In an exclusive interview with Safest Casino Sites, ex-Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf has slammed the FA for appointing a foreign coach in Thomas Tuchel and calls for rules to be changed.
The Frenchman also says that a move to Wrexham would be “clever” for Cristiano Ronaldo if he wants to go into acting once his playing career is over.
Leboeuf had plenty of praise for Arsenal powerhouse William Saliba too, claiming he is the best defender in the world.
- FA are wrong for appointing Tuchel, England fans will be offended
- Nations should only be allowed to employ homegrown managers
- Chelsea board would SELL Cole Palmer if £100m offer came in
- Leboeuf received death threats for criticising Cristiano Ronaldo
- Arsenal star William Saliba is the best defender in the world
- Van Dijk more likely to quit Liverpool than Salah or Alexander-Arnold
- Mikel Arteta’s ‘crazy’ touchline antics puts pressure on his players
- Marcus Rashford has Thierry Henry’s abilities but he doesn’t show it
- TAA would regret Real Madrid move if he’s benched behind Dani Carvajal
- Ronaldo to Wrexham on the cards because CR7 is plotting acting career
Q: Thomas Tuchel has the England job, is that a good appointment for England & Tuchel?
Frank Leboeuf: “Well I’m gonna answer in two different ways. I can see a bright presence with the national team of England. Now I’m against, especially for big nations in football, foreign coaches because it belongs to the country. And I’m sorry, for England having a German coach there is something strange there. Don’t tell me you could not find a good English coach, who is ready to help out this team. You have to understand the culture, you have to understand how it works, you have to understand everything. It all matters. And you have to represent, you have to sing the national anthem. And I’m sorry, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t love to see an English, a German, a Spanish or an Italian coach for France. It happened only once in history, Stefan Kovacs, it never worked. But it would feel strange to see the German national team with a French coach or an English coach. It doesn’t work for me. It doesn’t work.” We tried it with Capello and he didn’t even learn English, He still was using a translator after three years. “It didn’t work, of course not. So on top of it, you had one unsuccessful experience with it already so why do you want to go for Tuchel, with all due respect to Thomas? I have no problem with Thomas Tuchel but again, I think some English fans will be offended. They would be offended to see a foreign coach and a German one… I know you love each other, German and English people, but being the head coach of the first sport in your country.I think it should be a rule, it should be a rule for me. For the national team, you can only have a manager from your country…. But even for small countries, and I know my friend Willie Sagnol works very well with Georgia. But you cannot compare to England, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands… come on.”
Q: Do you think there’s any scenario where Cole Palmer leaves Chelsea in the near future?
Frank Leboeuf: “Well they bought him for a very good price. So I guess if they get an offer for £100 million, because it’s their business, the trading business, Chelsea will go against their business model if they don’t sell. Of course the fans are going to be upset but if they don’t sell him for £100 million when they bought him for like £45 million, that would be absolutely stupid of them to forgo their trading business system. So yes, they’re going to sell him because they don’t care [about the club]. They are there to make money, not there to get results. Results are for the fans, money are for the owners. It’s like the same thing with Manchester United, I guess Liverpool too, those boards they just want money. But at the same time, that would be stupid from Real Madrid [to buy Palmer]. They don’t need him. They have Jude Billingham. Where do you want to put Cole Palmer? On the bench?”
Q: You told us last time you received death threats from Liverpool fans for criticising Trent Alexander-Arnold. Have you faced this abuse regularly since becoming a pundit?
