reality is a thing to thatwe have to take into consideration. Sometimes reality sucks.
And sometimes manegement makes shitty decisions. Problem is that we know very little about what goes on behind the scenes. And all the speculations seems to lead to very much poison among fans.
I have been very angry this season too and screamed in front of the tv. There are very many things to improve. But I wouldn’t go as far as saying it’s because of Redbird or lack of Maldini. Because I have no idea if that is true. There are so many factors at play during a season, making it impossible to understand it all.
Haha we lost four times against Inter because we played four times against Inter. This season we played them twice and we lost twice. That’s 100% of losses against Inter every season. I would say we were closer to beat them last year, especially in the UCL, as Leao was injured in the first leg and just back from injury so not at 100% in the second leg. This year we lost 1-5. Then we lost 1-2 in the most meaningful Serie A game in the history of our rivalry.
By bye my long sex̌y comment.
Shîty side and it’s shìty you’re posting comments 2 slowly nag.
That’s the reason when I write a long comment, I copy it somewhere first before posting it.
Yeah, copy-paste is your friend. And instead of going back with the browser, you try again by pressing F5 after waiting for 5-10 seconds after getting the annoying “you’re posting too fash”-cr@p.
*fast
Always copy your (long) comments before posting.
Maldini fan girls saying Theo lacks enthusiasm because Milan fired Maldini. 😂😂😂
Theo actually played better this year than he did last year. This season 5g and 11 assists, last season with Maldini at milanello 4g and 5 assists. Scudetto season 5g and 10 assists. Where was Theo’s enthusiasm last season when he had tge pleasure of seeing Paolo every day at milanello?
Also, Deschamps said he doesn’t have the same enthusiasm that he had during the scudetto season not since Paolo got fired. But as usual fan girls will say it’s all because of Paolo.
Pathetic
Why are you talking like this about our legends? Theo obviously had a special relationship with Paolo, Theo only signed because of Maldini showing up in Ibiza to convince him about the project we have, Theo was intrigued and accepted that offer. Now that project is completely gone and the club has shown to willing to take the next step. Its not rocket science what is happening here.
Him scoring and assisting have nothing to do with the project and him considering his future at the club.
People are talking like we only doing bad this season and forget we are worst last season LOL
Two points:
1. you don’t work for AC Milan, so it’s not “we”.
2. Milan finished second in Serie A this year. That’s an EXCELLENT outcome. Better than Milan fans would ever dream of before Pioli came aboard.
There have been NUMEROUS TIMES when Milan players were called off to play friendlies with their national teams, and limped back injured ahead of important matches.
So what’s the difference? So long as it’s within the rules of UEFA and FIFA, Milan can play friendlies whenever they feel like it.
If the national teams don’t like it, they can negotiate new rules. New rules which go BOTH WAYS. Rules that also stop friendlies between nations, when it’s in the middle of the Serie A and Champions League seasons.