Gallas blames Domenech for fiasco

by Setanta Staff , 07 July 2010

William Gallas has blamed former coach Raymond Domenech for France's disastrous World Cup campaign.


France suffered a humiliating exit from the World Cup after failing to win any of their three group matches, although it was the drama off the pitch that resulted in the most headlines.

Les Bleus World Cup campaign was marred by reports of player unrest and infighting with things coming to a head when Chelsea's Nicolas Anelka was sent home for insulting coach Raymond Domenech.

The remainder of the squad expressed their dissatisfaction at this turn of events by refusing to train leading to the resignation of Jean-Pierre Escalettes as French Football Federation president.

Domenech's reign as French coach ended after the South Africa match and Gallas believes he was to blame for the poor showing.

"If there has been a fiasco there are reasons, and we must not close our eyes: they come from the coach," Gallas is quoted as saying by Les Inrockuptibles magazine.

"You can have the best players in your team, if you do not have a coach, you will not get results.

"The real problem was the coach. I was not good, we were not good. But the coach was not good either."

Domenech is believed to have had a strained relationship with many of his players throughout his time in charge and Gallas feels he did not work hard enough to communicate with the team.

"There really was a communication problem," he went on. "Domenech was not open. Many players could not speak with him. That was my case.

"Domenech hammered into us time and again: 'Put your egos to one side'. But I believe that he forgot to do that himself."

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Pos
Team P W D L +/- PTS
1.
Man City
38
28
5
5
64
89
2.
Man Utd
38
28
5
5
56
89
3.
Arsenal
38
21
7
10
25
70
4.
Tottenham
38
20
9
9
25
69
5.
Newcastle
38
19
8
11
5
65
6.
Chelsea
38
18
10
10
19
64
7.
Everton
38
15
11
12
10
56
8.
Liverpool
38
14
10
14
7
52
9.
Fulham
38
14
10
14
-3
52
10.
West Brom
38
13
8
17
-7
47
11.
Swansea
38
12
11
15
-7
47
12.
Norwich
38
12
11
15
-14
47
13.
Sunderland
38
11
12
15
-1
45
14.
Stoke
38
11
12
15
-17
45
15.
Wigan
38
11
10
17
-20
43
16.
Aston Villa
38
7
17
14
-16
38
17.
QPR
38
10
7
21
-23
37
18.
Bolton
38
10
6
22
-31
36
19.
Blackburn
38
8
7
23
-30
31
20.
Wolverhampton
38
5
10
23
-43
25
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