Frank Leboeuf: “Lately I had some fans – mainly from India – young fans who don’t even know me. They say, who are you to criticise Ronaldo? Because I said that Ronaldo with Portugal is of course not the same Ronaldo as before. So I had some words to say about that and I received death threats also there. I try to calm down, but I love football so much. And you cannot lie to me. I mean, everybody backed me up, everybody who knows football backed me up in terms of what I said about Trent Alexander-Arnold. I don’t like to lie or to be too diplomatic to the fans because I know football, I’m a legend for that and I’m not going to tell you a fairy tale. I know so much about the players that they cannot lie to me. Yeah sometimes it’s better to shut up and to not say anything but you ask me questions to which I have interesting answers. So I will always be like that. I’m Frank, I’ve always been frank and I’m not going to change my way of thinking because that’s me. Again I respect people, I respect Ronaldo, I respect Trent Alexander-Arnold. I love his haircut, I love his style of playing football, I would have loved to be Trent Alexander-Arnold, you know, when he was playing at his best for Real Madrid and he got that corner kick. I love football and I love football players. But If I have to be critical, and I have been to Chelsea, even Chelsea fans say to me: why, why aren’t you ever happy with Chelsea? I’m not a fan. I’m a former football player who knows football and when Chelsea does stupid things, I’m going to say that is a stupid thing. And that’s the same for everybody, I’ve been criticised by Alan Hansen but he was right. He was saying the right things about me. I wasn’t the best defender in the world, I had other things I could do. But I knew. Rio Ferdinand said that he knew about Frank LeBoeuf when we played against Chelsea and they targeted me. Because defensively, I wasn’t the best. Fine by me, it’s only fair. I’ve never been Marcel Desailly. I’ve never been Rio Ferdinand. I’ve never been Alan Hansen. I’m Frank Leboeuf, I played for Chelsea. I won six titles in five years. I won the World Cup. I won the European Championship. I won ten titles in my career. Not too shabby for Frankie. You know what I mean? But you can criticise me, because I know my weaknesses and I’m not blinded by my fantastic football. No I knew, but again, I’m not blinded by the love of the players and if I have to say something, I’m going to say it whether you’re happy or not.“
Q: Real Madrid are reportedly ready to pay whatever it takes to sign William Saliba. Should Arsenal let him leave if a £100m bid came in?
Frank Leboeuf: “For me, Salba is simply the best centre-back in the world right now. He has some problems with the national team because he feels the pressure of playing for his country. It happened to me as well and I felt that. It makes me laugh when I remember back to when he was on loan at Marseille and came back to Arsenal and Arteta wasn’t sure that he wanted him back. Ha-ha! That cracked me up. I said, if Arteta doesn’t understand that he has to take Saliba, he’s missing the point. And rightfully, he made that choice and put him back in. And as I said, two years ago, they lost the Premier League title because of Saliba getting injured. Real Madrid will have to be careful saying that they want to buy everybody. They have people in place right now, Eder Militao and Antonio Rudiger, who are fantastic. And if they can’t play, Nacho Fernandez can play, even Eduardo Camavinga or Aurelien Tchouameni can play there. So they have the individuals for that. Don’t try to be the club who, every time somebody is there, they want to buy. You have to be careful about what you do. I think Arsenal are strong enough to keep Saliba. Yeah. And you never know, the way of life in Madrid, the game, the players they play against, the referees, maybe it won’t suit Saliba. In the Premier League, he’s a tall guy with loads of pace and technically strong, maybe the Premier League is the perfect league for him. And maybe La Liga won’t be, you never know. It’s always a gamble to pay 100 million for new players not knowing if they can settle in a new country. Arsenal are going to offer great money to Saliba to stay because they should. Losing your best player, that would be insane. Losing Gabriel and Saliba would be insane. So I think they’re going to do the job.“
Q: TAA, Salah and Van Dijk are all out of contract at the end of the season. Do you see them all leaving or will any of them sign new deals?
