By Andrew Warshaw
November 21 – Former French national coach Raymond Domenech, who had a much-publicised fallout with his squad, has launched a rare and astonishing attack on the players concerned, branding Franck Ribéry a “diva”, Samir Nasri a “symbol of selfishness” and accusing Nicolas Anelka of “killing” team spirit.
In his memoirs Tout Seul (“All by Myself”) based on a diary he kept during his bitter six-year spell as French coach from 2004 to 2010, Domenech (pictured top) exposed major rifts with the players describing them as “a bunch of imbeciles”.
When Anelka was sent home for verbally abusing Domenech at halftime during the 2-0 group stage loss to Mexico at the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the entire squad went on strike, wrecking any hope of success as France finished bottom of their group.
“He killed the group,” Domenech said of Anelka (pictured below, right).
“He insulted me at halftime of the Mexico match when I hadn’t stopped fighting on his behalf…he killed the squad.
“After the match, he was laughing along with [defender William] Gallas.
“What insensibility.
“Were they happy to lose?
“I have no energy left.
“I don’t like them anymore.”
“I’ve had enough of their tantrums,” Domenech wrote.
“This team is completely incapable of transcending itself and I’m certainly to blame for something.
“I got it all wrong.
“I feel humiliated to have got it so wrong.”
However, he acknowledged that he made wrong team selections, not least Ribéry.
“He was prone to take offence at everything”, Domenech writes about the Bayern Munich winger, who said last week his club was more important than France.
“A senior player at the 2008 European Championship finals had warned me about Ribéry but I gave him the keys of the team.
“What a fool I am…”
The avuncular Domenech, renowned for his love of books and the theatre and coming out with classic phrases during press conferences, also took a swipe at Nasri (pictured below), now at Manchester City, and Karim Benzema both of whom were dropped before the World Cup.
“I did not call up [Nasri] in 2010 because I had the same problems with him two years before,” he said.
“He always points at anything that can trouble the group – in that he is no use in a squad.”
Nasri was banned for three games for insulting a reporter at the 2012 UEFA European Championship and current France coach Didier Deschamps has not called him up since taking charge in July.
“I couldn’t bear to hear everyone giving their opinion on everything,” Domenech wrote.
“I just wanted to be sick, to cry, to leave.”
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