The cruel reality of the world is that people of many talents have their lives and careers reduced to a single sentence.
Exhibit A - Raymond Domenech, the man who didn't pick Robert Pires because he is a Scorpio.
Domenech had a fine playing career and made eight appearances for France, but will forever be remembered as the star-gazing manager whose stars went on strike at the 2010 World Cup.
He's in Derry this week, coaching the clubs Under-17s and Under-19s as the head of the President of the National Union of French Coaches.
As a result, he's been speaking to the Derry Journal, the full results of which can be read here.
Domenech, currently the manager of the Brittany national team, told the paper that he would like to manage Ireland one day - "I always said if I had the possibility one day to train the national team I would".
He went on to reveal that this almost happened in the past, as he was on the FAI's three-man shortlist to succeed Mick McCarthy before the job ultimately went to Brian Kerr.
I was contacted before I took the French national team job by the Irish Federation and they chose Brian Kerr which was a good choice. I was very interested then and I’m still interested because I like the spirit of Irish. I remember when we won in Ireland in 2005 after the game I had to go to the media and it was near the stands. I had to cross in front of all the spectators. In France they would never do that because you never know what would happen.
But the Irish were all shaking my hand. They had respect and they are fighters so I like the spirit. I saw that in Paris some years after. But I like that. Martin O’Neill is a great manager and I’m sure he will be there for a long time. Everything in the past is finished but I still appreciate the spirit of this country.
Good to see that the French are still patronising the Irish spirit after they CHEATED US OUT OF A WOR-sorry, we're almost over it.
When conversation eventually led on to how France subsequently stank out the 2010 World Cup, with the players refusing to train and staying on the team bus in protest at a bewildered and befuddled management team, Domenech told the paper that he had written a book and drawn a line under the whole story.
He did so by branding those who rebelled against him "imbeciles".
Thierry Henry does not come out of Domenech's account looking well. When Nicolas Anelka ranted at Domenech at half-time during a 2-0 defeat to Mexico, details of his diatribe appeared in L'Equipe the following day. Domenech suspected that Thierry Henry had leaked the details of it all, but then accused Henry of making it appear that it was the manager who had been blathering.
Evra thought he was the mole in the dressing room but then he (Henry) managed to turn everyone around, he even managed to suggest that I might be the mole.
As for Franck Ribery....
Ribery doesn’t like Gourcuff, that’s for sure. Before the Uruguay match, I told Gourcuff: ‘You have the keys to the match, it’s down to you". The worst thing was Franck Ribery’s look. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but in his eyes I saw hatred, contempt or jealousy.
He’s the same as Anelka and Henry, everything revolves around their belly buttons. When things go wrong, they’re the first to jump ship. A senior player warned me about (Ribery) in 2008; and me, I gave him the keys to (the team).
What a moron I am.
The strike, and that remarkable piece of French football history, is told in a superb documentary entitled Les Bleus: Une Autre Histoire de France. More details of that can be read here.