Frank Leboeuf: “Every club goes through generations and Liverpool are at the end of that generation, that golden generation with all the fantastic players. It’s almost the end of that generation, some of them are going to leave, some of them are going to retire, some aren’t going to be quite as good and the coach will have to make a choice. It’s always sad to see those players leaving but you can understand that at some point, they want to see something else. There is a cycle of five years for players, after which you can realise that you’ve done everything at the club so you want to try something else. And especially when you are not a citizen of the country where your club is, you want to see something else. It happened to me with Chelsea. There was also a new coach, it was different, it wasn’t something that I wanted, so I left. So many others, they did the same after four, five or six years. What is good with Arne Slot is that, with almost the same squad that Jurgen Klop had, he is capable of keeping it to the same level. If Trent Alexander-Arnold stays and maybe either Mohamed Salah or, and I think Virgil van Dijk is more likely to than anybody else, stay, that’s going to be alright. You have to find one player. Even if Salah leaves, which is possible because of his age, because of what he wants to do in his life, maybe put some money in his pocket in Saudi Arabia, that’s fine and understandable. The guy did everything. You cannot complain about his choice. It’s just normal that he wants to take care of his family, but you will have to find somebody else. And I’m pretty sure they can find somebody because in terms of signings for Liverpool, maybe apart from Darwin Nunez, I don’t see any bad choices. Thiago Alcantara was injured, that’s why maybe we didn’t see the performances that we were expecting, but otherwise, everybody has been spot on.“
Q: What do you make of the red cards (2nd yellows) for Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard for delaying the restart?
Frank Leboeuf: “Those are the rules. In some other sports, as soon as the ref blows the whistle, you have to drop the ball. In handball, it’s like that. You drop the ball, otherwise you’re kicked out. Declan Rice deserved it for kicking the ball away. Trossard, that was a question of second, when the ref blew the whistle I thought it was more for the second foul, but I was told that it was for kicking the ball. So yeah, there is a discipline problem. I think Declan Rice has gotten another yellow card for doing that type of stuff. That’s stupid because they’re going to lose points because of those behaviours. Arteta is a great coach but because of his attitude – I don’t know why coaches don’t sit on the bench because we (players) don’t hear them – we don’t care what they say. We are on the field, they can talk to the right-back and some others, but we don’t care what they say. It’s a show for the media so sit down, we don’t need you. Arteta, it looks like the guy thinks that he needs to shout, scream and jump when the team scores to make sure that people in the media see him. And he puts pressure on the players in a way, with all due respect, being a kind of crazy guy, jumping, running and complaining on the sideline. It’s only for the media. I never heard the coach talking to me. If you have to have a message, you go to the right-back, you talk slowly. Don’t scream, it’s not your job.“
Q: Marcus Rashford earns £350,000 a week but he doesn’t look like he wants to be at the club. What advice would you give him? Should he leave if he gets the chance?
Frank Leboeuf: “I don’t know Marcus Rashford, I do know what he did for the world and for the English people, so he seems to be a smart, thoughtful young guy. I would love to know how he feels about football in his core. If you love football, first you shouldn’t play the way you play because with the talent that you have, we can feel that sometimes you’re not there. That’s the main concern that I have about the new generation where inconsistency is the main concern about those players. You can be bad, but you cannot be that bad when you are Marcus Rashford and sometimes we don’t see you. It’s impossible. I remember saying to Thierry Henry when he was playing for France, less so when he was playing against me for Arsenal, we don’t need to see you for like 30 minutes. Only every 30 minutes, you take the ball, you take on every player and you score, you’re going to win 3-0 and that’s enough. That’s what it is for Marcus Rashford. It’s what I feel for Marcus Rashford. We don’t need to see him all the time, only two or three actions that would have us saying: ‘Oh, okay. That guy is crazy.’ Like Messi. I’m not saying Marcus Rashford is Messi, but I’m saying that those players are so talented, so pacey, so tricky for defenders that they take the ball and they challenge you and you cannot cope with those players, but they have to know what they do. They have to know what they do and when they do it, they have to be successful because otherwise we don’t see them for 30 minutes. But Marcus Rashford should know that he’s capable of making the difference. Now, if he’s not happy at Manchester United and he’s staying for the money, that’s very sad at his age. At his age it is very sad because he should live. If he’s only there for the money and he doesn’t like the club, doesn’t like his teammates, whatever it can be, leave the club. Even for less money. Enjoy football. As you say, it doesn’t last long.“
Q: You’ve been critical of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s defensive abilities in the past and he’s being heavily linked with Real Madrid now. Do you think that move makes sense?
