Jacques Crevoisier, the former Liverpool assistant coach, believes France have only three genuinely world-class players and therefore cannot be considered as serious contenders at the World Cup in Brazil.

Crevoisier, who led France to the Under-18 European Championship in 2000, fully expects France to advance from a favourable group E, including Switzerland, Honduras and Ecuador, but says they do not have sufficient top-drawer talent to challenge favourites Brazil, Argentina and Germany.

Karim Benzema, of Real Madrid, Franck Ribéry, of Bayern Munich, and Hugo Lloris, of Tottenham Hotspur, are the only players in France’s 23-man squad who can be viewed as world-class, according to Crevoisier, who has soft-pedalled any talk of them being this summer’s dark horses.

“I’m not that confident about France’s chances,” said Crevoisier, who is visiting the Island to oversee the Bermuda Football Coaches Association’s C Licence course. “I think France’s group is rather easy and that they will be first or second in the group, along with Switzerland.

“But to win a major trophy, you really need at least six or seven top-class players. I could be wrong, but I don’t believe that France have those.

“In my opinion, I think France have three world-class players: Benzema, Ribéry and Lloris.

“Then you have maybe Paul Pogba, although he’s too young, [Yohan] Cabaye and [Laurent] Koscielny, who are good players but not great players.”

France head to Brazil with a point to prove after a thoroughly shambolic 2010 tournament in South Africa, where the players refused to train after coach Raymond Domenech expelled controversial striker Nicolas Anelka from the squad.

To further compound matters, the team then failed to make it past the group stage, with Domenech subsequently calling his players a “bunch of imbeciles” and claimed that there was infighting within the squad.

The notoriously hard-to-please French fans, perhaps rivalled only by the equally fickle England supporters, have not forgiven Les Bleus for that shameful summer and those deep wounds, says Crevoisier, can be healed only by “positive results and perfect behaviour” in Brazil.

With that in mind, it is arguably unsurprising that France’s present enfant terrible, Samir Nasri, the Manchester City midfielder, has been excluded from the squad by Didier Deschamps, the team’s coach, in a clear effort to preserve harmony within the dressing room.

“To be honest, [the 2010 World Cup] was a disaster for France and the reputation of the country,” said Crevoisier, who held a question-and-answer session at the Robin Hood Pub and Restaurant on Saturday night.

“It was a disaster for the country’s footballing history and I will never forgive Domenech for what happened because it was his mistake; he had to sort things out differently.

“I can tell you that the young generation [in France] are not in love with the French team.

“Only results can change that and perfect behaviour, which is probably why Deschamps did not take Nasri, who has shown in some circumstances that he is not the most collective player and a little bit selfish.

“That’s why Deschamps has taken Mickaël Landreau [the 35-year-old from Bastia] as a substitute goalkeeper. There are better goalkeepers than Landreau, but he will help the guys, be supportive, and have a positive influence on the group.

“As Landreau will never play, it makes sense to take a guy like that. It’s a matter of philosophy.”

Omitting Nasri, who is thought to be considering international retirement after his snub, has been heavily criticised by Patrick Vieira, the head of Manchester City’s elite development squad and former 1998 World Cup- winning team-mate of Deschamps.

Although Vieira insisted that the Barclays Premier League champions had never had any discipline problems with Nasri, Crevoisier is supportive of Deschamps’s decision to leave out the creative midfielder.

“I’m sure that Deschamps has very good reasons [for leaving Nasri out of the squad],” said Crevoisier, who has previously acted as a psychologist for Arsène Wenger at Arsenal and worked for two years at Tottenham’s academy under their former sporting director, Damian Comolli.

“Perhaps Patrick Vieira wanted to support Nasri because he is a City player, but in my opinion, it was not good to do that because Patrick is a good friend of Deschamps and a former team-mate.

“Sometimes you have to respect the decisions of high-level coaches, especially when they are at the level of someone like Deschamps. Sometimes you don’t have all the information to make a decision.

“Deschamps, for me, has the right profile and has a fantastic knowledge of football. He was very close with Aimé Jacquet [who coached France to the World Cup in 1998] and, although he wasn’t the best player in the world, his influence on the team was phenomenal.”

France’s World Cup squad

Goalkeepers: Hugo Lloris (Tottenham), Stéphane Ruffier (Saint-Étienne), Mickaël Landreau (Bastia)

Defenders: Mathieu Debuchy (Newcastle), Lucas Digne (PSG) Patrice Evra (Manchester United), Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal), Eliaquim Mangala (Porto), Bacary Sagna (Arsenal), Mamadou Sakho (Liverpool), Raphaël Varane (Real Madrid)

Midfielders: Yohan Cabaye (PSG), Clément Grenier (Lyons), Blaise Matuidi (PSG), Rio Mavuba (Lille), Paul Pogba (Juventus), Moussa Sissoko (Newcastle), Mathieu Valbuena (Marseilles)

Forwards: Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Olivier Giroud (Arsenal), Antoine Griezmann (Real Sociedad), Loïc Rémy (Newcastle), Franck Ribéry (Bayern Munich).