Nantes (AFP)

The unusual Domenech parenthesis quickly closed, it is Antoine Kombouaré, former defender of the Canaries and accustomed to complicated missions, who tackles Thursday the challenge of meeting FC Nantes in full rout.

The new coach will be presented to the press on Thursday at 11:30 am, accompanied by Franck Kita, deputy director of the club and son of Waldemar Kita, the businessman owner and president of FC Nantes since 2007.

Neither Franck nor Waldemar Kita had come for the presentation of Domenech at the end of December.

Yet it is they, much more than the former coach of the Blues, that many supporters boast during regular gatherings, on the walls of the city or when a handful of them had broadcast circus music during the first Domenech training.

Now 18th in Ligue 1 and virtual barrage, pitifully eliminated Wednesday in the Coupe de France by Lensois without complexes (4-2) and bruised by a record series of 16 games without a win, Nantes is plunged into an endless crisis.

Kombouaré has the advantage of knowing the place well: arrived in Nantes at the age of 19, he wore the club jersey between 1983 and 1990.

At 57, he returns to take up the challenge of becoming the 16th coach (not counting the interim ones) of the Kita era, and the 4th this season after Christian Gourcuff, a one-month interim of his assistant Patrick Collot and six weeks of Domenech.

- Success in Dijon, failure in Toulouse -

His mission: to try to avoid relegation to Ligue 2. Two years ago, he succeeded in Dijon: arrived in early January, he had allowed the Burgundy club to stay in Ligue 1 after play-offs against Lens.

The Kanak technician has also saved Valenciennes several times, but could not prevent the relegation of Lens in 2015, a season after bringing him up to the top.

He also failed to straighten Toulouse last season: TFC was last when he arrived and always last when he left in early January.

As a coach, he has also managed for a season and a half another of his former clubs as a player, Paris SG, which sacked him in December 2011 when the club in the capital, just bought by the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, was leading the L1.

He also passed through Strasbourg, Guingamp and Saudi Arabia.

During his Guingamp years - ended abruptly after a 5-0 defeat ... in Nantes at the end of 2018 -, Kombouaré had accompanied the revelation of Ludovic Blas, today one of the most gifted players of the FCN, even if Gourcuff regretted his carelessness and Domenech was wary of a propensity to want to solve everything alone.

- Six weeks for Domenech -

The former central defender will also have to tackle the case of Nicolas Pallois, "the rock" of the central hinge last season, inducted captain this season but now well below his level.

Suspended the last two matches because of an exclusion for dispute, he left at half-time Wednesday against Lens after a catastrophic performance.

For Raymond Domenech, who arrived at the end of December to everyone's surprise because he had not coached since the Knysna fiasco during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, it is another failure, with a record of brevity on the bench , even for Kita: six weeks, seven matches and no victory.

His optimistic speech even after the failed matches, insisting on the need to rediscover the pleasure of playing and his confidence in the qualities of his players, had no effect on the pitch.

And his exit from the stage did not escape surrealism: placed in solitary confinement following a positive Covid-19 test, and despite a negative retest, he had given way on the bench to Patrick Collot Wednesday.

According to the latter, he continued to give his instructions from his hotel room, even as news of his dismissal, released just before the match, spread in the media.

© 2021 AFP