Frank Leboeuf: “Well yes because it’s Real Madrid. It’s the biggest club in the world and I would understand that if TAA wants to go to Real Madrid. He’s a guy from Liverpool, that’s going to be put in the balance. Liverpool is a big club, he wants the Champions League. I think he wants the title and you really have to be careful where you want to put Trent Alexander Arnold. As you said, offensively, he has a touch like nobody has in terms of giving the ball, feeling the action, anticipating everything, which is completely the opposite of him defensively. Dani Carvajal has an ACL problem and is going to come back next summer and that guy is a masterpiece defensively. Trent Alexander-Arnold must think about that before making his choice, because if he’s to be on the bench for Real Madrid, that would be a waste. He would play maybe 20, 25 games, but Trent Alexander-Arnold is not a second choice player. Ancelotti would be the first to say, okay if you come, you’re going to play but we are talking about Carvajal, who won the Champions League, La Liga, and the European Championship. I don’t like the Ballon d’Or, but I would love to see him winning the Ballon d’Or just because he’s a type of right back from our generation. So it would be fun, but I think Ancelotti made Carvajal his captain for a reason. He’s a first warrior and he needs a warrior at that position and on top of that he scores goals for Spain and for Real Madrid. So it’s going to be a tough choice for Trent Alexander-Arnold, but it’s a choice of rich people.”
Q: There are stories going around this week that Ronaldo could end up at Wrexham before he retires. What chance do you give that?
Frank Leboeuf: “You know what? There is a chance for one reason. I have in my phone an interview that I made with Ronaldo in the US for ESPN when I asked him if he wanted to be an actor after his career and he said ‘oh, why not’. Because I had a movie for him and funnily enough, his manager at the time, his agent, gave me his business card after the show. And so, I’m thinking that Ronaldo is clever enough to sign for Wrexham to after his career play in a beautiful Hollywood movie. And why not, why not? I mean, if he loves football and wants to play for Wrexham, but at the same time is thinking about being a fantastic actor in Hollywood. I’m fine with that, I love ambition. I love characters and Ronaldo is a hell of a character so it would be great for Wrexham if it is great for Ronaldo, so everybody’s happy.“
Q: Chelsea have started their campaign surprisingly well, what’s the objectives for Chelsea this season?
Frank Leboeuf: “Well I will say that fourth spot is at stake for Chelsea, but also for many other clubs like Aston Villa, Newcastle, Tottenham, Manchester United, maybe Brighton also. That is the only spot that Chelsea can reach because I think the three top teams Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal will fight for the title. It’s possible for Chelsea to have a seat in the Champions League if they carry on playing like that. I think they’re doing great. And so Maresca has really realised that playing out from the back was kind of an issue. Sometimes it’s still trying to do it but they’re mainly more vertical and use the pace of the forwards and I would say the intelligence of Cole Palmer in order to support them and to finish the action. So it’s very interesting what I see right now. I’m pretty pleased with the Chelsea that we see. We have to be encouraged in that matter. We know that we are not there yet. We know that we are not the Chelsea that we’ve been some years ago, but it’s encouraging to see tha the players are sticking to Enzo Maresca’s ideas and then they get the results.“
Q: Does Cole Palmer have a higher ceiling than Bukayo Saka?
Frank Leboeuf: “They’re both so talented and they are really the future of England. I was very amazed to see Cole Palmer not starting for England during the Euros. I know it was quite difficult because Southgate wanted to put Foden as a number 10 where I really think that Foden wasn’t ready or was tired after the long season that he should have taken Cole Palmer and Saka on the right side. Saying one is better than the other would be completely stupid because they won’t play the same position and I would just say that they’re absolutely fantastic and England is very lucky to have those sort of players for the future of England, because it’s time for England to win something. Come on, it’s been so long since 1966 and there’s been too many failures. It’s nice to say during the tournament that football is coming home, but you have to finish the tournament and you have to win stuff. England is a big footballing nation with great players and I’m sure that at some point they’re going to get something out of it. And then we need Saka and Palmer and Foden maybe and some others but those two are absolutely fantastic players.“
Q: Will Pep Guardiola regret Man City’s decision to sell Cole Palmer seeing how he has excelled since joining Chelsea?
