A familiar pattern has been replicated over the last few days - that of a player allegedly criticizing an element of his club in a foreign newspaper, only to deny his words the following day.
Chelsea midfielder Florent Malouda is the player in question. On Saturday Malouda was quoted in reputable French daily L'Equipe as saying that Frank Lampard was getting into the Blues team on reputation and not his current performances. He also suggested that he was ready to leave due to his lack of regular starts.
My immediate reaction to this was how foolish can a player be? Lampard is a club icon, who has scored with regularity over the last few seasons and never lacks for effort. He is loved by the fans, and will be a central figure for England in this summer's World Cup.
Malouda, on the other hand, is a player who has underachieved since arriving from Lyon two-and-a-half years ago, only really showing his true form at the back end of last season and the front end of this.
With these claims he risked alienating himself in the dressing room with key figures such as John Terry, but also a backlash from supporters, who have been getting increasingly frustrated with the team's indifferent form of late, and perhaps wouldn't mind a scapegoat.
But hey presto, what do you know? On Monday, Malouda denies ever uttering such words.
So we either have a case of a highly mischievous French journalist completely inventing the words of a player, or Malouda realizing he has erred and quickly backtracking.
It seems that these instances of players apparently spouting off in their homeland and then denying it a couple of days later are happening too frequently for it to be a coincidence. But who knows, maybe Malouda's telling the truth on this one?
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