It’s Official: Lemerre is Addicted to Couscous!

May 14th, 2008 | By: Rami | 5 Comments »

I’ve speculated about this before and I think Roger Lemerre’s latest decision proves it once and for all. Four years in Tunisia gave him a taste for the stuff and once you grow accustomed to such delicacies, packing up your bags and heading home is practically impossible (why do you think they colonized us in the first place!). With his contract about to expire on June 30th, Lemerre has his next destination all figured out: The Kingdom of Morocco.

There couldn’t be an easier transition for the big guy. Both countries are francophone, have temperate climates and feature beautiful beaches, have strong leagues with talented players, are in the midst of continued economic development with good infrastructure in place, and are welcoming to foreigners. I’ve thanked and dissed this man enough in the past so I won’t go on an unnecessary spiel about what he meant to us. There was good, there was bad, and that’s that.

But where does this leave us? We’re in the midst of negotiations with Santini that absolutely terrify me and the guy we were counting on in case those talks fell through, Vahid Halilhodzic, just signed with the Elephants of Cote D’Ivoire. Both coaches are inferior to Lemerre (in titles and style) so there was nothing to get excited about in the first place.

This is particularly frustrating when you take into consideration the pool of players we have at our disposal. Every morning I wake up dreading the headline: “Santini Signs with Tunisia.” I think I’m going to cry (or punch something) when it happens. Someone needs to stop kidding themselves with this BS, Santini’s best run was when he was with Lyon and since then he hasn’t done anything worth mentioning. Trying to call him an improvement over Lemerre is an exercise in futility. The same scenario went down with the French NT and that experiment finished badly.

Can we resurrect those talks with Marchand? Prolly not. Will we put faith in a Tunisian coach? Prolly not. Will we have a coach on July 1st? That, my friend, remains to be seen!

I find it funny that some people are breathing a sigh of relief at Lemerre’s departure because we’ve been left with nothing. I wanted him to go also but I’d take him over Santini any day of the week. He will surely frustrate Moroccans with plenty of his decisions like he did with us but I bet you he will get them results. They’re missing exactly what he can supply: solidity in midfield and defense and tactical awareness. They might lose some of their free flowing football but we all saw how that alone doesn’t get you places in Africa. They’ll do some things, at least before he inevitably wears out his welcome.

Somebody wake me up when this is all over.

Tags: Bertrand Marchand, Roger Lemerre, Santini, Tunisia Football, Tunisia Soccer

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Comments

By Rachid | May 14th, 2008 at 6:50 pm

Rami, I’m finally feeling a bit over l’Etoile’s unexpected loss. Good luck to our big four in the CAF.

When Morocco did badly in the very recent games in Ghana, their main conclusion was that they should rely on a Moroccan coach along with more local players. Now, their decision to hire Lemerre goes COMPLETELY against that theory. I’m very interested to see if he gets good results with them, although I highly doubt it. I don’t think he’s going to change his ways; he’s 66 years old, after all! As for our NT, things are really being done in a very lousy way by our FTF. Hopefully, they’ll stumble on the right person that meets their criteria (speak French and require little money!).

By Rami | May 15th, 2008 at 9:44 am

Welcome back Rachid, don’t feel too down about Etoile, these things happen to even the biggest clubs in the world. Both our teams will be back in the Champions League next year and hopefully we both fare much better. For now the CAF is not such a bad consolation. Especially since, as you noted, our big four are in there. I’m actually excited about that.

As for Lemerre, it’s just a gut feeling I have. Everyone is laughing and feeling bad for Moroccans on Tunisie foot and mosaique FM, saying that he’s gonna drive them crazy and they’re partially right but Lemerre does good things at the beginning when he takes over teams. He took over for France after the World Cup and won the Euro, took over for us before the African cup and we won it. So 2010 in Angola could be a good year for Morocco and they might just qualify for the World Cup too. Eventually the guy gets too strict in his selections and starts having run ins with the press that lead to a crappy mood around the federation and then the results will turn sour. He has the personality to whip an underachieving team into shape and then make everyone in the country hate his guts once they start doing badly. That’s just how I see it, obviously I could be wrong.

Whatever the case, it’s not the issue I’m most concerned with. I just heard on Cafe Sport (mosaique fm) that Santini is gonna be in Tunis on Tuesday to finalize the deal. I hope it’s not true…

Posted from United States

By Rachid | May 15th, 2008 at 7:22 pm

Rami, it looks like your wish became true! No Santini! But, then what??? Not sure how these folks back home work? This ain’t no way to run a national team!!! They should be fired for blatant incompetence!

By Fahd | May 16th, 2008 at 6:36 am

Rami,

As you know Le Grand Maghreb is still occupied by France from cultural and economic point of view. No surprises here!!!

Anyway today very good News SANTINI REFUSES TO COACH THE NATIONAL TEAM OF TUNISIA!!!! YOUR DREAM HAS COME TRUE YA RAMI!!!!!!1

As for the championship this weekend will be decisive!!! let’s hope for the best team to capture the title ( Ican’t say this enough))))

Ciao

We need benzarti to coach our National team ya rabbi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted from Netherlands