Frank Leboeuf: “I’m pretty sure it’s a regret from Pep to not have fought harder to keep Cole Palmer at Man City. But with what we see, maybe he would have been a different player if he had stayed at Manchester City. You cannot see backwards. You only see the present and maybe dream about the future but saying ‘Oh if he would have stayed at Man City it would have been perfect.‘ You don’t know because he would be surrounded by other players. Maybe his attitude would have been different. He knew that he had to step up because of the weaknesses of some other players at Chelsea. We saw in his first game, Maresca tried to put Palmer on the right side and we realised that he didn’t have the efficiency that he has when he plays in the middle of the park. So let’s say that it’s a regret I’m sure for Pep, because when you have a talented player, a young player like that, you want to keep him, but I don’t think Cole wanted to stay, so fighting for what? Cole Palmer wanted to play, he didn’t want to be on the bench because he would have been on the bench because of the talent of other players at City. So it’s understandable for Pep to let him go and to Palmer to go.”
Q: Victor Osimhen will be available for £68m in January. Should Chelsea sign him?
Frank Leboeuf: “I don’t know about that. I’m not even sure that Osimhen would be a good signing in a way that for me, the biggest issue is mainly in the middle of the park and in defence. We’ve been looking for a striker for five years. We tried some and it never worked because if you don’t give them the good ball it’s hard for them to create action. So I’m a little bit concerned about that choice. If it’s to please the simple fan, that’s fine. They will be happy with the striker and say, okay the ball does the job and they’re gonna be a part of the problem. There is a problem with the striker, but I’m not sure he is the solution.“
Q: Chelsea have started the season well but Liverpool will be a much sterner test than any side they have faced yet. What’s your prediction for that game?
Frank Leboeuf: “Oh my God. That’s a tough one. I think a draw for Chelsea at home will be a really good result. I made Liverpool my favourites to win the Premier League this season, against many of my pundit friends at ESPN because everybody else sees either Arsenal or Manchester City. But Arne Slot is a very good coach and they still have the team that they had under Jurgen Klopp. We can see they’re first in the league right now, and I’m not surprised about it. So let’s say that the draw for Chelsea will be a really good result.”
Q: Luis Diaz has been on fire so far this season but how can Arne Slot get the best out of Darwin Nunez?
Frank Leboeuf: “He has to find a solution because when we see Darwin Nunez paying for Uruguay, he’s more efficient. So you have to find the little thing which makes a difference in order for him to be more accurate. You give chances to Darwin Nunez if you’re the coach and if he fails, you have to find another solution. And I’m sorry, when I see Diogo Jota, that guy is simply amazing. So when I see Luiz Diaz with Diogo Jota and Cody Gakpo, you don’t really need Darwin Nunez, unless he scores goals every game that he plays. Which is not the case. So you don’t want to fight for Darwin Nunez. I mean you are fighting for a club. I’m sure he really likes Darwin Nunez, everybody loves players like Jackson at Chelsea, players who will fight, will go for it, never give up. That’s fine, but he’s a striker. And when he has a chance, he has to score. So it’s going to be a tricky choice for Arne Slot but with the other players that he has, especially Diogo Jota, there is no competition for me.“
Q: It was a surprise to see Jurgen Klopp unveiled as head of football at Red Bull. What do you make of him taking that role?
Frank Leboeuf: “It surprised me because he said that he needed a rest, that he was leaving the Reds for the rest because he couldn’t bear being under that pressure anymore. And he stepped up for that job again. I think those coaches are drugged with football. They need it and that’s what it is. He’s a lover of football, he needs to share time with the players in the dressing room or at the academy, whatever it may be. I would never judge somebody because he changed his mind because he had an opportunity. The guy has done a fantastic job and deserves all the credit. So if he still loves football and he has the opportunity to go somewhere with less pressure, we have to be happy for him.“
Q: Have you been surprised by how prolific Kai Havertz has been at Arsenal (and his progression overall since leaving Chelsea)?
