Also in the offing for PSG is Ludovic Giuly. At 32, he is a youngster to Thuram and Makelele, and should provide some width on the right that the club has lacked for awhile. He could also play as the second striker with Luyindula or Hoarau(or Pauleta if he returns). He will also hope that old friend Jerome Rothen will return to some sort of form he showed at Monaco with him, and that PSG can be a contender for the title this year.

With the signings of Hoarau and Sessegnon to add to these three veterans, PSG has put together a decent squad for the upcoming campaign. I still doubt their strength at right back, while a more creative central player wouldnt be a bad addition. Jimmy Brian’s protracted move keeps swaying back in forth between Rennes and PSG, so we will have to see about that, but for once, will PSG live up to the hype it gets? Or will it be battling relegation for yet another season? Cant wait for the season to get under way!

Also, I would like to announce that despite my partner in crime Sam taking copious amounts of time off (I am guilty here too, I was gone for like 3 months) to work on his band, his thriving life in Canada etc. I will be looking for a co-blogger as well. As my main priorities are of course with the Real Madrid page, I cant provide the content I would like to see on the main France page. If your interested, again, you know where to find me.

Now for the good stuff, I am going to begin a player profile once a week (hopefully) of interesting, and more importantly, lesser known players in Ligue 1. The posts will commence next week, with Mathieu Coutaduer starting us off. If you have a particular player you would like to know more about, let me know and I will see what I can do. Until then, have a good weekend.

So here is a lowdown of all the transfer activity that is going on in France right now as the country celebrates its birthday.

First, there is the hilarious, yet resounding move that Marseille fans have made by starting an online collection to raise the funds needed to buy Didier Drogba from Chelsea. Having raised only 1.5 million euros so far, that doesnt seem like happening. But the point has been raised, that Marseille fans dont agree with Pape Diouf and his small minded transfer moves (small because he wants to recruit tiny Baky Kone and the somewhat short Ben Arfa has already been added).

Next up, is the strange sequence of events that is Oscar Ewolo’s contract dispute/transfer plea with Lorient. He has said he was promised a new contract, but that has yet to materialize from the Lorient management, so he wants a transfer. But that has also been held up by some strange circumstances, most notable Lille’s ability to get Rio Mavuba from Vilarreal and Rennes ability to hold on to Stephane M’Bia. He look set to stay with Lorient this year and probably get a contract, but not in the time frame he wanted.

People are still linking Claude Makelele with PSG. I dont see how, its obvious Big Phil will use Mak often this upcoming year, but since Thuram signed, and Giuly looks a good bet to as well, then why not Claude. I give it a 1-100 chance, but you never know.

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Nice is being linked with RC Lens Aruna Dindane as a replacement for Baky Kone. If Dindane could stay healthy, this would be a very astute signing, but considering Lens relegation, the bargain bin clear out will have to happen eventually.

Sticking with Lens, Olivier Monterubbio is being eyed by Lorient, in what would be another great addition to an already improved side. I expect Lorient to finish just outside of a European spot, but Christian Gourcuff is doing some excellent work, especially the signing of Gameiro.

With Hilton having moved to Marseille, and Nadir Belhadj looking like he ill leave for the EPL, Verdan Runje is being conveted by Lille, who are in need of a goal keeper. They are also heavily linked with Anti Niemi of Fulham, who curriosly is being linked to Juventus of all places.

Stephen Lichsteiner’s proposed transfer to PSG may be hijacked by Lazio, as the interest in the Swiss defender slowly increases.

Yoann Demont is being pursued by Valenciennes, who is also putting together a solid, if unspectaular team.

Stepeh Sessegnon has been unveiled by PSG, but Marko Basa has yet to sign for the Parisiens.

Monaco is being linked with former Lyon and current Juventus bust Tiago. No word on whether Monaco will firm up their interest in Freddy Adu.

Nicolas Marin is interesting Martin O’Neil of Aston Villa, while Good Ole’ arry likes Jeremy Menez and may submit a bid this week.

Achille Emana may finally move to Real Betis this week, while Salim Arrache will be disguarded by Marseille to Grenoble.

Seb Squillaci should complete his move to Sevilla today, who also are interest in Stephane M’Bia, which means a move for Oscar Ewolo may take place, but also leaves the door open to Lyon moving for John Mensah, with Rennes expecting to look outside France for a new center back. Chain of events or numerous random occurences?

And finally, Jimmy Briand, much like Baky Kone, is in dispute with his club over a proposed move to PSG, with Rennes wanting more money then offered or a move outside of France. This one will probably go down to the wire, but the talented hitman will hope to move somewhere he can further cement a place with Les Blues.

Phewww, I am out of breath. Let me know what you think of all these moves.

First, we have a couple of new blogs.

