Lemerre on the Way Out: It’s Officially Almost Official

February 12th, 2008 | by: Rami |

According to Jawhara FM report, a closed meeting happened today between Tahar Sioud, the president of FTF, and Roger Lemerre in which they decided to “part amicably.” Frankly, I’ve been kind of confused about this whole situation as it has not been very transparent and most places I usually get my information aren’t really going into much depth about the situation. I just assumed where there’s smoke, there is fire. Sure enough, this time I think the information may be more reliable as one of the interviewees on the show was the treasurer of the FTF. I usually believe the guys who monitor the money, because they like to know when they need to stop writing checks for people.

Amongst the other revelations of this report from Jawhara FM is that the next coach is almost certainly going to be a foreigner. The treasurer says in passing that this is something that 90% of the FTF members agree on. They even have coaches in mind which is reassuring because after watching the this sundays edition of Dimanche Sport, I was sure that these people had no clue what to do next. No news on who is on the shortlist but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Once this news is on the front of La Presse, Le Temps, and other Tunisian newspapers we will be able to put this matter to rest. For now I’m just glad we’re starting to turn the page (maybe). Morocco, the Emirates, and Senegal are said to be lining up bids once this is all finalized.

What do you guys think about our next coach likely being a foreigner? I know that from my Tunisie-Foot readings it’s a hotly contested issue. Some believe that we need a Tunisian who knows the environment already and needs no adaptation time while others worry that a Tunisian will be biased towards his former club in his selections. I honestly don’t know how I feel. I worry that a Tunisian coach would not be taken seriously by some players and staff members. Plus the pressure on him would be so immense that he could crack under it. Sometimes it’s better not to understand what they write in the newspapers I think! That’s not to say that nobody can do it… It’s just so far we haven’t done much with our countrymen. If we’re looking to model ourselves after Egypt though, this wouldn’t be the correct way to go about it right?

Update! Update! Lemerre Staying After All?

Just to make things more confusing. There’s a report out of Mosaique FM and Infosfoot saying that Lemerre is staying until June to finish out his contract. This is getting annoying.

Tunisian Internationals Gearing up for UEFA Cup Action

Lots of storylines in the UEFA Cup this week as Karim Haggui is likely to return from the injury that forced him out of the Cameroon game (glad it’s not serious) while Yassine Chikhaoui will be out to impress the onlooking Hamburg recruiters who are already rumored to be highly interested (who isn’t?). Another compelling dynamic to that match will be the Egyptian wonder Zidan coming back into the squad. He wanted to take some time off but Hamburg wasn’t having any of that.

We haven’t heard much from Tijani Belaid since he left for Paris after the nightmare that started on New Years Day but I hope he is doing better and that we maybe catch a sighting of him on Thursday. I still have high hopes for that kid. Let’s not forget that he’s the first Tunisian to score in the Champions League.

Jawhar Mnari hasn’t been getting consistent first team action this season so I’m wondering how much he will figure in his match but it’d be nice for him to get some run. I thought he had an average African Cup of Nations. His work rate has dropped a little and he just didn’t seem the same to me. You could blame this on him getting a little older but I think some more playing time with his club will go a long way to bringing him back to 2004 levels.

Wednesday February 13, 2008

Galatasaray – Bayer Leverkusen (Karim Haggui)
Anderlecht – Bordeaux (David Jemmali injured)

Thursday February 14, 2008

FC Zurich – Hamburg SV (Yassine Chikhaoui)
Slavia Prague – Tottenham (Tijani Belaïd)
Benfica Lisbonne – FC Nuremberg (Jawhar Mnari)

Tunisia-Cote d’Ivoire?

Rumblings of a Tunisia vs. Cote d’Ivoire game on March 26. The source they list is Dimanche sport but I watched it and don’t remember them mentioning it, perhaps it was towards the end or I somehow skipped over it. Also, I’ve been skeptical of our announced friendlies for reasons that have been well documented on this blog (Morocco, Egypt, Iran all falling through at the last minute). We’ll wait and see. In theory it’s a great matchup. I’d love to see it actually happen.

Some More Tidbits

Saber on Jawhara FM before leaving for France: The ending is priceless

Soiree CAN ridiculousness: This has caused outrage amongst a lot of people who found it to be in bad taste. I think some of it is funny but he definitely crossed the line on a lot of issues.

Tunisia World Cup Team Blog RSS Feed

Rachid

I would not model ourselves after the Egyptians. Very soon they may not qualify for the World Cup (they usually don’t) and then they’ll say we need a foreigner. I actually heard that argument before! We’re not far off from the target; we just need to build upon the existing team and have a coach who knows how to get the most out of them! I hope with Lemerre goes away the stupid theory that anyone who plays in Europe is by default a great player and should be in the national team. That should be one of the lessons learned! We have lots of talent that was left bitter in Tunisia, that could have helped our chances in Ghana, but let’s not cry over spilt milk!!! Tunisia will be back and we will have our day(s) in the spotlight!!! Aymen!
http://tunisia.worldcupblog.org/ Rami

I’ll be honest and say that I hope Egypt does make it to the world cup… as long as it’s not at our expense. I also don’t endorse using them as a model to the letter but in terms of European bench warmers not getting on the team they’re the perfect example. I share your frustrations about that aspect of our selection “process” (ie Lemerre picking whoever the hell he wants regardless of club form). A team comprised of our local stars peppered with our European based players who are actually in form and in shape (Chikhaoui, Haggui, Nafti, Ben Saada) would have probably gone a lot farther. Thing is (and I forgot to add this in the post because I wrote it so fast), if we had went to the Semifinals the treasurer said that Lemerre’s contract would have automatically been extended 2 years! There’s a stipulation in the old contract saying so. So maybe the football gods were on our side in the end? Inshallah we get a coach who can give our team an offensive mindset and a nice interplay. Even if the results don’t come right away I want to see improvement in our style of play. We have two years but the work starts now.
http://www.worldcupblog.org/daily-dose/daily-dose-21308.html Daily Dose 2.13.08 – World Cup Blog – African Cup of Nations 2008

[...] Where there’s smoke, there’s Lemerre getting fired (Tunisia Blog) [...]
realjsk

Now we need some sniffing to find out who will be the next coach. At this time of the year it is difficult to find a free good coach. I hope our FTF does not settle on just about any coach they could grab to fill the gap. Because that would be really disastrous especially with they way they deal with contracts!