Tigana relishing new French challenge

New Bordeaux coach Jean Tigana is relishing being back at the helm of a French side 11 years after leaving Monaco and having a spell in England with Fulham, the former France star said Friday.

“Certainly I shall be a little emotional,” the Euro 2004 winner admitted as he prepared for Sunday’s trip to Montpellier.

“Preparations have gone well – there have been no major problems,” said Tigana, who has to raise the bar for a Bordeaux side which won the league in 2009 to break a seven-year streak by Lyon but which last year fell away to miss out on European qualification altogether.

The club then lost coach Laurent Blanc to the French national side after the controversial reign of Raymond Domenech came to an ignominious close at the World Cup in South Africa.

But with Tigana raring to go the Girondins feel the good times are set to roll once more.

“The players have performed well over the past couple of years – though for the time being I have not found the right defensive recipe as not everybody is either available or match fit,” he explained.

Tigana, who won the 1997 league title with Monaco, insisted he would encourage the players not to look to their 2009 laurels or to their hugely disappointing end to last term but start with a psychological clean slate.

“How they were before does not concern me. We have to be lucid and competitive. You don’t eradicate bad habits in a couple of months – it takes time and work.”

Tigana, who coached Turkey’s Besiktas in his last job from 2005 to 2007, said that when he arrived he found “plenty of good things (but) I’ll try to change the bad ones.”