Kombouare on his bike? PSG set to appoint Ancelotti

"There's no way that Italian bloke with the funny eye-brows is sexier than me"

AUTUMN CHAMPIONS declares the splash page on the PSG website. It's only when you click past this that you find the statement that points to the demise of the man that took us to top spot.

Most French media sources are running the story that Antoine Kombouare was finally dismissed from his position as PSG coach on Thursday morning, and that as of January 1 Carlo Ancelotti will be installed in the hot-seat.

Yesterday afternoon this statement arrived from the club, and hardly does much to dispel the swirling maelstrom of rumours.

It said: "Paris Saint-Germain and their first-team coach Antoine Kombouare would like to clarify that they are engaged in positive discussions, with a view to making a resolution that will protect both parties’ interests." That clears that up then. It seems unlikely these talks are going to end well for AK, apart from in the sense that he'll be walking off with a massive sack of Qatari cash.

As PSGT has said before, the departure of the former Valenciennes has been inevitable for a while, arguably since QSI arrived. 

"The real problem is internationally: who knows Kombouaré outside France?" said former OM president Bernard Tapie, sticking his beak in for reasons unknown. Or to put it another way, a headline in today's Parisien reads "He was just not sexy enough".

Personally I think AK is a perfectly sexy chap - just look at that enigmatic stare and fine bone structure. And the timing of this decision, however inevitable, feels a bit wrong. His critics would say that a lack of tactical imagination has hindered PSG this season, but his sacking (if it's happened) came less than 24 hours after arguably PSG's best team performance of the season, when they won 1-0 in St Etienne. Though the defence still looked shakier than a bouncy castle in a hurricane, the players were working for one other, with even the work-shy Jeremy Menez tracking back to help out when we were under pressure.

It was a result which took them three points clear at the top at the half-way point of the season, thus earning the aforementioned Autumn Champions honour. Given that has remit at the start of the season was supposedly to get into the Champions League, what more could the poor bloke do?

I have no problem with Ancelotti. After all, this is a man who survived a one-on-one confrontation with a bear. And while Tapie may be a match-fixing scum-bag, but he's correct that we need a coach with profile. Soon the team is going to be more Beckhams and Pastores than Armands and Bodmers, and the new influx will need someone who can keep them in check.

But it seems very shoddy to keep a club legend like Kombouare hanging on in his job for half a season while the club so transparently look for someone better. AK has acted with dignity, something the PSG hierarchy increasingly lack. If/when he goes, I'm sure all PSG fans will wish him every success in the future.