While surfing around on Wikipedia tonight, I stumbled across the following tidbit on Raymond Domenech's entry.
"Although it was expected that he would lose his position, in July 2008 it was announced Domenech had retained his job.
He continues to be a knobhead and lives in a magic castle in the sky."
I doubt that the last sentence will be allowed to stay on the page for too long, but it sums up all of the frustration that fans of the French squad have been feeling for the past few years.
I bring up Domenech because Les Bleus were thumped by Austria 3-1 on the weekend. Despite reaching the finals of the 2006 World Cup, Domenech's record is not very impressive. His squad selection policy and tactics have long been suspect, and now things are finally starting to catch up to him.
Domenech is a notorious student of astrology. He doesn't like selecting Scorpios in his squad and thus had a falling out with Robert Pires in 2004, which led to Pires' international retirement. This hardly seems like a reasonable way to let go of a player who had won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 with the French team.
Washed-up goalkeeper Fabien Barthez was also selected to start instead of Lyon keeper Gregory Coupet, who had at that point collected five straight Ligue 1 titles. Coupet actually left the team for a short while because of the snub, but came back to be France's number two goalkeeper.
Domenech also created a great deal of controversy when he called Chelsea midfielder Claude Makelele up for Euro 2008 qualifiers. Jose Mourinho said that Makelele was being treated like a "slave", which was perhaps not the best choice of words.
This wouldn't have been a controversy except for the fact that Makelele had tried to retire from international football after the 2006 World Cup, and Domenech still insisted on selecting him.
Despite the inclusion of an experienced holding midfielder in Makelele, France managed to lose to Scotland twice and barely make their way into Euro 2008. Once in the tournament, France proceeded to embarrass themselves by only managing a single point in a goalless draw with Romania.
This performance was their worst performance in the group stage of a major tournament since...World Cup 2006! After draws to Switzerland and South Korea, France needed to beat Emmanuel Adebayor and Togo in order to advance. They did manage to beat Togo and advance, but given their status among the world's footballing elite, qualification should not have been such a chore.
It's also worth mentioning that France might not have even qualified for World Cup 2006 had it not been for Makelele, Lilian Thuram and Zinedine Zidane coming out of international retirement to aid the French in qualifying.
Had they not managed to qualify, Domenech surely would have been out of a job then, and the French might be in better shape today.
Which brings me back to the match against Austria on Saturday. It was the first time Austria had beaten France since 1970. The Austrians were handily outshot, but won the possession battle, and quality possession football is something that the French are known for.
When a country gets beat at its own game, and when a manager alienates some of the best players available to him, perhaps its time to move on. Raymond Domenech shouldn't be in charge when World Cup 2010 rolls around if the French hope to win anything.
Don't worry Raymond, I hear there's a job opening at West Ham.
27 comments Last one added 9 months ago — Leave a Comment
Thomas 10 months ago
France is suffering from this guy. Get a new coach! Yea, he made it to the final of the World Cup, but it wasnt him that did it, it was the players. Go get a new job Raymond.
ps. I think if Wenger ever quit Arsenal for some reason, he'd do a good job as French manager.
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Joe G 10 months ago
Wenger would definitely use France's talented youth to his advantage, that's for sure. But I hope he doesn't leave the Gunners.
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Thomas 10 months ago
he most likely wont. unless something drastic happens.
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Andrew McNair 10 months ago
I was going to write about this idiot agaes ago :) my angle was going to be his trezeguet snub.
Good piece mate and there cant be much for him to hold onto now.
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Joe G 10 months ago
The Trezeguet snub would have been a good one, too. The man has done so many things wrong, there's plenty to choose from.
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ken cendron 10 months ago
I can't wait the french loose against serbia on wednesday so we can finally include Domenech in our history book as the worst coach ever!
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illya mclellan 10 months ago
I saw he was still coach recently and couldn't believe my eyes. After all that he has done to destroy the formidable reputation of the French team they have still got him in charge. Its mental. How can he constantly choose the wrong combinations and players? you think after losing so many games he might have learned something. But they lose again. This is football politics at its worst, I wonder what is actually going on with this?
