Nicolas Anelka got sent home from the World Cup after a falling out with the manager. L’Equipe reported that Raymond Domenech was not too happy with Anelka’s first half performance against Mexico and talked to him about it. The striker reacted angrily, leading Domenech to tell him that he was going to sub him off. Anelka, nicknamed Le Sulk, responded by saying: “Go fuck yourself, you dirty son of a whore.”

Don’t me wrong, it’s plain to see for everyone that Domenech is well out of his depth and should not be the manager of the French national team. He isn’t good enough and how he’s been allowed to get this far is baffling, particularly given that the decision has already been made that he won’t continue being the boss.

Still, this is a man who gave 11 years of his career to developing the youth of France as manager of the U-21 team. Franck Ribéry, William Gallas, David Trezeguet, Jérémy Toulalan, Bacary Sagna, Gaël Clichy and Djibril Cissé are amongst the players who played for that team under him. So the FFF took a gamble on him, the same way many reds want United to take a gamble on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer one day, and it didn’t pay off.

Let’s not forget that this is also the guy who lead France to victories over Brazil, Spain and Portugal in the last World Cup and only missed out on the trophy itself because of penalties. It’s hardly an achievement to scoff at.

We don’t know all the details of what’s been going on behind the scenes, but it’s fairly obvious they’re in a state of disarray. Domenech lost the dressing room and a bunch of talented players just haven’t looked anywhere near good enough.

Still, whatever criticisms should be made of the manager, you have to wonder what planet you have to be on to call your manager’s mum a whore. Anelka told newspaper France Soir how disappointed he was to learn that what he had said to Domenech had been leaked.

“I see Nico was sent home for voicing his opinion,” John Terry said this weekend. No CLL, Anelka was sent home for showing no respect to the manager of the national side during half time of a crucial World Cup game. Trust Terry to see nothing wrong with the situation. You can imagine him parading around after it was revealed that he had been having an affair behind his wife’s back with the mother of his best mate’s kid saying: “I see I’ve had the England captaincy taken off me because I’m a heterosexual male.”

“If Nico had something to say to me, I’d stand up and listen,” Terry continued. “It’s obviously the wrong decision.” So, if Anelka called your mother a whore, you’d stand up and listen? It’s the wrong decision to send home a player who said what Anelka did? What a legend!

When does an insult become too much? Well, you would think totally disrespecting your manager in front of all your team-mates during the World Cup at half time in a game you needed to win would always be wrong. It’s hardly putting the needs of your team ahead of yourself. But going to mums? Ouch. I know we’re not in the playground, but there are some things you don’t do – going with your mate’s bird and calling people’s mums. Domenech could have done a lot worse than send him home. There are plenty of fellas who would have kicked the shit out of someone for saying what Anelka said but I suppose one of them had to think about their team, and if Le Sulk wasn’t prepared to, Domenech had to.

The manager has revealed that the following day he gave Anelka the opportunity to apologise for what he had said, but despite no longer being in the heat of the moment, the Chelsea striker refused.

Patrice Evra, the poor chap who has been made captain of this sorry excuse of a team, has spoken out about the incident and is on the look out for whoever sold their story.

“The problem of France is not Anelka, but the traitor among us,” said Evra. “We must eliminate the traitor from the group, because he wants to hurt the team. There is no little mouse in the locker room, this comes from someone who is on the team and wants to hurt the team. We are not going to lie, the reporter did not make this up. I do not know anything [about this person], I am not a magician.”

However, when asked what he thought of what Anelka said, he responded: “his comments are unacceptable.”