Deschamps in demand as Monaco poised

MONACO BOSS Didier Deschamps returns to former club Chelsea tomorrow with the plaudits of his fellow coaches ringing in his ears and lucrative job offers reportedly in his in-tray.

Deschamps has been voted France’s coach of the year by his peers and the diminutive former midfielder is still well in the hunt for the Champions League and the Ligue 1 title.

Second-placed Monaco are two points behind Lyon with four games remaining in France and poised for a place in the Champions League final.

Not everything in the garden is rosy for Monaco, however, and two of their regulars are doubtful for tomorrow night’s match at Stamford Bridge, where Deschamps spent a year as a player in the late 1990s.

French international midfielder Jerome Rothen and Croatian forward Dado Prso are both doubtful after picking up injuries during the 2-1 victory over Nice on Friday.

If Prso misses out, Deschamps will probably partner Fernando Morientes with Shabani Nonda. Born in Burundi but a Democratic Republic of Congo international, Nonda was Ligue 1’s top scorer with 26 goals last season.

He was ruled out of most of this season after picking up a cruciate ligament injury in August but returned to the fray last month and scored Monaco’s third against Chelsea with his first touch after coming on as a substitute.

Monte Carlo may be a millionaire’s playground but Deschamps has forged a team from cast-offs such as Real Madrid reject Morientes, promising youngsters and journeymen like 29-year-old Prso who has had a magnificent 18 months after a career previously spent in obscurity.

Monaco’s achievements were recognised at the player of the year awards with five players included in the all-star Ligue 1 team. The quintet were: defenders Patrice Evra and Sebastien Squillaci, midfielder Lucas Bernardi, striker Morientes and playmaker Ludovic Giuly, while Evra was also named Young Player of the Year.

Deschamps’ feats with Monaco have already attracted the attention of several top European clubs. It has been reported in the Italian press he has received an overture from Juventus to replace Marcello Lippi who will quit in the summer. Deschamps has reportedly refused the offer because he was not given the budget he wanted.

Meanwhile, Frank Lampard has revealed how Chelsea’s frustration at the way they lost the first leg has turned into determination to make it through to the final.

“We dominated almost until half-time and felt confident then we lost it 3-1 to 10 men, so it is understandable that people make a big deal out of it.

“But in time you calm down and the frustration turns into a determination to put it right.

“The way the game went it was obviously a bad result but if you put it into context, 3-1 away was not a terrible result Champions League-wise. We’ll have to set our stall out to be strong and believe we’ll take our chances, because we know we’ll create them.

“We have to believe we can still make it. We scored four goals against Southampton on Saturday and that will help us because we have confidence now. We have to make sure we don’t try all-out attack, we have to be clever and hopefully we’ll win the game.

“We need patience, belief and to take our chances. We have been strong at the back and if we can get a goal in the first half we can go on and win.”

He added: “We didn’t blame the manager, a lot of that came from outside. To give the manager credit he came out and said he made a mistake, but the players also made a mistake because in the second-half we were not the same team.

“The substitutions were made but we still had good players in every position. We have to take a lot of the blame.”