Raymond Domenech wanted “Just find the smell of the lawn”. It does not matter if he will smell it again, Saturday January 9 in Montpellier, during the 19e Ligue 1 day, with a mask on his nose. The new FC Nantes coach was a happy man after the Canaries’ draw against Rennes on Wednesday (0-0). “We must continue to improve and ensure that in each match, the opponent says: qhat are you boring to play! “, warned the 67-year-old technician, who arrived on December 26 at the bedside of a team without ideas or results since the start of season (16e out of 20 in the ranking).
To rekindle the flame of Nantes-style gaming, it will probably be necessary to go back. Domenech promises above all discipline and sweat to a workforce limited in quality. But Waldemar Kita expects only one thing from his 17e coach in thirteen years of presidency: a continuation in the elite. The former coach of the France team (2004-2010) assures him just wanting ” to have fun “ for this last and unexpected six-month freelance.
Supporters of FC Nantes anti-Kita broadcast a message in full training, from the road that runs along the ground … https://t.co/mn9yIvuMHh
Then the man is even able to put up with the hostility of the supporters. For his first training, members of the Loire Brigade (main group of supporters, in open conflict with the owner), greeted him with a speaker playing circus music, advertising the “Kita Circus”.
“We would go for 45-minute jogs, he pretended to get lost and we found ourselves running for an hour and a half”
Ali Bouafia, former Mulhouse player (1983-1987)
This has everything to please Raymond Domenech. Those who have followed his distant career as a club coach, put on hiatus since 1993 and his departure from Olympique Lyonnais (OL) after five seasons, know that he thrives on these hostile climates. “Knowing him, I know he must be laughing that his arrival in Nantes is so commented on and annoys so many people”, says journalist Claude Chevilly. The former correspondent of The team à Lyon has a few anecdotes under its elbow to describe this mixture of intelligence, bad faith and daring specific to the character. Thus during a match against Bordeaux, when the defenders of OL pass and pass the ball again during the last ten minutes with the opposing blessing and under the mocking eye of Domenech. At 0-0, the two teams leave each other as good friends. “We asked him at a press conference if it was a rigged match. He replies: “No, since there was no goal. Did you see a bogus goal? ” For that, he was not afraid of anything. “
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