Didier Deschamps

[marcus50bucks]

I'm a big Rafa fan but does this thread really need to turn into another Rafa thread, ffs?

[Craig_H]

To write off a season would show a big weakness and make it almost impossible to sign quality players in the summer.

If NESV do that then they can **** off. Totally unacceptable. Every game counts. Every point counts. Every goal counts.

If that's what they are doing, then NESV have just pushed Torres and Reina out of Anfield. Well done John

[Gibbo]

What if Rafa's problem wasn't tactics but other factors?

I though his tactics were usually spot on.

I agree about his tactics, I thought 9 times out of 10 Rafa got it spot on.
by other factors do you mean player harmony, arguing with the chairman etc? or something on the pitch.

Rafa and Deschamps play similar type of systems. I think the problem is that Gerrard and Carra still play for us. That makes it easier to sign up Deschamps instead of Rafa.

Sign up Deschamps then Carra and Gerrard would most probably not protest about it to much. Sign up Rafa and you never know what they would do.

This might sound a bit ignorant, but did Gerrard and Carra really have that big a part in Rafa leaving, I've never seen any hard evidence of this.

[Craig_H]

Rafa and Deschamps play similar type of systems. I think the problem is that Gerrard and Carra still play for us. That makes it easier to sign up Deschamps instead of Rafa.

Sign up Deschamps then Carra and Gerrard would most probably not protest about it to much. Sign up Rafa and you never know what they would do.

We dont though Arn. We dont. You dont, i dont, we dont.

You speak about these things as if all the stuff that's alleged to have happened, happened in your living room, right before your own eyes. You speak about it with the kind of authority of someone who knows for a fact - but you dont.

[Kenneth]

If that's what they are doing, then NESV have just pushed Torres and Reina out of Anfield. Well done John

Melodramatic, IMO. You talk about it as if it's a fact, but it isn't

[dww]

But it possible that the disruption of bringing on yet another manger and coaches could make things even worse. Although that seems a remote possibility, there's probably not much to gain and it may well involve more expense.

Aye, you are probably right. I'm not a big fan of the caretaker idea really. I just think that there is a real danger that Roy could create real long term problems from the short term difficulties he inherited. I guess we have to hope that Commoli is a good influence in January.

I do think though that if we equivocate over Roy's future at the end of the season then we will be highly likely to lose Torres, Reina and perhaps more of our better players.

[Craig_H]

Melodramatic, IMO. You talk about it as if it's a fact, but it isn't

Do i really need to put 'i think' at the start of everything i type? An intelligent enough chap like you knows how to interpret things properly.

That said, Torres will definitely go. I'll be happy for you to come and tell me how wrong i was come next September, but i dont think i will be.

[Kenneth]

Aye, you are probably right. I'm not a big fan of the caretaker idea really. I just think that there is a real danger that Roy could create real long term problems from the short term difficulties he inherited. I guess we have to hope that Commoli is a good influence in January.

I do think though that if we equivocate over Roy's future at the end of the season then we will be highly likely to lose Torres, Reina and perhaps more of our better players.

Definitely. We need a vision and a plan to sell to our existing players and potential signings asap. Roy should be sacked on the final whistle of our last match and a deal for his replacement should already be in place behind the scenes.

[DannyMan2006]

Is Deschamps the youngest cl winning captain, with Gerrard second? Unlikely but I'll have a shot at that

[Fierce]

You speak about these things as if all the stuff that's alleged to have happened, happened in your living room, right before your own eyes. You speak about it with the kind of authority of someone who knows for a fact - but you dont.

Do i really need to put 'i think' at the start of everything i type? An intelligent enough chap like you knows how to interpret things properly.

That said, Torres will definitely go. I'll be happy for you to come and tell me how wrong i was come next September, but i dont think i will be.

[marcus50bucks]

Marseille yet to hit on all cylinders

When Didier Deschamps was appointed as Marseille coach 18 months ago, the club had not won a trophy since winning the Champions League in 1993, back when Deschamps himself was captain. He soon ended the drought: Marseille, known in France as OM, the acronym of its full name Olympique de Marseille, won the French league last season and this week, in beating Spartak Moscow 3-0 away from home, reached the Champions League knockout stage for the first time since 1993.

Not that the latest result has caused huge celebrations at France's best-supported club. Sports minister Roselyne Bachelot may have phoned Jean-Claude Dassier, the club president, to offer her congratulations, but before the Spartak match, club owner Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, widow of Robert Louis-Dreyfus, upped the pressure by warning players against failure. "We invested massively during the summer to strengthen the team but the performances have yet to live up to expectations," she told Journal du Dimanche. Deschamps shrugged off the criticism, but it was typical OM to have a potential boardroom fissure in the buildup to its biggest game of the season.