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Joe G 10 months ago
Spot on. They were one of the best teams in the world at the end of the 1990s/beginning of the 2000s, and then he took over and it's been all downhill since then.
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Salaar Arshad Shamsi 10 months ago
Haha..love the ending..West Ham though appear to have settled for Zola..Domenech should be gone..France can't find any body better and thus he's still on..:p
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Joe G 10 months ago
Maybe they should consider giving Gerard Houllier another shot. I know his first stint wasn't that great, but he was an assistant on that 1998 team and did a pretty damn good job at Lyon.
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Jon Marum 10 months ago
I am still in genuine shock that he kept his job after the Euros!!
After that result at the wknd he must still be under enormous pressure. I for one thought Claude Puel (formerly of lille, now of Lyon) Laurent Blanc (has done a great job with Bordeaux) would be good candidates.
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Joe G 10 months ago
Bruce Arena was fired after the 2006 World Cup, and the US looked better in the group stages than France did in the group stage of Euro 2008. Plenty of managers have been fired for putting a better product on the field than Domenech is. I'm in shock, too.
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Shyam Parthasarathi 10 months ago
He's an absolutely useless manager - I don't know what the FFF saw in him to keep him on - rumour has it that he has to get a certain number of points by the 5th game of the WCQs to save his job..
And no, Wenger will pretty much never become France's manager because he doesn't like International management and also because he has had quite a lot of problems with the Federation.
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Joe G 10 months ago
That rumor sounds reasonable. The FFF certainly doesn't want him to hinder their chances at qualifying for South Africa 2010. Of course, it was also reported that his job was gone if he didn't make the quarterfinals of Euro 2008.
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gem asdani 10 months ago
worst manager ever, might as well replace him with an monkey throwing darts at a dartboard of footballers
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Joe G 10 months ago
That idea is tempting me to pursue dual citizenship and see if I can't make it into the squad.
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Yoosof Farah 10 months ago
Good article Joe. I read that bit about him on Wikipedia as well and it hasn't been deleted yet (as of 9/9/08). France should get rid of him immediately if they want any chance of success in the future.
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Joe G 10 months ago
I just noticed another gem in that same article.
"Domenech chose Pascal Chimbonda, a low-profile player with no face...for the squad."
Thanks, Yoosof.
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Yoosof Farah 10 months ago
Haha funny stuff. That'll probably get deleted sooner or later.
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Ana Maria 10 months ago
haha good article. I also read that he dropped Giuly because he thought he flirted with his girlfriend!
How that man is still employed is beyond my comprehension, he's a disaster.
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Joe G 10 months ago
He's letting personal disputes get in the way of selecting the best team. The fact that he COULD be putting out a better team but doesn't should be enough to get him canned.
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Jeremy B 10 months ago
France has been successful because of experience and talent. The latter may still be there but with France more towards a youth movement, there isn't as much of the former. It seems certain now that France hasn't been winning because of coaching so the loss to Austria might just be the nail in the coffin for Domenech.
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Salomon Gonzales 10 months ago
I know this had nothing to do with the article but doesnt this man look a lot like Claudio Ranieri..?
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Joe G 10 months ago
A little bit. Maybe a younger Ranieri, who hasn't gotten his hair cut as recently.
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S B 10 months ago
Without Zidane France is nothing. This was evident in the 2002 WC and the recent Euro -Cup.
That's the problem with being a one man team.
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Joe G 10 months ago
Ribery and Nasri are good, but they can't yet match the quality of Zidane.
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Matt S 9 months ago
He’s had some shocking results, and not just recently. The writing should have really been on the wall when they lost home and away against Scotland (no disrespect but not exactly a world force any more). They really only even scraped through to the Euros on the back of Scotland’s failure in Georgia and I for one wasn’t surprised when they bombed at the Euros.
But realistically who is there that could take over? Blanc has only managed for one full season (I think…), Deschamps would be the other choice as a young manager but do these guys really want to take over a team that will never be as good as the 1998-2000 team? Compared to that team they will always be failures.
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