The new Nantes coach Raymond Domenech gave a press conference on Thursday in which he expressed his joy at finding "the smell of the lawn when you are in the middle of the field".

He unveiled his ideas to restore FC Nantes which is going through a bad period and ranks, for the moment, 16th in Ligue 1.

"What I wanted to rediscover is the smell of the lawn when you're in the middle of the field, there are no words (...) it's a pleasure to be there" : for his official presentation as Nantes coach, Raymond Domenech hammered on Thursday his pleasure to reconnect with the field after ten years of absence, even if his club is at a worrying 16th place in Ligue 1. 

For a good hour, Domenech, very relaxed, put his card on the table and tackled all the subjects, even those who may have annoyed him (but who no longer annoy him, he assured) like the fiasco of the team from France at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

"I'm happy, it's a real pleasure, I was on the other side (as a consultant), maybe I understand your problems better, I hope not to reproduce my mistakes", he said. he launched to reporters.

Before detailing his philosophy to try to ensure the future in L1 of FC Nantes, which has three points ahead of the first relegation.

"I am in the sharing, I am happy that Mr. Kita gave me this function. The first thing that I want is to find pleasure again, it is for this team to be happy and joyful, that it coaches behind it the club, its supporters, "hoped the former coach of the France team (2004-10) who said he had refused several coaching positions in the past for" personal reasons ".

"Offer something coherent to this team"

Raymond Domenech, who at 68 became the dean of L1 coaches, refused to set a goal of results for this six-month mission which he accepted "immediately" when it was offered to him.

"The objective is to give pleasure, to offer something coherent to this team. I am always amazed when we say 'You have to be 10th, European or not to come down', you have to agree first. on the way to do things ", insisted the former coach of Lyon (1988-93), his only experience as a club coach of the French elite.

"I'm not worried, I want it to go well on the field, we are moving forward, the players are well in the spirit, they are happy, with a lot of joy and desire", he said continued after the first supervised sessions alongside a loyal physical trainer Robert Duverne.

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Even the heavy Nantes context, with the hostility of supporters towards their chairman and shareholder Waldemar Kita, who denounced the day before during the first training session of the Domenech era the "Kita Circus", does not seem to frighten Domenech. " In all the clubs there are problems. There are worries everywhere, but in the clubs which are in front, if everything was rosy, you would have nothing more to write, "he told reporters. .

"I don't know anyone in this club who wants it not to work, everyone wants it to work," insisted Domenech, who will lead his first match on January 6 at home against the great Breton rival of Rennes at La Beaujoire. 

The 2010 World Cup: "I feel like it was another life"

The new Nantes coach has never lost his smile, even when he was reminded that he had expressed his disagreement in 2017 about the appointment as head of FC Nantes of Claudio Ranieri, then elderly 66 years old, two years younger than him.

"It's a real misunderstanding (...) I do not have the impression of having returned my jacket. I reacted as president of UNECATEF (union of coaches, Editor's note). The text is illegal, you cannot prohibit someone over 65 from working, ”he said.

As for the 2010 World Cup, the Knysna fiasco and the strike by France team players, "I feel like it was another life." "I turned this page ago a long, long time. I got rid of this label, I took pleasure again (...) I live with the present, I hammer it ", he concluded, as if to encourage his players to forget the first part of the season and to keep hope.