The curious case of Florent Malouda has been one of the great talking points amongst Chelsea fans since I can remember.
Rarely has there been such a talented player who has been at the club for such a long time who has been so widely derided as he has. I remember Jesper Gronkjaer being similarly frustrating to watch at times, but our fans were always more positive about him than Malouda.
An international player with an enviable record at both creating goals and scoring them, Florent has, it is fair to say, been patchy at Chelsea. We all know (though few will admit) that on his day he is unplayable. He has never been about pace, though he had more of it when he arrived than he does now, his game is about receiving the ball and cutting inside with it. It is about running with the ball into space, pinning back fullbacks, chasing back to cover for Ashley Cole when he overlaps, and providing quick incisive passing. It is about arriving into the box at the right time, about being able to knock in a decent cross (although all too often he would not manage to beat the first man). He is and has been tactically very astute, but frustration arose from his lack of concentration, occasional propensity to stop mid-flow with the ball, look up and just pass it backwards if there was nothing on rather than create something himself, most notably also his unfortunate habit of getting caught in possession. We all know he is a confidence player, and one error in the early part of the game would regularly get inside his head and shackle him mentally for the rest of the game.
Alas, his off-days were more numerous than his on-days. What is perhaps sadder, is that his on-days tended to coincide with us scoring four or five such was the impact he was capable of having, and the likes of Lampard, Anelka and Drogba inevitably hoovered up the plaudits for these games. When he played well others were lauded, when he played badly there was nowhere to hide. I think a lot of his troubles were down to the fact that his easy-going, rather languid style on the pitch gave the (false, most of the time) impression that perhaps he was giving less than 100%.
I am ashamed to say also that in his five years at Chelsea I have heard Malouda being racially abused several times, both at games and also (much more cowardly) in the pub afterwards.
The reason for penning this article came to me at a game a couple of weeks ago. I walked away from the Bridge in high spirits – we were top of the league. What I heard next rather ruined that. The lads walking in front of me were talking loudly. Clear as a bell I heard one of them say:
“Malouda can **** off. Lazy ******* money-grabbing ******. Done **** all for us and wants to stay for his eighty ******* grand a week. Papers say he turned down that move to Brazil as they wont pay him his wages. *****. Another Winston Bogarde he is. They are all the same you know. ******* black **** always more interested in the bling and the money than the club or the badge. **** him.”
Pretty stomach churning stuff, I`m sure you`ll agree.
Raises the question of course, that if one were subject to such vile abuse from people wearing tops and scarves adorned with the same badge, where is the badge loyalty supposed to come from? Why indeed should he feel anything but revulsion for it, in this day and age?
And as for the done nothing allegation – that is deliberately myopic. He has been at the club for five years and in that time we`ve won the FA Cup three times, the Champions League, and the Premiership title. He played a part in all of those trophies and of all the ones we didn`t win. Ok you may not rate him as a player, but deliberately discounting all that he did for us just because you don`t like the colour of his skin, or find his desire to earn as much money as he can unappealing? Deary me. Its the 21st century FFS.
Worst part of all was of course that I wasn`t surprised. I (and I suspect all of the match-going fans on here) have heard this sort of thing aimed at him and others so many times it is past counting.
So as the club congratulates John Terry and allows the furore over the Ferdinandgate issue to die the death it deserves, the word “casual racism” is thrown about. All the while of course it completely fails, in the repugnant rush to create stories to sell papers and castigate players the media do not like, to take account of the real issue of racism in football, which is deeply ingrained. I am not talking about the national front, BNP types. We know about them. I am talking about scarfers. About average fans in average football replica jerseys and scarves.
Its jealousy, plain and simple, manifested in the nastiest possible way. I have long asked the question on here – why should footballers be held up to a higher moral or practical standard than the rest of us? I thought it about John Terry, about Ashley Cole, and I think it about Florent Malouda. Very few of us would, in his position, do anything different. Is it Florent`s fault that the club signed him up for a reported hundred and ten K a week? Is it Florent`s fault that Santos and the other clubs he was interested in going to were not prepared to stump up that kind of cash? Would any of you take a massive paycut just to play? Even if six months on the sidelines might extend your playing career? And if Chelsea pushed and pushed you toward the exit, sold all your mates, including your best mate Anelka in a rather unedifying fashion, and then stuck you, a French international who has won everything going, to rot in the reserves for having the temerity not to accept a massive paycut elsewhere, just because they are finished with you and want you off the wage bill? What then? If the club discounted all you had done over the last five years for the club and disrespected you by forcing you into this corner? A wife and four kids at home and a personality probably too shy and quiet for media or management, so why should he take a wage cut? Would any of you? Don`t be daft. Of course you wouldn`t.
It is a sad thing.
If nothing else it shows that the club`s new policy about one year extensions for players over 30 is right. We can only hope we can avoid another hugely unpleasant situation like this in future. In the meantime Florent rots in the youth team. He is not a victim here as he has chosen to take the money and do what it is right for his family and future, but lets not make out any of us would not have done the exact same thing. Its not nice but there it is.
I just hope the club do the right thing here and make him an offer to buy out the rest of his contract so he can get on with his life.
CAREFREE.
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