With it looking increasingly likely that Laurent Blanc will be the man to take over at the bridge. Matched betting site Profit Accumulator have given us a rundown of what we could expect from the French manager.
Who Is Laurent Blanc?
He is a French football manager and former player. He played as a defender and represented clubs including Barcelona, Napoli and Manchester United. At Marseille he earned the nickname Le President, in tribute to his leadership skills.
He has over 602 career appearances and 97 caps for France. He actually won the World Cup with France in 1998, when it was held in France. He started both the quarter and semi finals, but unfortunately not the final.
In terms of his management experience, he has managed Bordeaux, France and PSG. During his first year at Bordeaux he was named Manager of the Year. Then in his second year, he won the title, which broke 7 years of dominance from the Lyon team. In the 2009-10 Champions League, Bordeaux topped a group featuring Bayern Munich and Juventus without losing a match. Very impressive!
When he was in charge of France he oversaw wins against Germany, England and Brazil. France were eventually knocked out in the quarter-finals to eventual winners Spain having topped their group. He stepped down from the role following the tournament.
Blancs’ time managing the French national team saw him rebuild it following the disastrous 2010 World Cup. When he arrived the entire squad who had been at the tournament were banned. So despite the disappointment of being knocked out by Spain, the result was relatively well received in France due to the situation with the squad.
He replaced ex-Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti at PSG in June 2013. During his three years at PSG they won 11 out of 12 domestic trophies available. In fairness it is considered to be a less competitive league, but that is an impressive return to say the least.
Blanc’s win percentage at PSG was 72.8%, second only to Unai Emery (who had one less season).
His champions league win rate was 59.5%, which is higher than Jose Mourinho, Alex Ferguson and Carlo Ancelotti – and only narrowly below Pep Guardiola (60.2%). His PSG side also has record for most wins in a season (joint with Monaco), most away victories in a season and highest number of points (96 points 2015-16). Their overall win record was 66.48%
Style Of Football
His preferred formation is 4-3-3, which he has used at most clubs he has managed.
He plays a possession based game with gradual build-up play from the back. This is complemented with complete freedom given to the attackers in the final third. Here is a quote form the man himself on the style of the teams he manages:
“For me, playing football means having the ball, conjuring moves, harnessing your strengths, posing problems to your opponents, scoring goals and taking risks,” Blanc said. “Obviously I want my team to win, but I also want them to play ball. That’s a state of mind, a fundamental principle, and Manchester United and Barcelona share it.”
He isn’t a hands-on coach on the training ground. Most of the actual coaching is delegated to his coaches, including his experienced often assistant Jean-Louis Gasset (who is currently the manager of Saint-Etienne). He once said:
“My main role to supervise and pre-empt any negative reactions players might have to what’s being done.”
There is also talk of Franck Passi (former temporary manager of Marseille and Lille) being his possible assistant at Chelsea, if negations are successful.
Other Things Of Note
He has experience managing ego’s, namely Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Serge Aurier when he was at PSG.
He has a track record for promoting youngsters. The young players who were introduced to the first team by him when he was at PSG include; Adrien Rabiot, Kingsley Coman, Presnel Kimpembe and Jean-Kevin Augustin. All those players had their debuts under Blanc.
He hasn’t actually managed a side since June 2016.
What do you think? Would Blanc be a good choice for Chelsea?