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Musical coaches Ten League One clubs entering season with new bossesPosted: Monday July 29, 2002 10:06 PMPARIS (Reuters) -- The French soccer transfer market has been as quiet as the Paris stock exchange on Bastille day -- except for the sound of the coaches playing musical chairs. Of the 20 clubs in League One -- the new name for the first division -- 10 will kick off the season with a new boss on Saturday. The winner of this frantic game got the job of national coach, the loser spent 48 hours in jail. Rolland Courbis, after two days' detention, was banned from football by magistrates investigating a case of alleged fraud and forgery when he was coaching Olympique Marseille between 1997 and 1999. Promoted Ajaccio will consequently travel to Strasbourg for their first top-level game in 29 years without a coach. The winner of the musical chairs competition was Jacques Santini -- but he has also often played snakes and ladders. The former Saint Etienne captain had been out of work for two years when Olympique Lyon appointed him as their sports director in 1997. Two years later he became coach before guiding the club to victory in the French League Cup -- their first honor in 28 years -- in 2000 and to the French League championship title -- their first ever -- last season. Bad results Three days after Lyon won the title, he asked to be relieved of his coaching duties saying he had grown tired of the pressure of professional coaching and again became the club's technical director. But this was only stepping back to jump forward as Santini was named France national coach this month, succeeding Roger Lemerre who was sacked after France's World Cup failure. Lyon were quick to replace Santini with Paul Le Guen, a former Paris St Germain central defender who took up coaching with Stade Rennes but was sacked for bad results two years ago. Olympique Marseille, always the most flamboyant club in France whatever their results, had, of course, to dance a few steps of the coaches' waltz. Bernard Tapie left, to be succeeded by Alain Perrin and in the move Troyes lost the emblematic coach who steered them back to the first division in 1999 and to qualification for the Intertoto Cup last season. Perrin was replaced by Jacky Bonnevay who had been coaching second division Beauvais since 1999. At Stade Rennes, businessman Francois Pinault sacked his chairman, sports director and coach Alain Gourcuff for bad results. Gourcuff's successor was Philippe Bergeroo, a former assistant to Aime Jacquet during the 1998 World Cup campaign who had been in the wilderness for several years after being sacked as Paris St Germain manager. Former Marseille and Bordeaux coach Gerard Gili also came out of retirement to take charge of Bastia. Promoted Nice choose former Girondins Bordeaux player and coach Gernot Rohr. Do or die Sochaux attracted Guy Lacombe who was tired of coaching on a shoestring budget and left En Avant Guingamp where he was succeeded by Bertrand Marchand, a former assistant coach with Stade Rennes. In Lille, the departure of Vahid Halilodzic drove supporters to despair. In four years, the Bosnian-born coach had led the club from the second division to a Champions League first-round victory over Manchester United. But he said he could do no more because of the lack of money and quit. Succeeding him will not be an easy task for Claude Puel who was sacked by Monaco when they offered the 1998 World Cup-winning captain Didier Deschamps his first job as a coach. Deschamps is one of the 10 coaches who survived the summer break but a stormy meeting with club chairman Jean-Louis Campora showed him that his job could be under threat unless he delivers results after failing to win a trophy or even to get qualification for a European competition. Pressure is also on Luis Fernandez as Paris St Germain are without a league title since 1994 and failed to qualify for the Champions League last season. The other survivors are Joel Muller (Lens), Guy Roux (AJ Auxerre), Elie Baup (Girondins Bordeaux), Angel Marcos (Nantes), Michel Mezy (Montpellier), Henri Stambouli (Sedan), Jean-Francois Domergue (Le Havre) and Ivan Hasek (Strasbourg).
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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