I was ten years old, he was my favorite player. Why? You know, why so many people love Monaco when there is no one at Louis 2? Maybe because of the color of the jersey, red and white. Herbin, it was perhaps for the roux of his mop, incredible for those who let their hair grow while preparing 68. Or else it was for this nickname, Robby, who sounded good, brightened up the paragraphs of the papers devoted to the ‘ASSE. Or was it for his activity in the field? At 10, I had only seen him play in Gérard Simonian’s articles and the photos were in black and white, especially black.
Then there was Bayern, my first game at Geoffroy-Guichard, the first feat, the best team, the strongest of all time, said Herbin, but not the most seasoned, the most accomplished. Keita, Revelli, Bereta, Samardzic … and Herbin in the middle, as between the lines of the Sim in the newspaper, between the lines on the lawn, captain, boss, placing and replacing his men, still standing, head held high.
This head well made, hard, rising above the fray, weapon not at all secret, if worked in training. The picture is that little academic recovery that Nantes residents will describe as happy, in the 5-0 final of the French Cup. There are events that you have experienced and all of life you remember what you were doing that day. I know exactly where I was: sitting at my aunt’s, in front of the screen. In black and white, especially green.
When Robby took his place on the bench, I did not fear his lack of experience after the two monuments, Snella – Batteux. I feared his absence on the field, as much as that of Keita stolen by Marseille, like Carnus or Bosquier who had been laid off by Rocher. “Without that we would have had one more title,” grumbled, forty years later, the one that his detractors nicknamed the redhead, failing to dare a more incisive qualifier. The man with the pipe, the boss of the Greens took away a trophy from him, we can’t always be right, but he was going to make up for it. They were going to catch up, Rocher – Herbin – Garonnaire.
How many colleagues stayed pen in the air, microphone taking a wind
The confinement allowed the TVs to bring out the old images of the INA and the comments of Thierry Rolland. But we haven’t forgotten anything. Neither from Kiev, nor from Split, nor from Eindhoven by Curkovic or Platini, nor from Nantes yet, in section.
So much chills, so much panache, so much rigor, so much confidence, but also so much reserve, modesty in the face of sport, timidity perhaps for what passed for disdain. “It is you who say it …” How many colleagues remained in the air, microphone taking a wind live in front of this answer which made so many colleagues and listeners discover Laconia. In print, we dressed after getting dressed …
The Sphinx: did this nickname come from there, or from its calm on the bench? Always seated, thoughtful, closed. Suaudeau was indeed called a “pug” one evening, but it was just reminiscent of an old grudge with the canaries and this Nantes-style game whose ears he was turned down and to which he was deaf. For him, football was more engagement. The technique was a leitmotif which could not be confiscated by this Loire far from its source and that of the Greens. Another episode of this rivalry of ideas, after a victory in Nantes under the Bompard era. Robby had come to meet the group at Bouthéon airport in the middle of the night.
How many bloody noses have returned to the locker room before time?
The pictures are jostling. That of his stubbornness to work the head game the day before each meeting, like that of a Peycelon swimming and raging in rage against this coach who had not even looked at him after his injury. Robby was a tough guy, he had to be too. For a long time he suffered in silence and with the stroke of a hip, which he chose to operate on during a winter break. A fortnight that would be enough for him to find the grounds. Bet won by clenching teeth, but bet lost when the prosthesis failed. Pain again, calming, operation and bad temper exacerbated.
It was this damned bad faith that had earned me the honor of my first paper on the character more than on the coach, twenty years before. I was just a summer intern. A young pro who seemed so old to me because he had so much talent had ventured into the field of sport to paint a portrait of the sphinx. But Geoffroy-Guichard remained closed and the angry colleague had taken out the vitriol. Too much. I had written that the ASSE should not have the wrong door. That of the public relation was marked “Pierre Garonnaire”.
Barefoot on the lawn
Herbin was the field, so often surveyed barefoot, he liked the lawn so much. It was the requirement at all times, even that of the snapshot of an official photo where players and coach took advantage of a cut to kick the ball while having fun striking in a mini goal cage of forty meters .
We must always apply ourselves, in everything we do.
One, who was not an artist, had tried it, too relaxed compared to the one he did not need to call coach. “We must always apply ourselves, in everything we do.” The lesson carried far beyond his group of footballers.
And even later, when I reported to him that players claimed to have encouraged him to change defense systems. He had smiled in his office, if he smiled … “If they say it and believe it comes from them, so much the better.” They will apply it … “
If they say it and believe it comes from them, so much the better. They will apply it …
Management, lesson number “x”, there was so much to think about that you just had to know how to hear. Herbin, he was a master, the most gifted trainer in France, liked to remind Guy Roux so happy that he was a French graduate and beautifully because he was a major in his class. He too was a legalist in his own way, without a standard.
Before 98, while the Blues were skating, Jacquet deprived himself of Cantona, after having tested the Nantes school, Herbin had expressed his support for this other child of Jean Snella “He must go to the end of his ideas, even at the risk of be mistaken “.
A quiet retreat at L’Étrat
He had retired, quietly on the heights of L’Étrat, other than that made by his ban on staying at the training center on the orders of a young coach who should have accepted his criticism. He would have done better.
Herbin gave his uncompromising advice every week in the columns of Le Progres. Without return other than the newspaper in its mailbox. No contract, just a word, his own, and an analysis that often made him bring football and music, his two worlds. His second passion had earned him to be a king on Jacques Chancel’s chessboard Ghent, to also receive as a birthday present all of Jacques Brel’s discography sent by Gérard Houllier.
Gérard Simonian after an interview: “He made fun of me …”
Repeat its ranges, an analogism as a leitmotif. Platini didn’t need it. Herbin admired his mastery of the ball. During the Santini Jubilee, he enjoyed a penalty on the bar “Michel did you do it on purpose? ” It has been said so often that Robby did not want Nancy’s artist that many have believed it. Surely not this journalist who dared to draw a parallel between the playmaker from Stéphane and that of Paris, Susic “How can we afford to compare them?” “Was annoyed Herbin. It was rare for him, less for his interlocutors, including Gérard Simonian who staked his entire career.
The subject Curkovic, discarded, had distended the links, the slush fund had hammered bad chords. Gone are the numbers 10 that Sim dreamed of, make way for men of duty and misunderstanding like the one that made our leader question himself after returning from an interview with the coach. says Courault’s absence would handicap the team … “
It was Robert Herbin, strong of his convictions, direct in his analyzes. All men are great when they are dead. But no. Robby could be overwhelming, a term he used in his chronicles to veil his anger. But yes, even his faults were enriching. ” How? ‘Or’ What? You say that … well yes, well yes “. And he turned on his heels.
You can pay tribute to the deceased on their commemorative page on the Libra Memoria site and offer your condolences to their loved ones by showing your sympathy.