Yesterday Daryl pondered whether or not Nicolas Anelka’s international is over. Nicolas has weighed in on the subject himself, apparently being banned from Disqus as well as Les Bleus, going with the well-worn but undoubtedly effective “you can’t fire me, I quit!” – but probably in French.

In other words: nothing’s changed since June.

Anelka’s response:

“Who told them that I wanted to play in blue again?” Anelka asked. “I should not even have been mentioned by this kind of commission. For me, ever since the South Africa World Cup, the French team is part of the past.”

“For me, this whole thing with the commission is an aberration, a masquerade to make sure they don’t lose face,” he said. “They have punished a void, as Nicolas Anelka never existed in this pitiful and colourful affair. I repeat: the page with les Bleus was turned on 19 June when I was evicted from Knysna.”

Referring to the French football authorities, he added: “They are real clowns, these people … I am doubled up with laughter.”

Last I checked, clowns that make you laugh are generally a good think, particularly those of the French variety.

His agent, meanwhile, has said that he was planning to quit all along, so the halftime outburst was just one last middle finger on the way out the international door.

“With Nico, we had a very clear career plan,” he said. “The idea was that he would take his leave internationally after the World Cup, whatever its result, which ended up being the one that everyone knows.”

And with that from his agent, our theory is confirmed: Nicolas was planning to play at least two more years, and this ban effectively retired him.

The rest is simply the continuation of this French fiasco.

Thanks to our friends at Tipz Sportsbook