It was only a matter of time before Martha was drawn into a French club blog, and we are happy to have her. Welcome the Nice Offside:

The same is true for Jennifer, who will keep us updated on Bordeaux, as they put together a very strong team to challenge Lyon for the title this year (and she will keep us up to date on the life of Henri Saivet!). Welcome the Bordeuax Offside:

Next up is some great coverage of the offseason in Ligue 1.

Julien is celebrating France’s birthday with a post:

Magnusson has a look at the ‘Drogbathon’ that Marseille fans have cooked up in order to get Pape Diouf to listen to them, as well as the pain of loosing Samir Nasri (but gaining a Hatem Ben Arfa):

Inara and John have been dutefully putting up training picks and pre-season match recaps, while also exploring the empty void that is the lose of Hatem Ben Arfa:

It seems Richard of St. Etienne and Shazback of Rennes have taken a summer vacation to be with their WAGs, but they should be back soon enough. We need a PSG and Monaco blogger first and foremost, if you are interested, email me, or skip the middle man and email Daryl@theoffside.com and tell him your interested. Enjoy the week!

Here is some assored comments from the FFF men:

“Domenech’s record is not that bad as coach,” he said. “It is not catastrophic. He qualified us two straight times for a major competition,” the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008.

“I did not want emotion and passion to get the better of reason,” Escalettes said.

Escalettes said the council members voted 18-0 in favor of keeping Domenech, with one abstention. However, he suggested that Domenech may stand down if France does not get a good start to its 2010 qualifying campaign.

“He is the first to be self-critical,” Escalettes said. “Everyone is fully aware that the French team must evolve. We will see where things are in mid-October. But we have not asked him to sign a contract. It is a moral contract.”

He also insisted that Domenech must improve his current communication strategy, criticizing the coach for remarks that were “sometimes like pouring vinegar on a wound.”

“That has to change to reconcile him with the French fans,” the federation president said.

“No more France-Romania’s,” Escalettes said, urging Les Bleus to start playing attractive football again.

French football league president Frederic Thiriez said the fans were let down at last month’s tournament.

“We apologize to the fans of the French team, but the failure was collective and everyone must take their part of the blame,” Thiriez said. “I back the decision taken by the president. When you are in trouble the only answer is solidarity.”

He only has one mission now, to concentrate on what happens on the field,” Escalettes said. “Now the communication has to be focused on the French team, not personal viewpoints. … In my opinion this communication was sometimes disastrous, aggressive and lacking clarity. He has a few years of experience behind him, and it’s up to him to show he can bounce back from this failure.”

Domenech was publicly backed by captain Patrick Vieira, defender Willy Sagnol and several other players.

“That carried some weight,” Escalettes said “If it was just Vieira and Sagnol, that would have been worrying but that there was (Franck) Ribery, (Karim) Benzema, and (Hatem) Ben Arfa proves something.”

He baffles many with numerous things he does in the job. But what matters at the end of the day is he has a good repor with many of his players, except the ones he banishes like Trezeguet. And if the senior players like him, and some of the bright young stars do too, then its an obvious decision. I dont like it, but its the easy call. Your thoughts?

So while most leagues are awash with transfer rumors and some big name deals in the works that turn into transfer sagas that span the entire summer, France remains pretty quite. With Lyon, Bordeaux, Lille, and Marseille quietly going about their work with some solid but not spectacular deals, it was to be another off-season of EPL-dominated transfer news. And for some reason, Jean Michel Auluas and Pape Diouf both were quite up til recently, with no public harranging. But then Hatem Ben Arfa came into the limelight.

Ben Arfa had an overly dramatic falling out with Karim Benzema, Alain Perrin and it seems like the entire Lyon organization around the end of February. He was benched for the rest of the season and proceded to pout instead of winning his place back, and the trust of his teammates. When the season was over, he did his best Nicholas Anelka impression during the title celebrations. And now he has demanded a move away to Marseille, which Jean Michel Auluas was happy to do if it was another Ligue 1 club in order to ’strenghten’ Ligue 1. But dealings between Marseille and Lyon are never clear cut.

After a pretty low 11 million euro bid was accepted, something appeared seriously wrong with Ben Arfa and Lyon, even if his nemesis Alain Perrin was fired in place of ego-soother Claude Puel. Auluas rushed the deal only to find a snag in a personal detail, Ben Arfa being allowed to keep 1.5 million of the transfer fee, which Auluas clearly did not want to give to the “brat”. He also wanted a guarentee of 20% of the future transfer fee.

Of course Pape Diouf didnt have a clue as to what was going on between Hatem and Lyon, so he announced the deal, albeight prematurely for Lyon’s liking. They threw down an ultimatum, yadda yadda yadda, Ben Arfa showed up to train with Marseille while Claude Puel said he expected him in Lyon to train. Well now the LFP has recognized the transfer as legitimate, and Ben Arfa gets to keep his bag of cash and live the dream in Marseille. Here is the kicker though.