Frank Leboeuf: “I’m not surprised by his inconsistency. That’s what it is with Havertz. Let me see how he carries on during the season to see if he can do what he’s doing right now for an entire season. That’s my concern. There’s no doubt that he’s a very talented, successful player. When he was at Chelsea, at some points, Havertz was their best player but it only lasted for two or three months. That’s my concern about him. At the end of last season, he was very good for Arsenal. Since the beginning of this season, he’s been absolutely fantastic. Now, he didn’t play for Germany because he was injured, so we don’t know what’s going on. I don’t really know what’s going on, but if he comes back and comes back quickly, I want to see if he can keep on doing that through the winter marathon. And then we’ll see after that.“
Q: Arsenal’s luck with injuries seems to have run out. (Odegaard now out until December apparently, Saka injured playing for England). Will it cost them the Premier League title?
Frank Leboeuf: “It can, and it’s possible, it’s part of the life of a football club. Last year they were absolutely fortunate, they had almost no injuries. The year before they had one injury to William Saliba and that was why they didn’t win the title. So yeah, it’s crucial in terms of quality. If you lose your best players, it’s hard to cope. As you mentioned, Rodri is also injured. Kevin De Bruyne as well. It’s why I say Liverpool because Liverpool players are rarely injured. They’re more consistent and that’s what it is. It’s the X-factor of football, you don’t know when it can happen. Look at Newcastle last season, Chelsea last season, they weren’t good enough to win the title but on top of that, they had so many injuries. It’s also part of the physical coaching and it’s tough to make sure that you don’t have too many injured players. It’s about how you prepare during preseason, how you treat them, how they sleep, how they eat, even how they drink. It’s a professional sport.“ Maybe Arteta doesn’t rotate his first team often enough, possibly, to an extent? “Yeah, but you know what? During my time, rotation didn’t even exist. We had only two substitutes and in 1998 I think I played around 60 games. I never complained about playing. I think that’s the real subject right now. There are strikes from the players because they play too many games. But I’m sorry, there were statistics that last year’s Real Madrid team played 12 less games than the side Zinedine Zidane was a part of in 2001 that won La Liga and the Champions League. So what are we complaining about? You have to be careful with what you say, you know? With the national team, we also had two games a month around and I played like that. I had 15 days of holiday for five years whilst playing for Chelsea because I was playing for the national team at the same time. And we had the marathon games at Christmas. I never complained about that. I was so happy to play games. I didn’t have to train and I never asked for any rotation. They have to stop complaining about that. Sleep, eat properly, stop playing video games until 3am. Go to bed at the right time, be professional, maybe it’s going to be better. I’m not saying that some of the people who are injured right now have been doing silly things, but I’ve heard so many things that some of them forget the basics like sleeping well, eating well and drinking well. Stop complaining, enjoy what you’re doing, especially when you’re Rodri, you win the Premier League, you win the Euros, why are you thinking about getting injured? You say to your coach, ‘you know what, give me a one-month break because I can’t stand football anymore and I’m afraid to get injured.’ I’m sure Pep would have agreed with that, and I think he did a little bit. But come on, your job is to play games every three days and it’s a fantastic job.“
Q: What do you make of the red cards (2nd yellows) for Declan Rice and Trossard for delaying the restart? PGMOL, Howard Webb agenda?
Frank Leboeuf: “Those are the rules. In some other sports, as soon as the ref blows the whistle, you have to drop the ball. In handball, it’s like that. You drop the ball, otherwise you’re kicked out. Declan Rice deserved it for kicking the ball away. Trossard, that was a question of second, when the ref blew the whistle I thought it was more for the second foul, but I was told that it was for kicking the ball. So yeah, there is a discipline problem. I think Declan Rice has gotten another yellow card for doing that type of stuff. That’s stupid because they’re going to lose points because of those behaviours. Arteta is a great coach but because of his attitude – I don’t know why coaches don’t sit on the bench because we (players) don’t hear them – we don’t care what they say. We are on the field, they can talk to the right-back and some others, but we don’t care what they say. It’s a show for the media so sit down, we don’t need you. Arteta, it looks like the guy thinks that he needs to shout, scream and jump when the team scores to make sure that people in the media see him. And he puts pressure on the players in a way, with all due respect, being a kind of crazy guy, jumping, running and complaining on the sideline. It’s only for the media. I never heard the coach talking to me. If you have to have a message, you go to the right-back, you talk slowly. Don’t scream, it’s not your job.“
Q: Sacking ETH could cost Man Utd £14m. Has it proved a catastrophic decision to give him that two-year contract?
