17 Jul 2003(Thu)

After a year out of the game, Philippe Troussier is finally back in management.

At the start of this week he signed a two-year contract with Qatar, and he won't have much time to look at his players.

His first big test is just around the corner, when Qatar will try and qualify for the 2004 Asian Cup in China.

Troussier knows all about this competition, Asia's equivalent of the European Championship played every four years, because he won it as Japan's head coach in Lebanon in October 2000.

But Qatar are in a tough qualifying group B, as they will have to get past the powerful Kuwait, along with the more modest Singapore and Palestine, to reach the finals in China next summer. The qualifying matches will be played between September and November, so Troussier must quickly find his best team.

I spoke to Troussier on a couple of occasions during the recent Confederations Cup in France.

While I have no doubts he will throw himself into his work in Qatar, and push the players to new levels of intensity, Troussier was very disappointed not to have landed a good job in Europe.

He was on the shortlist for the national coaching jobs of France, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland, and he could have had the China job last year. The Chinese wanted him to do what he had done for Japan, identify and coach a young and dynamic group of players, but he felt the work was too similar as his Japan role.

He wanted to be among the elite, especially in the English Premier League, where Arsene Wenger and to a lesser extent Gerard Houllier have been successful.

"I expected a proposal from England, but I think the market is completely closed. No clubs are changing their manager," he said, quite wistfully. His big hope was Tottenham Hotspur, but they have kept Glenn Hoddle.

He would also have liked a club in France, Spain or Italy, and said he had turned down proposals from Egypt, Libya and Iraq.

But he has settled for Qatar, whose domestic football is in the spotlight at the moment due to a number of high-profile signings reminiscent of the J.League a decade ago.

"Qatar is not a punishment," he said, in classic Troussier style.

"Carlos Queiroz was head coach of the United Arab Emirates four years ago and now he is coach of Real Madrid."

And if Qatar meet Japan in the Asian Cup next year or in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup?

"I am a professional, and I will want my team to beat Japan. There will be no gifts from me," he said.

"But it will be strange, because I know the big power of Japan and the Japanese players know my coaching. I consider all my (Japanese) players like my sons. I can not forget what we did together for four years.

"Now it is time for another human adventure."

Although he still has his critics in Japan, I wish Troussier nothing but good luck in the Arabian Gulf.

ends