Domenech navigating stormy waters

THE wind and rain was of King Lear proportions outside the French team’s Dublin hotel last night but the storm clouds have never been far from Raymond Domenech during his five years in charge of Les Bleus.

Dismal performances at the start of the 2006 World Cup, and again in Euro 2008, left him perilously close to the exit door and he flirted with the sack yet again last September after a 3-1 defeat in Austria.

A stay of execution was earned in Bucharest a month later when a draw was salvaged from a 2-0 deficit but the 57-year-old remains on shaky ground with France’s World Cup future still in the melting pot.