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France: Monaco chairman in no hurry to replace Deschamps [Wed Sep 21st, 2005]
Monaco (Reuters) - Monaco chairman Michel Pastor will take his time before appointing a new coach to replace Didiers Deschamps, who resigned on Monday.
"The chairman is in no hurry. He will only act after careful consideration," sources close to the French Ligue 1 club said.
"He has decided he would handle the matter himself. He has been in contact by phone with a lot of people but hasn't met anybody yet."
Deschamps handed his resignation after a poor run of form that left the 2004 UEFA Champions League runners-up 15th in Ligue 1 and out of the major European competition.
Pastor asked assistant coach Jean Petit, who has been with the club since 1969 and served under Arsene Wenger before he left in 1995, to take charge on a caretaker basis, hinting that Petit could stay "longer if results were good".
The new acting coach however said he was not interested in a long-term job. "One, two, three games should be enough. Maybe four, that would be the ideal solution," he was quoted as saying by sports daily L'Equipe.
Names of possible replacements are already circulating with former Guy Lacombe (ex-Sochaux), Paul Le Guen (ex-Lyon), Vahid Halilhodzic (ex-PSG) and Philippe Troussier (ex-Olympique Marseille).
Troussier is the only one who has openly declared an interest for the time being. "Coaching Monaco? Why not?," he told L'Equipe.
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