On Tuesday, there was a press conference. The day before the match. I’m not criticising. I’m comparing.
In 1980, the day before a match, a player ate pasta and went to bed early. Nobody asked him what he thought of the opposition. He found out the next day, on the pitch. That was the principle.
Today, there is a press conference. Joaquin Seys, Club Brugge’s left-back, said, according to La Voix du Nord: “When you play in the Champions League, you want to face the best players in the world, it’s a shame there are no world-class players opposite us.” Then he added: “They’ll be very good players, it’ll be a hard game, we’ll have good players against us.” Two sentences. The second one tidies away the first. The press conference produces its own corrections. It is a closed system.
Ivan Leko did the evening’s work. He finds the Lens names less appealing than those of Inter, Liverpool, Barça or Arsenal, but Lens better than he expected. He said: “We’ve just won away, it can trap us.” Club Brugge won 3-4 at Inter Milan. A manager who distrusts a victory. That, I approve of. It comes from my era.
Lens finished second in Ligue 1 last season. Their captain, Florian Thauvin, has been decisive in eight of the ten matches this season. I read that in my weekly football paper, at the chip shop. Paper doesn’t hold press conferences. It waits for Monday.
But Marcel, without a press conference, we wouldn’t know who is motivated.
We would find out on Wednesday, at 9pm. At the Jan Breydel. A Wednesday night, incidentally. Note that I’m not against progress. I’m against this progress. Well. It’s the times.
It’s true, we checked: RMC Sport.
