Getting close to the vulnerable stage

World Cup qualifiers: At first glance he is an Irish interviewer's dream. It is, after all, 31 years since Raymond Domenech, then a combative midfielder with Lyon made his international debut for France against the Republic of Ireland in Paris, 15 since, having moved on to coaching his hometown club, he brought the distinctly uncontinental Mick McCarthy to the Stade de Gerland, and two since he was linked with the job held by Brian Kerr.

Not long into our conversation at the French Football Federation's offices 200 metres from the Arc de Triomphe, it becomes clear the amiable, articulate 52-year-old has little to say, apart from that the pair remain friendly, about McCarthy's largely unsuccessful time in the French league.

He is also distinctly vague about his candidacy for the role of national coach with the Republic. At the time FAI officials suggested he was under consideration and he admits "what first attracted me to the post was the people, the idea of living there because it is a country I love although I was told by friends that I would spend my time in England looking at players".

Nevertheless he insists he did no more than acknowledge his interest after being linked with the vacancy in the media and denies actually having applied for the post.

More surprisingly, he has no recollection at all of the 1-1 draw at the Parc des Princes where he first represented his country. "I remember nothing about it," he laughs. "Nothing at all. I know the score but only because I read it somewhere. This is not the first time I have been asked about it recently but I would prefer to forget."

Since emerging from the shadows of runaway favourites Laurent Blanc and Jean Tigana during the summer to take over a troubled France team from Jacques Santini thanks, he says, to the patronage of Aime Jacquet, he has not enjoyed the easiest of times.

Half a dozen stars have retired, most of them from the group that were crowned champions of the World and Europe in 1998 and 2000, respectively, but expectations remain high in a country that has grown used to huge success. The new man's contract requires not only he guides his team to the World Cup finals but also that, once there, the French are not eliminated before the semi-finals.

"There is," he says, "almost a law now that France must do well in the World Cup," says Domenech who concedes he could be gone long before then if his team cannot improve on performances in their opening two qualifying games that yielded a goalless draw at home to Israel and a distinctly unimpressive 2-0 win in the Faroe Islands. Asked when he feels his position might start to become vulnerable in the absence of an upturn he smiles and replies, "After the Irish."

Next week's home game should have been a rather straightforward affair for the French but the departure of key players like Lllian Thuram, Zinedine Zidane and Claude Makalele combined with the suspension of Patrick Vieira and the Benoit Pedretti's knee injury have obliged Domenech to throw many relatively unknown players into the limelight.

After more than a decade as coach of the national under-21 team he knows those he is dealing with well and Fabian Barthez was the only one of the established players not to have previously played under him. He has been unable to persuade any of those who retired to change their minds, however, even on Thursday when he made last-minute pleas over the phone to Thuram, Zidane and Makalele.

"On the one hand I respect what they are doing," he says. "It is a pivotal point in their career and they have been logical enough to say that they cannot do everything. But I think that it does real damage to the international game that you can have so many players at major European clubs, players winning the Champions League for their clubs but not playing with their national teams, it's something that I think FIFA and UEFA have to look at.

"In the meantime we must win without them. Other coaches can look towards the European Championship in Austria and Switzerland but for me that is not an option. I must win with the players I have now not the ones in six months or a year. The problem is that a whole generation here has spent their time watching France become World and European champions from the stand. They have watched rather than played and that has been bad for them.

"Behind them are another generation who have proven they can win and I think the present generation will be passed out by those coming behind but for now they must become international players without the time, the 10 games or more that are required to make that transition properly."

Domenech may not have been helped in his attempts to win over the remaining senior figures within the squad by the reputation he has acquired as something of a disciplinarian. Instructions that players should turn off mobile phones at specified times, wear shin pads during training and attend regular meetings where collective and individual performances are analysed are all reportedly going down badly. The players feel they are being treated like the youngsters the coach looked after for so long.

The parallels with Kerr's situation are obvious and, like the Irishman, he insists what he has done is to aim for an open dialogue with players before taking ultimate responsibility for the decisions to be made.

Still, disputes with some prominent players have spilt into the public arena including a spat with Robert Pires over tactics, the gist of which was the Arsenal player preferred 4-4-2 to the 3-5-2 employed against Israel, although neutral observers claim the 31-year-old's primary concern is his own starting place which is far less secure in a five-man midfield.

The quarrel obliged Domenech to visit London for a meeting with Pires and Thierry Henry before it was patched up but the coach says such consultation is a daily part of his job. "If you simply tell players what to do they will say, 'yes, yes, yes' and the go out and do what they want themselves. But if you talk with them then there may be some compromise but the results will be better in the end.

"Consultation," he adds, "is not a sign of weakness. This is what life is like in a team, in every team. You know about it in Ireland too, just look at Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane."

Reminded McCarthy ultimately lost his job as a result of the fall-out from his clash with the Manchester United star he grins. "What he did get before that? Six years? If I get that I'll be happy."

There are other tensions within the squad but with Vieira missing Domenech's overriding concern just now is the lack of a tough, ball-winning midfielder. Someone, perhaps, in his own likeness.

In style and attitude, Gael Givet, the Monaco defender who earned two of his three international caps in the opening qualifiers is, reckons the coach, the closest thing available to him. "He never gives up, he has the qualities of a fighter and a team needs that, it helps to bring the others together."

His own qualities in this department were exceeded only by his reputation as a tough man, one he cultivated from the day, on his debut for Lyon as an 18-year-old, he was blamed for breaking an opposing player's leg. "I didn't do it but there was no television in those days and the papers all said I was responsible so for weeks I was booed and hissed wherever I went. In the end it helped me because people came to fear me even before they saw me play."

Within a couple of years he was a senior international.

His efforts at enhancing his reputation extended to wearing a huge moustache ("to hide his great sensitivity", he has said previously), which went as soon as he moved into coaching. "It was the fashion at the time, too," he smiles, "but it was part of the image I wanted to convey for my football and when I became a coach I didn't need it anymore."

Evidence of his softer side includes his reputation as a devoted father - his youngest daughter, Victoire, was born just hours after he was told he had been appointed to the French job - a qualification in neuro-linguistic programming and a decent stage CV. He has featured in a number of serious theatrical productions and also in a television feature.

"When I gave up playing football I missed the public, the audience and the feeling of being a part of a team," he says. "A coach is like a director and I wanted the feeling of being on the field back again. I enjoy it immensely. In football there is room for mistakes and improvisation but in the theatre everybody's performance affects the others. It is more demanding and more stressful but for that reason it is also more interesting."

For now, he says, he has left the stage behind him because "the people confuse the two characters on the stage, the coach and the actor". When he has more time, however, it is clear he intends to return to what is much more than a mere hobby.

In the meantime, it seems, he is well regarded and widely liked amongst the media and the wider French population, most of whom appear to believe he should be given the time he needs to bring through a new generation of players. With his employers placing an immediate restoration of the national team's fortunes high on their agenda, however, he knows that soon he could be free to tread the boards again "after the Irish".