Frank Leboeuf: “There are many problems. Firstly, I really think that winning the FA Cup was the worst gift to Manchester United. When they drew with Aston Villa, it’s another bad gift. I really think that all of the Manchester United players want to see Ten Hag sacked, they don’t want to work with him. But for who to come in, that’s the problem because nobody wants to come. Maybe, yes because it’s Manchester United and you can get a lot of money and maybe you believe in miracles. Right now, with the players that they have, it’s going to be very hard to make that team work. In the January window, you would have to spend maybe 200 million to buy players. I was saying the same for Chelsea, just to show to Manchester United fans that I have nothing against their club. No big time players want to come to Manchester United right now because they don’t play in the Champions League and they don’t fight for the Premier League. It’s like for Chelsea, people have doubts, they play in the Conference League. So big players won’t come to Manchester United. Big coaches won’t come to Manchester United. Only those people who believe in miracles.“
Q: As a former centre back yourself what do you think is United’s best central defensive partnership?
Frank Leboeuf: “We don’t know. We don’t know because they’ve all tried, they never worked.” Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire kept a clean sheet against Aston Villa, but were they really tested? “No, but it’s funny. It’s crazy to see that Evans, who just came back to help the team out, was the man of the match at 30 something. So it can happen once or twice but I don’t believe that this pair can get along in terms of football for a long time. De Ligt is a mystery to me. We saw him playing for Ajax and for the national team some years ago, but it seems to me that he has no feelings anymore in football, he lost his mojo, which is crazy to me because that guy is so talented. Lisandro Martinez has always had question marks because he’s kind of a pitbull, but sometimes he makes some crazy choices. It’s nice to be tough, to be the bad guy and everything but don’t make silly mistakes. So, I don’t know what the best combination is. I’m not sure there is one, but that is the major issue that Manchester United has to resolve.“
Q: Reports are that Man United are ready to sell Harry Maguire for 10 million, which is 75 million less than they paid for him in 2019. Do you think that will go down as one of the worst pieces of transfer business in the history of the Premier League?
Frank Leboeuf: “Yeah, but you have so many players like that. Remember Fernando Torres signing for Liverpool, being absolutely fantastic with Liverpool and then signing for Chelsea. If he had some ups, he had lots of downs and he was 50 million at the time. Some players can be good in a club and you can buy them like Saliba being good at Arsenal and suddenly not performing for Real Madrid. So it’s possible. Maybe Harry Maguire should have found a more Leicester-like club, a family club and something different from United. I felt sorry for Maguire because you have to respect players, saying that Maguire shouldn’t be a professional player would be an insult to my sport. I don’t think you go to that degree – playing for Manchester United, being a bad player. He had issues, he had weaknesses, whatever it was and I felt sad for him. But 85 million, I said, that’s too much, because that’s too much for everybody. The football world has to calm down about prices. A young player after 30 games in the Premier League, can be bought for like 40-50 million pounds by a big club. No, it doesn’t work like that, you have to prove something. And of course you’re going to see mistakes like that. I was the record signing of Chelsea for 2.5 million. Yeah, that was 96’ so 30 years ago almost. But now you are ready to sell somebody who has not performed for years for 10 million. 10 million! They have lost the value of money in the football world right now.” You were a bargain. You for 2.5 million was an absolute bargain. They got a steal there really. “That’s what I said. They said that I was the bargain of the club so I asked them to double my wages a year after and they gave it to me.“
