Emptying out the academy?

By: Magnusson | June 13th, 2008

Eric Gerets said earlier this year that he didn’t have any plans of being a teaching coach. he said that he didn’t have the patience nor was he in the type of club that could wait four or five seasons for him to have a team with decent performances. And he proved his point by asking José Anigo to get rid of all the unproven youngsters that were either filling the Youth Academy or on loan around the country.

This is how three of our very promising players will land on Rolland Courbis’s lap at Montpellier next season. Left-back Jean-Philippe Sabo (21), right-back Gary Bocaly (20) and midfielder Thomas Deruda (21) will be plaing in Ligue 2 next season. For those of you following, these youngsters were part of the Minots that went to the Parc des Pinces in Paris and got that historic draw against the professionals when they were barely 17 for the most part. Rolland Courbis is the only french coach to have brought wo different french teams to the finals of European Cups (Bordeaux and then Marseille) but has also the quality of nurturing talent. Oh and he also came up with the Zizou nickname for Zidane.

Gary Bocaly could have been kept as Laurent Bonart’s replacement for the next season but our technicians decided he needed to get more playing time and even though they were very satisfied with his performances at Libourne Saint-Seurin, the club was relegated to National (Thrid Division).

Thomas Deruda, after a six month loan to Badalona in the spanish third division after a prior six month period at Amiens, Thomas Deruda is, at 22 living his last months as a Marseille player. The man who has always been accused of getting through because of his dad being a notorious gangster in Marseille (I’m totally serious) has shown a lot of temper and has been behaving like brat and has phisically fought many coaches. He’ll have to grow up or just leave.

After a very promising first performance against Auxerre where he was elected Player of the Game, Jean-Phillippe Sabo jut signed his first professional copntract but will be sent on loan as well. He’s said to become Taïwo’s replacement as soon as the nigerian leaves next season.

Another seventeen year old at the time is Mehdi Benatia. The moroccan international who still belonged to Marseille has been sold to Lorient where he played for the last year and is not pleased at all with the attitude of the staff. At the time, he’s at Capbreton recovering from a knee surgery, Benatia is particularly disappointed that his president didn’t give him a call nor did they try to keep him. He seems disenchanted about the club and is ready to leave for Lorient for good