When the Blues came out, like snails after the rain, sign autographs for twenty minutes at the end of the afternoon on the Pierre-Pibarot field of Clairefontaine, it was not worth looking for Adrien Rabiot. The day before, the still Marseille community had received authorization from Didier Deschamps not to join the Blues camp until Monday evening just before dinner.
“I inform you that he is joining us this evening,” explained the coach three hours earlier. He has a medical visit that will take time this afternoon to allow him to sign at AC Milan. At the time, Deschamps played the card of clarity. But he was deliberately more elusive when commenting on what looks like a huge mess or a bullet pulled in the crampon. A base player and OM reference forced to go at the end of the transfer window for a story of a fight in the locker room as there have been since football was invented. The outcome seems disproportionate.