I spent an hour in Raymond Domenech’s company once and there was nothing he said or did to which I could take exception but it appears he can do little right as far as the French players and public are concerned. And, with little else tipping the World Cup play-off in Ireland’s favour, that will have to do as our glimmer of hope.

In September 2004, I was in France to cover the Lille v Shelbourne UEFA Cup game and Domenech accomodatingly agreed to be interviewed by myself, an Irish colleague who had also travelled with Shels and an England journalist at the French Football Federation’s headquarters in Paris. He was perfectly courteous and did not seem like an obvious hate figure.

But so it is that there are those in France who wish their team to lose in order for Domenech’s departure to be hastened. Apparently, it is already a done deal that Laurent Blanc will take charge of the national team next summer, regardless of how Domenech does and that includes winning the World Cup. He got them to the final last time around yet everyone seems to think that was in spite of rather than because of their manager. Most of the credit for that goes to Zinedine Zidane, whose actions in what was the final game of his career curiously glossed over.

In between, there was their pretty disastrous showing at Euro 2008 where he made light of their exit by proposing to his girlfriend live on TV which helped add to a reputation for eccentricity earlier established by his admission that he selected players according to their zodiac sign. Their qualifying campaign to date has not been deemed a success and so it is that if France lose the play-off, he will go immediately with Gerard Houllier and Alain Boghossian assuming caretaker control.

Without wishing unemployment on Domenech, we must hopes that comes to pass and if it requires him to make an error of judgement on his part to get Ireland to the World Cup, I’ll take that. Clearly, it seems as though the Ireland camp have identified France’s manager as their weakness with Richard Dunne drawing attention to the reception Domenech received when he and his players attended the Paris Masters earlier in the week.

It is not the only weakness in the French set-up because, for all their attacking talent, defending set-pieces seems to be a real problem for them. With that in mind, I fancy Dunne to score so I’m putting €10 each way on him scoring the first goal at 33/1. I’m not sure Ireland will win, though, so I’m going to put my other €30 on an accumulator on Russia, Portugal, Sporting Fingal and Livingston to win for a return of €127.27.