Kiss Him Goodbye: Esperance Loses Zouaoui, Calls on Cabral… Again

May 5th, 2008 | by: Rami |

Reports from Tunis indicate that Youssef Zouaoui has resigned from his post at Esperance as of this afternoon. Citing unrealistic fan expectations that led to rising pressure on the players and staff, the coach decided to take his leave from the Red and Gold outfit. Hamdi Meddeb, the team president, has turned to none other than Brazilian Carlos Cabral, a man who he fired at the beginning of the season after a series of results that were deemed unacceptable.

The divorce between Zouaoui and Taraji marks another letdown for Esperance supporters who have seen their team struggle mightily after getting used to dominating Tunisia and Africa at large for so long. Given their troubles, you would expect their recent cup derby victory over Club Africain to have satisfied some of them and given Zouaoui more time to work in peace.

The manner of the victory, a beautifully taken Eneramo strike in the dying second of injury time was especially sweet and the celebrations would have had you believing things weren’t going so bad. However, consecutive league losses to CA and Bizerte proved otherwise. Plus that embarrassingly heavy away loss to a second divsion Moroccan side, Rachad Bernoussi, wasn’t exactly a good omen for the rest of the season.

Opinions about Zouaoui vary widely depending on who you talk to but I was under the impression that things were moving in the right direction. The team has boatloads of money and an almost unrivaled reputation on the continent. Most importantly, there is a great deal of talent in the squad with such notable players as the aforementioned Eneramo, set piece master Kamel Zaiem, left foot Moroccan cannon Hicham Aboucherouane, and Mr. Reliable Khaled Badra. Couple that with promising young talent (Darraji, Ayari, Derbali) and new mercato signings (Bienvenue and Mzali) and you have the makings of a pretty decent team.

In addition, there’s rumors U17 starlet Youssef Msakni is waiting out his amateur contract with Stade Tunisien in Dubai and is set to return in Taraji colors next year. So it’s not all doom and gloom really. One fair criticism of Zouaoui is that he never settled on a starting eleven and was always tinkering with the lineup, hurting continuity. Besides that I didn’t see much wrong…

Nevertheless, the choice of Cabral strikes me as somewhat odd given that the consensus when I was in Tunis this past summer was that he wasn’t the right guy for the job. Even so, it has to be said that he never benefited from an injury free squad. We’ll see if he can continue the rebuilding process for the sleeping giant of Tunisian football. The name Esperance remains as recognizable and prestigious as ever but will their results reflect this? Patience is in short supply among the die hard mkach5as, we’ll see what they think of this…

In Other News

Speaking of Esperance, Ahmed Hammi is on the verge of signing with FC Sion of Switzerland. Funny it should happen just as Zouaoui is leaving. Hammi hasn’t enjoyed playing out of position since joining Taraji so this move to Europe comes just in time. We wish him all the best of course!

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Yassine

Esperance shouldn’t fire Cabral from the beginning, if they’ve been patient with him he would’ve achieved good results.
Rami is Ahmed Hammi’s move to FC Sion confirmed?
http://tunisia.worldcupblog.org/ Rami

Hey Yassine, Mosaique FM said that him and his agent met with representatives from FC Sion at the Golden Tulip in Gammarth yesterday and there’s a pre contract put in place with all the details ironed out. They still need to talk to Esperance though so it’s not a done deal but hopefully the move isn’t blocked.
Yassine

Thanks Rami.
Adel Chedli also played on Sion this season. Apparently they couldn’t replace him as Hammi and Chedli are both defensive midfeilders.
Rachid

Makes me wonder if Esperance know what they’re doing! Seven coaches in one year, it’s a bit much. I’m amazed at how impatient their leadership is; they seem to expect miracles to happen right away, whether from players or coaches. Countless players that proved their worth in other teams joined Esperance only to see their careers destroyed (the guy from Gafsa is a good example; whatever happened to him?). At the same time, others who were average players with Esperance became success stories with other teams (Ben Radhia is a good example). This points to the possibility that the real problem is with their leadership: they need to have a consistent approach! These quick fixes do not work well in the long term! Good luck to all.

P.S. I think l’Etoile should nail Kais Yaakoubi’s ass to the wall. His call to Dimanche Sport was a desperate act after “leading” Gabes in their worst game during the entire season (and you guys want this guy to be an assistant coach to the national team!!!). He should be ashamed of himself.
Seif Kobrosly

Hey Rami, sorry for the delay finals are killing me well I play in Arlington,VA called the American Leauge of Arlington which is very hard and I need to find a partner to do intense hardcore running and training.
http://tunisia.worldcupblog.org/ Rami

No worries Seif, I know how finals can get. I don’t know if I’m the ideal candidate for hardcore running and training given my work schedule and just life in general (girlfriend, travel etc.) but sometimes we need extra people on our team so if you’re up for it I can get at you through your email and we can see about that. its not guaranteed but we have needed extras before. other than that if there’s ever a pickup game or smthn on the weekends we can try and get together for that. i try to stay in shape as best as I can (i miss my high school lungs!) but when the real world hits, it’s kind of hard!