Domenech disjointing Les Bleus

Born in 1952, he mostly made his name at his hometown club Lyon. He had a respectable footballing career, which saw him pick up 8 caps for the French international team. After retiring he's worked as a manager at FC Mulhouse, Lyon, French U-21 and now he's the manager of the French senior squad. Who is he? Raymond Domenech.

Before taking over the senior side, Domenech worked with French youth teams for 10 years. He was appointed as the manager of Les Bleus after EURO 2004 when Jacques Santini didn't manage to take the team past the quarter final stage, where the French lost to, eventual champions, Greece. Even though Domenech had been involved with the French FA for over a decade, it was seen as a surprise appointment and that surprise still lingers five years after.

The side struggled right from the off. First match under Domenech was a 1:1 draw at home in Rennes versus Bosnia and Herzegovina, who at that time were far from the quality they are today. Qualifying for the FIFA World Cup 2006 didn't start better either. If fact it took over a year to mark the first win at home, 3:0 versus lowly Faroe Islands. And that turned to be one of only 2 wins France managed at home, the other being a 4:0 win versus Cyprus. To Domenech's credit, the side finished their group unbeaten and won it to get direct qualification to Germany 2006, but that was only after Domenech convinced, or rather plead, Zinedine Zidane and some other members of "the golden generation" to return to the international scene.

Team selection had been a major talking point by everyone under Domenech. Being an astrologist, the 57 year old, seems to favour players who have born with the "right" astrological sign. Players like Ludovic Giuly, who at the time when he was in the French international team frame was a important member of Barcelona, and Philippe Mexes have been among the sufferers of this. Mexes' case goes even further, as Domenech has once even gone on record saying that he basically hates Italian football and doesn't want to have anything to do with it, but Mexes, one team being seen as the next great centre back since Marcel Desailly and Laurent Blanc, of course plays in Italy, at AS Roma.

France, after starting poor, went on to get a final place in Germany 2006 and that saved Domenech's job, as the fans had forgotten how miserable the reign had been up until then. And to his luck his team actually started scoring goals in the EURO 2008 qualifying. France went through behind Italy from their group and were touted as potential winner of the finals, as always.

The Domenech syndrome struck again in the finals, though. France managed only 1 goal in three matches, playing awful football with no fluency and didn't make it past the group stage. Reality hit Les Bleus fans, there was some serious unrest with the national team manager, but somehow Domenech held on to his job.

The qualification phase of the FIFA World Cup 2010 started with an embarrassing defeat away at Austria. Through out the process it was an up and down road. There's was even reports about players being unhappy how the manager did his work. France struggled again with Faroe Islands and also Lithuania. That eventually saw them finish second in their group behind Serbia and play-off matches with Ireland. And even though Les Bleus made it in the end, albeit under controversial circumstances, Domenech didn't do his reputation any favours with again an anti approach to the match and especially keeping Karim Benzema on the bench for the entire match, even with the team needing a goal.

"The astrologist" as Domenech's called by many, will probably make it to the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa, but after that, no doubt he won't be wanted anywhere near Les Bleus ever again.