Dumbanech

It would be interesting to discover just what were the qualities which encouraged the French football authorities to entrust their national team to Raymond Domanech. His diplomacy perhaps. A willingness to work with top club managers in order to get the very best out of talented French players, both at club and international level. Tactical awareness. Judgement. Man management.

The list is seemingly endless. The list, that is, of qualities Domanech doesn’t appear to have. But what he does have in abundance is stubbornness and inflexibility, as a result of which he is prepared to call upon players who have barely recovered from a punishing World Cup campaign that went all the way to the final but fell short of glory, and play them for the full 90 minutes in a comparatively meaningless friendly when they have scarcely had time to rest properly, much less prepare properly for a new club season.

Anyone who was at the Emirates Stadium for Arsenal’s opening game could see that Thierry Henry wasn’t at his best – but how many of them realise that they have Domanech, rather than the Aston Villa defence, to thank for that?