Rebuilding necessary - French boss

French football league president Frederic Thiriez believes the hype surrounding the announcement of the next national team manager must not overshadow the rebuilding job the new man has in front of him.

The identity of the new coach is expected to be made public on Monday with Jean Tigana and Laurent Blanc reportedly the front-runners although Glenn Hoddle, Raymond Domenech and Bruno Metsu have also thrown their hats into the ring.

All the candidates have been interviewed and Thiriez insists that the plans to rebuild the team are far more important than the reputation of whoever succeeds Jacques Santini.

He said: “I am annoyed that people only seem to be interested in the name of the new coach, because whoever he is, he won’t be the messiah. The national coach is not General de Gaulle or Joan of Arc.

“The most important thing is not the name of the new boss but his long-term project that will be set up to rebuild a competitive side, capable of winning trophies again.”

France failed to erase the memory of their disastrous 2002 World Cup campaign when they crashed out of the European Championships at the quarter-final stage to eventual winners Greece, and Thiriez hopes that lessons have been learned from the disappointments.

He added: “We failed in 2002 and then there was Euro 2004. It is not by gathering the best European stars that you can have a great team.

“The coach needs time to reconstruct the squad with young talents. This is what Jacques Santini had started and it is a shame he did not continue.

“I don’t want to get rid of the ‘old’ players but we have Jerome Rothen, Bernard Mendy, Sidney Govou, Benoit Pedretti, Patrice Evra and Pegguy Luyindula.

“They are the future of the national team. We have the greatest chance in the world to have young talents with fantastic potential.”