If Tunisia wanted calm after the storm, they've chosen the wrong man. If they wanted hope, drama, headlines and the possibility of a minor FIFA World Cup miracle, they have chosen the perfect man in Herve Renard.
The decision to part ways with head coach Sabri Lamouchi after a single tournament game and replace him with Renard is surely the most extraordinary managerial move in World Cup history.
After a humiliating 5-1 mauling by Sweden in their Group F opener, the Carthage Eagles became the first side to change coaches after just one match, rolling the dice before it's too late to salvage their World Cup campaign.
Not gambling would have been a gamble itself, however, with Lamouchi's brief and unhappy tenure threatening the fabric of this Tunisia selection.
He leaves the Eagles fractured, listless and running out of time, but is there a coach in the African football sphere with a stronger reputation for arriving amid chaos and immediately changing the mood than Renard?
Renard is not a tactical ideologue, not a coach who oversees long-term building operations or establishes institutions. He specialises in instant belief and emotional resets. Players working under the Frenchman promptly believe that they can achieve the impossible.
The latest in a long line of expected magicians must perform his greatest trick yet if he's to transform Tunisia into a competent, functioning operation, let alone sneak their way into the knockout stages.
The Frenchman has written history during his career, but it's also littered with reminders that there are no guarantees in football.
For every Zambia, there is a Sochaux. For every Saudi Arabia I, there is a Saudi Arabia II. For every heroic rescue act, there's a reminder that even African football's greatest firefighter can encounter blazes he cannot extinguish.
Why Renard could do the trick
His teams are compact, organised, aggressive, and emotionally tuned. They know what is expected of them, they are encouraged to play to their strengths, they are given purpose and left in no doubt of the mission ahead of them.
Renard understands narrative and the power of theatre as well as any coach in the world, with his crisp white shirts, the dramatic team talks that just happened to be recorded and broadcast to the watching world.
He understands how to wrap optics and storyline together to give direction and purpose to his teams, while highlighting his own sharply crafted image in the process.
Renard famously received a telephone call from the king of Morocco - Mohammed VI - on the pitch in November 2017 as the Atlas Lions secured qualification for the 2018 World Cup, ending their 20-year wait to return to the competition.
He knew Morocco was watching, and established this connection between kingdom and team that still exists for the national side today.
Renard's defining achievement was his 2012 Africa Cup of Nations triumph with Zambia. The Chipolopolo entered the tournament largely devoid of star power, but dispatched Senegal, Ghana and Ivory Coast en route to a first ever title, riding their luck at times, leaving everything on the pitch, but choosing the decisive moments to see off far more illustrious sides.
Notably he took the Zambian team on a visit to the shores of the Atlantic ocean on the eve of their AFCON final against Ivory Coast, to pay tribute to the Chipolopolo team of 1993, who perished in a Zambian Air Force plane crash en route to play a World Cup qualifier against Senegal in Dakar.
Renard recognised the emotional backdrop to a tournament being played in Gabon, near to the site of the nation's greatest sporting tragedy. He embraced this, giving the players a sense of meaning greater than their own on-field successes.
The tournament became a mission, Zambia as representatives not just of the country, but of their forefathers, their ancestors, playing for the ghosts of 19 years before.
"Think of all the players and all the people who were on that plane and who died for your country," he told the players ahead of the final.
"Think of their families, think of your country. We have to do this. We can't let this fantastic opportunity slip away."
By the time a quivering, trembling Ivory Coast team - with plenty of demons of their own - faced Zambia in the final penalty shootout, the force was firmly with the Chipolopolo, by then a team focused only on fulfilling their prophecy.
This is Renard's genius: emotional momentum, convincing players they're part of something bigger.
By the 2015 AFCON, he was overseeing the Ivory Coast themselves, by this point carrying the burden of repeated, consistent failure.
The Golden Generation had been eliminated in the group stage in three consecutive World Cups, and repeatedly failed to bring home the Nations Cup despite boasting a stacked squad the envy of the rest of the continent.
It had almost become a joke, with the Elephants increasingly being undone by would-be minor characters - Georgios Samaras, Sunday Mba, Stoppila Sunzu - and falling far short of the glories anticipated for them.
Time was running out as well, with Didier Drogba one of several Ivorians to have departed the international scene by this point.
Renard made some tough calls, notably dismissing the late error-prone Sol Bamba from the side, infusing the team with youthful players, switching to a back three, but critically, succeeding in eradicating the fear and sense of inevitable failure from this squad.
They promptly saw off Ghana in Bata in February 2015 -- winning 9-8 on penalties after falling 2-0 down in the shootout -- to end a 23-year wait for the crown and ensure that generation ended their international careers with at least one piece of international silverware.
'You want a picture with Messi?!'
With Saudi Arabia at the last World Cup, he pulled off one of the greatest giant killings in the tournament history.
Marking the first edition in the Middle East with the region's finest hour in international football, coming back from behind to defeated the eventual champions after Lionel Messi opened the scoring before second-half goals from Saleh Al-Sheri and Salem Al-Dawsari completed a stunning comeback.
It transformed Renard from niche African football figurehead to global celebrity, with his famous half-time speech -- received by fearless Saudi players ahead of their second-half remontada -- transferring into football folklore.
"What do you want? To take a picture with Messi?" He urged his Saudi charges during that famous half-time hairdryer. "You have to press him because he has the ball and you just stare at him.
"Messi has the ball and you all stand still, looking at him. You have to press him, push him, if you want a photo, take out your phones, but you have to give everything, this is the World Cup."
Such was the emotion and the ultimate joy of that comeback, that it's forgotten in history that Saudi failed to escape the group, or that he twice parted ways with the Asian heavyweights following perceived underachievement... the most recent occasion being two months ago.
If Renard could oversee one of the most miraculous tournament underdog tournament wins in history, mastermind one of the most memorable World Cup giant killings, and perform therapy on the wounded souls of that Ivorian team, then surely he can salvage Tunisia's World Cup... Right?
