After the fifth consecutive defeat of AS Saint-Étienne in the French Ligue 2 championship against Guingamp (1-3), the Stéphanois club decided to part ways with its coach, Laurent Batlles.
After returning to AS Saint-Étienne as coach in the summer of 2022, after the relegation of the Saint-Etienne club to Ligue 2, Laurent Batlles sees his Saint-Etienne adventure come to an end after a year and a half spent on the Forez bench. The fifth consecutive defeat in Ligue 2 against Guingamp this Tuesday evening (1-3) got the better of the Saint-Etienne coach.
It is Jean-François Soucasseexecutive president of the club, who appeared before the media an hour and a half after the final whistle which announced it: “It’s a difficult situation for the club, there are objectives that we aim to achieve and we have made an observation: given our last matches, it is clear that we are having a lot of difficulties to reach them. Regardless of his flawless, even visceral, investment that Laurent (Batlles) had towards the club, today we must project ourselves towards the objective which is ours. We considered that a new mobilization, a new dynamic was needed. Laurent (Batlles) heard. I know what this club represents for Laurent, I know the responsibility that is mine. We don’t want to turn the page but start a new dynamic.
These situations involve the full responsibilities of everyone. There are electro-shocks to be used. It is never pleasant to implement, these are inevitably difficult decisions to make. Because you see matches but I see implications, men who find solutions and sometimes less. My responsibility is to find new momentum for the club and bring everyone back towards the goal. The ranking is not in line with our ambition. We must activate all the levers to bring the club back towards our objectives. We will have to know how to draw the consequences and pull the club towards a new dynamic..”
To ensure the interim tomorrow in training, it is Laurent Huardcurrent head of the Training Center, who has been designated: “I’m one of those people who, when they trust people, do so until the last second. This is why there were no contacts made with other coaches upstream. It’s not elegant to do this and not productive. The objective was not achieved and compared to this evening’s match, we are entitled to say that the quality of play was very far from what we can expect from a contender for promotion. For training tomorrow morning, Laurent Huard is in charge of taking it. We need to find momentum again. This is not unprecedented. I wish I didn’t live through that moment, we did everything we could to end this story well, that’s not the case. It’s up to us to write a new page.”
A meeting will take place at 2 p.m. tomorrow for the club to notify its departure to Laurent Batlles. It is Jean-François Soucasse who announced the end of their collaboration this evening. Behind, the coach himself announced it to his locker room.