Yes, Domenech. Star gazer, scorpio hater, post elimination game marriage proposer Domenech. That Domenech. According sources close to the FTF, he’s on the verge of being appointed Carthage Eagles coach. And the timing makes perfect sense as the French team is already in Tunisia (with WAGS in tow) to prep for their Sunday friendly against our boys.

Sometime last week I said in the comments of an earlier post that I had a feeling this was in the works. This was right around the time that Benzarti’s situation with Esperance got more complicated and it became clear that he was taking himself out of the running for the job. What can I say, sometimes it sucks to be right.

I happen to be traveling today and thus don’t have the amount of time that I’d like to dedicate to this post but given the magnitude of the news and what it means for us, I had to get this on here. Besides the obvious problems with this, what is most frustrating is that this decision comes down to one thing only: Salary considerations.

This article asserts that our FA President Ali Hafsi wants to get the deal signed asap because if he does, the first four years of Domenech’s salary will be paid for by the French Federation under the umbrella of “cooperation in matters of youth and sport” between both countries. You read that right, that’s basically four years free, quite a bargain! Deals like that don’t come along everyday but this wouldn’t be the first time it happened either: Apparently when we hiredLemerre in 2002, we only started paying his salary (18.000 Euros per month, not counting bonuses) starting July 2006.

 
It’s pretty ironic that I just wrote an article defending the guy’s French team selection choices for the World Cup but let it be known that I think this is a mistake. A big one at that. Not only do I have apprehensions about the guy’s coaching abilities, his selection doesn’t make sense in terms of timing. In light of the overturning of the Togo ban, our first qualifier for the 2012 African Cup of Nations is on July 1st, not September like it used to be before when we only had four teams in our group. Domenech will likely be in SA still when this happens. Are we just going to keep riding this Trabelsi caretaker coach train forever until then?

Another reason to worry is that the man has no experience in Africa, let alone Tunisia. In our dire situation, we need someone who can hit the ground running, not someone who needs to learn who’s who and what’s what in Tunisia and tinker around for I don’t know how long while we fall behind in the qualifying race!

Benzarti would have been the best choice if you take into account the need for immediate action but his situation with Esperance prevents him from being our guy. Even if we wanted to go French or foreign, there are numerous coaches who I’d pick over Domenech in a heartbeat. Namely Pierre Lechantre or Bertrand Marchand. At least both these guys have coaches in Tunisia and thus know all our players and issues. Plus both of them have have experience and success in Africa on their resume. Does Domenech? NO!

With that said, there are a few positives (he won’t be influenced by the media, he’s better thanCoelho, he’s better than the type of guys we usually try to bring out of retirement) but the negatives outweigh them by a considerable amount. Either way, this upcoming match against France just took on a whole new level of interest. Domenech more useful as a national technical director but as head coach I don’t see us going anywhere good.

Am I overreacting? Either way, stay tuned, because if/when it becomes official I’ll be writing an editorial for Goal.com on the issue and will have to be much more even handed. Perhaps I’ll manage to think of a few more positives that could come about from his appointment but for now I’m at almost a total loss. This just makes very little sense to me. I hope more than ever that I am wrong. I really just hope I have to eat crow some years down the road while re-reading this blog post.

Wake me up when we’re (kinda) good again.

| Post Link | Link to out | Comments (1) | 0