French Reporters Repudiate Blanc to Tottenham Rumours

British radio outfit TalkSport has had on some notable French journalists to talk with France and England battling to emerge for Euro 2012's group D. However, with rumours swirling of French National Team manager Laurent Blanc taking the vacant Tottenham Hotspur managerial position conversation moved towards this idea.

Famed journalist Philippe Auclair's statements of his sources' reports diminished the talk of Blanc coming to North London. Auclair stated that there is already a clear hierarch to Daniel Levy's approach to the managerial vacancy:

"To deduce that [Laurent Blanc] will go to Tottenham Hotspur is wrong. [...] All the information I've got points to Andre Villas-Boas being the number one candidate [at Tottenham Hotspur]. Laurent Blanc is being thought of as one the possibilities in case.

In a separate interview, TalkSport contributor Xavier Rivoire outright rubbished the rumours, saying that Blanc will not go to Spurs in his statement:

"Laurent Blanc will not go to Spurs, read my lips. Arsenal. [...] He's going to sign a new contract with France. He's seen what Jacques Santini did with Spurs and he doesn't want to do the same ever again. No, I think Blanc is there to stay. If you had the chance between being the general manager at Spurs, even if it's a great club, even if White Hart Lane is a great stadium. If you had the choice between this and coaching France, you would choose coaching France."

It is certainly interesting to see reporters from across the English Channel taking a much more skeptical view of Blanc's rumoured move to Tottenham Hotspur. All prior reporting of Blanc's approach and interest has come from the English media, so it is possible that there may be a fair bit of unsubstantiated reporting on the move. It is to be seen if Blanc's potential Tottenham interest was weighed without feeling out his interest in leaving an emerging French side that he very much rebuilt.