This afternoon, Martin O'Neill will name his squad for the upcoming Holland and Belarus friendlies. It's a squad that picks itself. This evening, Didier Deschamps will announce his 23-man Euros squad. His task will be slightly more challenging. France's third team could give Ireland a game and all the talk in French football today is about the players who won't be on the, ahem, plane to France.
There'll be some brilliant French players watching the Euros from their sitting rooms. Rumours are rife that Deschamps is ready to leave behind the likes of Barca target Ben Arfa and Lyon's Alexandre Lacazette. The Valbuena sex tape scandal has already meant Karim Benzema is, of course, unavailable for selection, and that le Petit Velo himself is unlikely to be selected, due to his terrible form.
Didier Deschamps will announce his Euro squad tonight. From what we are hearing, Ben Arfa, Lacazette, Gameiro or Valbuena won't be in it.
— Julien Laurens (@LaurensJulien) May 12, 2016
The word from France is not to expect any surprises from Deschamps but the least we can hope for is at least one irate girlfriend, a la Samir Nasri's ex Anara Atanes, who went off on a classic twitter rant when France's World Cup squad was named in 2014.
“F*** France and f*** deschamps! What a s*** manager!”
“Incase u didn’t read my tweet properly…ill repeat myself…f*** FRANCE!!!!! And f*** deschamps!”
“Lets just get this straight! I’m not mad I get my bf for 2 months… I just think theres a level of respect to be had!"
