Babbel fires back at claims of player unrest and ‘white-anting’

Wanderers coach Markus Babbel has fired back at new claims over the coaching style of his assistant and derided stories surrounding the club as “dogshit”.

Wanderers coach Markus Babbel has seen his team fall to five straight defeats

Undersiege Wanderers coach Markus Babbel has fired back at new claims over the coaching style of his assistant and derided negative stories surrounding the club as “dogshit”.

Following five consecutive losses, accusations have been made claiming players are confused and do not respect Babbel, while assistant coach Jean-Paul de Marigny runs the team with a firm hand, demoralising players.

On Wednesday morning the coach took aim at the reports, saying that if players cannot handle a tough coaching style they “have no f..king chance in Europe”.

“I’m not only here to teach them technique and tactic... but also mentally,” Babbel said.

“We had the challenge before, we were asking them what is the biggest dream that they have. All of them want to come to Europe.

“If you can’t handle this, trust me, no f..king chance in Europe.”

Babbel also rubbished a reports claiming there is a rift between he and the “animated” de Marigny, who is accused of white-anting the German boss to take over the head coach role.

“I can’t comment about this dogshit because it just is not the truth,” he said.

Reacting to claims that a player at the Wanderers last season nearly quit football over the coaching styles of Babbel and de Marigny, the German demanded to know who it was.

“I can’t comment on this f..king — sorry about this word, this dog shit,” he said. “This is just not the truth. I wish that you as a journalist if you are talking to me that you would believe me more, than ‘I heard something’.

“This is for me not good journalism. Now you need a story and this is a perfect story. This is not a good journalism in my eyes.

“Tell me first who is saying it, say who it is, then it’s a different story.”

Wanderers assistant Jean-Paul de Marigny’s aggressive style is said to be upsetting players

Wanderers chief executive John Tsatsimas said the criticism levelled at de Marigny was unusual and was confident the players could differentiate between a passionate coach and excessive intimidation.

“It astounds me, these complaints. We’re shadow boxing here,” Tsatsimas said. “I think we’re dealing with a matter, with a player who isn’t here.

“To isolate it to one particular person who is an assistant coach is rather unusual at this juncture. The (current) players are mature, they’re professional. They’ve seen it all overseas and here so they’ll be geared up and ready.”

Stream every game of The 2019/20 Hyundai A-League season LIVE & On-Demand with KAYO SPORTS. Get your 14 day free trial & start streaming instantly >

Babbel insisted his decision to become more involved in training sessions had been his alone, rather in response to complaints from players that the sessions were stale and repetitive.

He also took offence at suggestions he had dumped youth players from the team because they couldn’t cope with de Marigny’s coaching style.

“Be careful what you hear, don’t trust people,” he said.

“I like (to do) it, very simple, if you follow my stations I always have a strong assistant because I like to have strong guys around.

“Don’t ask me this stupid question please. If you say something, have a look first then ask the right questions.

“We only can stop all this bullshit with results on the pitch. (Critics) are not coming out when we won three games in a row, they didn’t say a word, now they are coming out.

“It’s normal, everybody is the same, this is our culture, it’s sad but this is our culture.

“If you don’t get results, they are coming out. We have no time anymore, it’s a great opportunity on Friday (against Western United).”

Only last week Babbel was fined $3000 over post-match comments suggesting there was a referee conspiracy against his team and was warned he might face more severe sanctions for any further breach of the FFA’s national code of conduct.

The Daily Telegraph, AAP