A Post Domenech France: The Four Possibilities

January 5th, 2010 | by: Sarah |

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Don’t look so sad, Ray! I bet you won’t miss us just as much as we won’t miss you!

Today, FFF President Escalettes announced that we will know the next French coach before the 2010 World Cup– we may even know as early as May.

We have already discussed how much the FFF want Bordeaux’s Blanc…and how much we want him! But, what if that can’t happen? Well, the FFF stated today that they aren’t putting all their eggs in one basket. So, what is the Plan B, C and D?

According to France Football, the other options being explored are…

Deschamps Cracks A) Didier Deschamps: Winner of the World Cup, Euro and Champions League; Coached Monaco to the Champions League Finals; Current coach of Olypique de Marseille; . As an OM fan (and Offside-OM blogger), I can’t tell you how frustrating having him as a coach has been this year. What he has done to the team is just tragic. I would love to see him leave Marseille for any other team other than Les Bleus…Is this harsh? I really don’t think so. He can’t live off his reputation as a player (we all know that good players don’t always make good coaches) and Monaco glory days for forever…

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B) Alain Boghossian: He is currently Domenech’s assistant coach on the France team. I see this as a pro and a con. His involvement would help smoothen the transition, but the team might need to be shaken up… I actually don’t know a lot about Boghossian’s background except that he played for Marseille for a season before going to Italy to play with a couple of different clubs (Napoli, Sampdoria and Parma). He ended his career in Spain at Espanyol in 2003 due to chronic injury problems. He was a member of the 1998 France World Cup Winning team, but he was injured the day before the 2000 Euro so he was unable to participate. I believe that he has been coaching with the FFF since his retirement as a player.

tigana_head C) Jean Tigana: Currently a free agent, Tigana is the oldest and most experienced of the four “backups” though he is probably the least flashy (keep in mind, he does have a 1984 Euro Championship under his belt). He has been coaching since the early nineties and has spent time at Lyon, Monaco, Fulham and most recently Besiktas. As a player, he helped Bordeaux win trophies for years and he ended his career at Marseille as one of the “magic square” midfielders- which was also comprised of Plantini, Luis Fernandez and Alain Giresse.

Please note that the FFF has already vetoed a foreign coach because of the amount of French talent.

So, what is the fan’s verdict?

Are any of these better than Blanc? If Blanc declines, who is our best bet? Are France hurting themselves by not looking for good foreign talent?

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Jean-Francois

I really hope that Blanc gets the job. About our previous talk about the ciity. Do you know any good places up there to watch matches?
Michel-Olivier

jean-pierre papin
Steven

Wow, that’s pretty extraordinary, Escalettes is basically annoucing publicly that Ray’s contract won’t be extended post WC2010.(Is there a no-fire clause unless … or what? Is this typical of French sport?)

It sounds like Escalletes is trying to force him to resign right now!
Seth

Wenger is wayyyyyyyyyy over-due IMO. The FFF really need to persuade him.
http://www.mcalcio.com Marco P.

In the Italian press today, someone hinted at Laurent Blanc possibly replacing Mourinho at Inter this Summer, after José flies off to greener (read: more English) pastures up North. If nothing else, Didier Deschamps seems like a great substitute on Les Bleus’s bench.

Either way guys, do yourselves a favor: get rid of Domenech TODAY, before it’s too late and you waste yet another WC.
Jean-Michel

There are not enough games on the NT schedule for Wenger to be interested. He’s a week in week out type guy: domestic club football, champions league, fa cup, etc..The NT would be like semi-retirement for him. Not sure what Boghossian has to offer as a coach, I’m thinking no for Deschamps…so its Blanc or bust for me but I’m sure the FFF has an obscure under 21 guy they’ve been grooming for years to take Domenech’s place.
Doumé

Honestly, I’ll worry about it AFTER the World Cup.

For me, the team, its shape, how they will come together, is more important than who ruffles people’s feathers. We are with Domenech for a little while, let’s just face it. He has had good and not so good results in big competitions; what I think is the one problem for France is the lack of support, the second-guessing and excusing bad performance from some players by putting the coach as the main reason.
9 Champions Leagues

Wenger one day will turn around the french squad, as long as he’s got decent patch of talent, regardless the squad will play ‘attractive football’. To change coaches right before the WC without anymore games pending could be catastrophic or a life saver, i tend to think it’ll be the first option. It isnt easy to lose great players like Vieira, Zidane, Makelele, thuram and maintain a victory prone team, the matter of the truth is that this current france is under a generational transition and whoever is in charge will have to deal with it. We don’t have any assurance a new manager will do better, so far Domenech made it to the finals in the last WC edition and currently is the best man to assess who’s working out fine and who’s not. Changing coaches after the WC is the best option since whatever the result of the comepetition, the new appointed coach will have the parametres of the future defined to take on.
Terry from Naples fl

I don’t agree a new cannot do worse, let’s take Fernandez for 6 months and see what he can do
lefutur

Lets take a gamble and switch coaches now and try to win the whole thing because leaving Domenech is charge wont get us very far in the competition…thats as obvious as day I think. If France switch coaches it could work out well, or it could fail. But at least they can say they tried to win the WC.
Junaid

I want Eric Cantona