It is more than 21 years now since Aimé Jacquet broke the news to the six members of his provisional France squad, who would play no part in their historic home World Cup finals.

One of those left on the outside was Sabri Lamouchi, the new Nottingham Forest head coach, and that moment, at the team’s Clairefontaine base late one Friday night, has stayed with him his whole life.

We are talking in his office at a club that has an extraordinary history of its own, although less so in recent times when the turnover of managers makes Lamouchi the 13th permanent appointment in eight years.

Lamouchi, 47, is of Tunisian heritage, a thoughtful man who has managed the Ivory Coast, Rennes, and the Qatar club El Jaish after a playing career at some of the biggest clubs in France and Italy. His first name derives from the Arabic word sabr, which means "patience" - a commodity that has been in short supply at Forest in recent years, and he has seen a lot in football.

That feeling of desolation in 1998, when he was denied a place in French history, has shaped his career for the two decades that have followed.