Of more concern to OM fans, though, is Deschamps' fractious relationship with sports director Jose Anigo, also a former OM player and coach. The pair fell out over a ham-handed summer recruitment strategy in which OM failed to sign Deschamps' No. 1 target, Luis Fabiano (he was also linked with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Roque Santa Cruz and David Trezeguet) and, against the coach's wishes, sold last season's top scorer, Mamadou Niang, to Fenerbahce. OM had already told winger Hatem Ben Arfa to find a new club but once Niang had departed, asked him to stay: Ben Arfa was furious and went on strike to force through his loan move to Newcastle.

That left OM two attackers down so, on the final day of the transfer window, it spent a combined €30 million ($39 million) on Andre-Pierre Gignac from Toulouse and Loic Remy from Nice. Both men are seen as Anigo purchases. Former OM striker Jean-Pierre Papin has criticized Gignac's poor return of one goal from his first 12 appearances, telling Canal Plus: "He should be working harder and making more of an impact."

Deschamps has made excuses for Gignac, saying the striker is a bit overweight, still tired from the World Cup and has some niggling injuries, which on reflection, could also be read as arguments against buying him. Remy, on the other hand, has impressed and his speed, versatility (he can play wide or in the middle) and eye for goal brought his first competitive goal for France in a Euro 2012 win over Romania.

"Jose is the history of OM and Didier is an exceptional coach," Dassier told So Foot of the strained relationship of the two men beneath him. "They have their differences and to say they're on the same wavelength is a lie, but the secret is to find a balance. Didier still wants to win something this year, which is fine, as I do too."

OM has every chance, not least because this league lacks a dominant side like Lyon in the 2000s. Without finding anything like its best form, OM went into this weekend's Ligue 1 game against Montpellier (it won 4-0) in fifth place and, with a game in hand, only two points behind Lille, the division's sixth different leader. This time last season, OM was in seventh and four points off the top. It only took the lead in Week 31.

Deschamps is touchy that his former teammate, and current France coach, Laurent Blanc has a reputation for playing more beautiful football -- "we have always had the same philosophy, though it might not always be as obvious with my teams," he told SI.com -- but against Spartak, he might just have discovered a winning system. For the first time, he played Lucho Gonzalez as one of the two holding midfielders, with Mathieu Valbuena, normally a winger, just behind lone forward Brandao. Remy and the exciting Ghanaian winger Andre Ayew, one of the team's best players this season, were on the flanks. Valbuena and Brandao scored and the team looked fluid and dangerous going forward.

This should be an exciting period in OM history but the fragility of the management structure cannot allow for too much long-term planning. Deschamps told a news conference on Thursday that he won't want any January signings "knowing the finances of the club" but if he changes his mind, it could herald another internecine battle.

Deschamps rejected an offer to speak to Liverpool last summer -- "I was flattered but I had already given my commitment to OM," he told a press conference -- but you sense that if any more trouble flares with Anigo, Louis-Dreyfus or Dassier, he may find it easier to leave at the end of this season. By then, there's a good chance he'll have led OM to another domestic title as well.

Clicky

Interesting read.... The article actually reminded me that Deschamps like Rafa also has a tendency to have issues with the men upstairs.

[Kenneth]

Do i really need to put 'i think' at the start of everything i type? An intelligent enough chap like you knows how to interpret things properly.

That said, Torres will definitely go. I'll be happy for you to come and tell me how wrong i was come next September, but i dont think i will be.

I wasn't disagreeing, just making reference to you response to Arn.

Torres probably will leave, but if you accept that Rafa ain't coming back for a minute, I don't think the next six months will be all that significant to the issue. Either way the question for him is does he want to stay and build with a new manager. Hence to say JH has just lost us Torres IS melodramatic IMO.

[Craig_H]

I wasn't disagreeing, just making reference to you response to Arn.

Torres probably will leave, but if you accept that Rafa ain't coming back for a minute, I don't think the next six months will be all that significant to the issue. Either way the question for him is does he want to stay and build with a new manager. Hence to say JH has just lost us Torres IS melodramatic IMO.

Depends if you think we're capable of a top four challenge with a proper manager - i think we are and appointing one could give torres reason think we're not just standing still and accepting that the season is **** - could make him think we are actually trying to progress and move forwards.

All he can see if Hodgson stays, is the acceptance of a write-off season. That's not really likely to tally with his own idea of ambition.

[Kenneth]

But maybe getting Rafa in isn't either. Been there, done that etc. If not rafa, I can't think of someone who would join now and be a sign of ambition.

[Craig_H]

But maybe getting Rafa in isn't either. Been there, done that etc. If not rafa, I can't think of someone who would join now and be a sign of ambition.

Much as i've said i want rafa in - i do. But the priority is that the old duffer must go. He is the biggest obstacle between us keeping people like Torres.

Fact is, NESV keep sitting on their arses. And by doing so, they will be pushing Torres out the exit door. What message does keeping Hodgson send to Torres, regarding about whether this is a progressive, ambitious club which wont settle for failure, or whether it's a passive club, which accepts ****?