When the negotiations were stalled, it was not really due to the clause for Ben Arfa keeping a sum of money, because Auluas would have built that into the price of the player. It was because Real Madrid (yes, the team I dearly love and blog for) came in with a secret bid to pick up a player on the cheap. It was also rumored that because Real bid, Barca would too. But from what I have heard, Schuster was not to excited to deal with a tempremental brat with barely any experience but still a big head. The same could be said for Guardiola, who like Schuster, is very focused on building a team spirit more then collected some talented individuals.

So Auluas was trying to broker a better deal with Real, which appears to be the true reason he tried to stall the Ben Arfa deal. But now he is left with a realativly small sum of money for one of the best prospects to come out of France in some time. And the only possible transfer saga of the summer ended in a little more than a week. Oh well, theres always next summer.

Now communications skills I could care less about, as some of my favorite coaches are notorious for not speaking to the press in anything other then cliches. But Domenech refused interviews for not only himself but all his players during the tournament, and was seen pulling Willy Sagnol away from an interview at one point as to keep the shrowd of mystic and astrological secrecy over the French camp. It may have been a smart ploy to shield the squad form outside pressure after being labeled tournament favorites, but it didnt work, and made the France team look ridiculous.

Improving the organization could mean the shuffling of coaches, or just a new approach to assessing players and in how, or more importantly, who he selects. And of course Raymond will need to change the makeup of the team, with the veterans he stuck with until they led him to failure already retiring or looking unlikely to make it to the next World Cup (looking at you Pat). An injection of more young Ligue stars, a change in the formation and tactics and an overall better vibe for the team will be needed if they are to make it to the next World Cup. The talents of Nasri, Benzema, Sagna, Ben Arfa, Briand, Clichy, Diaby, Bodmer and Lloris must be given oppurtunities in the team and more turnover will be needed to establish a core group.

What are your thoughts on the supposive idea to keep Domenech on as the France coach?

Considering he is a vastly experienced u-21 player, with 22 caps, and he played so well in Ligue 1 and 2 for the past three seasons, many had tiped him to move to Arsenal, with there being widespread reports he had even had a pre-contract agreement in place. But he has joined Laurent Blanc at Bordeaux, where he will get to play with u-21 France team mates Gourcuff and Gabriel Obertan in their Champions League adventure.

With another important signing, the scope is on Marseille now, who are looking to conclude the signings of Kim from Nancy and Baki Kone from Nice to improve their attack, although they look certain to loos Samir Nasri to Arsenal and Djibril Cisse to some bottom feeder Premier League team. On a side note, Le Mans continue to dismantle, this time selling Romaric to Sevilla for around 6 million euros. Whether a few more players will move over to Lille and ex-coach Rudi Garcia still remains to be seen.

The transfer market is beginning to pick up pace in France, and I cant wait to see what the next round of activity will be!

And the likely successor will be Mr. Deschamps, who has been out of football since resigning from Juventus. All bets are off as to what Deschamps will do with the France squad, so it should be interesting. Lizarazu wants former teammater Deschamps, while Desailly seems to favor Jean Tigana, so let the postering and back-room dealing begin! Lizarazu said “Deschamps seems to be the ideal coach.” “He has the experience of the highest level, he has experience with the French team, and has experience as coach of Juventus and Monaco.”

Desailly thinks former France midfielder Jean Tigana would also be a good choice to replace Domenech.

“You have to start with a new generation,” Desailly said. “I believe (Deschamps) looks like he is one of the best coaches for France. He has the experience, and Tigana also could make himself available.”

We also saw the immediate retirement announcements from leading caps holder Lillian Thuram, 36, who now has 142 caps. And Claude Makelele, 35, with 71 caps also retired. These two were pillars of the France team for some time now, with Thuram having started the 98 World Cup Final while Makelele was widely regarded as the best player in his position for most of his career.
They will both be missed and their services were greatly appreciated for their country. Also rumored to be retiring is Greg Coupet, who started his first international tournament, and had a bad one. He is leaing Lyon this offseason for an adventure abroad and he has expressed a willingness to retire in order to prolong his club career.

This could also have been the last major tournament for old Arsenal pals Theirry Henry and Patrick Viera, although Pat didnt play a game. Although their age dictates the 2010 WC is not out of their reach, their club forms have been poor this past season and a break from international football must surely be on their minds. Their is also the question of whether players like Eric Abidal, Florent Malouda, Nicolas Anelka and Willy Sagnol should have went to the tournament after poor league form this past year. And their status with the new coach will surely be up in the air.

We also saw a great failing of the young talent that we all believe, including Domenech, has so much potential. Karim Benzema looked out of sorts with Anelka and Henry as partners, while Bafa Gomis still looks a little wet under the ears. Samir Nasri got precious little time to impress, while Lassana Diarra, Steve Mandana and Francois Clerc didnt see any action. With a squad that needs to replace a few important players and starts World Cup qualification very soon, the hope is that things are sorted out soon that the team can begin preparing for the next World Cup with a unified plan.