The last we saw of Raymond Domenech, he was immersed in a witness protection program masquerading as some sort of poker crash course. Now that the money’s dried up from that little venture, he’s back for more cash with his very first exclusive post-World Cup meltdown interview to be released amidst pomp and several forms of circumstance tomorrow. Excerpts are available, and they’ve hooked the public with juicy nuggets in typical Raymond fashion – mostly name-calling and the pointing of unemployed fingers.
Raymond:
“Everyone is talking instead of me,” he said in extracts that appeared on the newspaper’s website. “I want to restore the truth. I’m not the moron that people are describing me as.“Let’s be clear: I got it wrong, I mustn’t have chosen the right players nor found the words that were needed. I do not accept the criticism of politicians, nor that of former players who have turned to journalism, but that does not prevent me from drawing my own evaluation.”
Describing the day [of the training strike], and his attempts to talk his players around, Domenech said: “It was more than an hour that we had been there. It was really necessary that someone take responsibility and stop that charade. All the cameras were focused on the bus, hundreds of kids were waiting on the sidelines. We were the laughing stock of the world.”
Following the tournament, Evra, Franck Ribéry, Jeremy Toulalan and Eric Abidal took the bulk of the blame – and suspensions – for their role in the incident, but Domenech said all the players acted together.
“If there were any [leaders], I did not see them. Every time I went up [into the bus], there was no one,” he said. “At this point, I told myself that they went crazy and they don’t realise. Now I know I was wrong: they knew very well what they were doing. They even closed the curtains of the bus to hide themselves from cameras. With hindsight, I see them mainly as a bunch of foolhardy brats.
“Above all, I do not want controversy. I have had offers for the theatre, for the cinema … Nothing on TV, no. Honestly, how can we imagine me in a reality television show?” he said.
Is he intimating France’s World Cup 2010 show wasn’t reality TV?
And calling them ‘foolhardy brats’ shouldn’t create any controversy or vitriolic rebuttals flying through press channels. Not at all.
The World Cup is just over two weeks away. So it’s time to start making a few predictions. Who we think will qualify, and how the group will finish #1 to #4. Maybe it’s just because this is the first one, but I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that