“Taking three at home is unacceptable, so we have to stick our fingers up our asses to work and do a lot more. “Until the use of the famous vulgar post-match expression of Wahbi Khazri, ASSE completely missed its meeting against OGC Nice, last Saturday in the Cauldron (0-3). The observation is terrible: five setbacks, no success and a last place in Ligue 1 which can not be anecdotal after eight days. In a heavy club climate officially on sale for five months, but without a very advanced buyer track, Saint-Etienne is flowing at all levels.
The derby against OL, which has ended twice in a historic slap (0-5) for four years, comes Sunday (8:45 p.m.) in an explosive context. 20 minutes tries to decipher the doldrums in which the most successful club in the French championship is plunged (10 coronations). In April 2013, when ASSE offered itself thanks to a goal from Brandao (1-0 against Rennes) its last trophy, namely the Coupe de la Ligue, the co-president of the Greens Bernard Caïazzo circulated a letter internally. He then explained how he intended to “permanently install ASSE in the Top 5 of Ligue 1”.
Permanent doubts for 15 years on the Romeyer-Caïazzo agreement
“This ambition has never been followed by visionary ideas from the leaders, regrets Alain Blachon, then assistant to Christophe Galtier. We knew that we would quickly lose Aubameyang, Guilavogui and Zouma, and there was no real reflection to perpetuate the club at the top. It was undoubtedly necessary to envisage an evolution of the economic model, for example by investing more money in order to optimize training. As a backdrop, this two-headed leadership in place for fifteen years has never been a success.
“Having to convince two presidents for everything and nothing, that’s for sure that complicates things,” sums up Alain Blachon. Roland Romeyer is such a supporter of ASSE that it could have blinded him when making certain decisions. “Stabilized in the first eight places for six consecutive seasons (from 2012 to 2017) with Christophe Galtier at its head, the Greens experienced a huge crisis at the time of the succession of his emblematic coach, with the short passage of Oscar Garcia concluded on the first manita of the history of the derby.
“It’s not a question of level but of experience”
“It is always complicated to react well when you are in a crisis situation,” says Alain Blachon. Everything is done in a hurry, as in December 2017, when Jean-Louis Gasset broke the piggy bank with the managers by recruiting experienced players with high salaries like M’Vila and Debuchy, unsaleable behind. »Sainté climbed back from 17th to 7th place in 2018, then regained a nice 4th place in 2019. Before Gasset left, and an endless tumble since, embodied by the promotion of his deputy Ghislain Printant, predictable casting error ( from June to October 2019), then by the thorny issue of Claude Puel. Its chaotic management of players considered executives (Ruffier, M’Vila, Boudebouz, Khazri) has never established a climate of serenity in L’Etrat. A close friend of the club said:
Claude Puel took away all the impact that experienced players had on this group by putting them in the cellar. When things start to rumble all around ASSE like now, isn’t it better to have Stéphane Ruffier and Jessy Moulin as goalkeepers than the Green-Bajic-Fall trio (20 years old)? It is not a question of level but of experience. “
“Puel has full powers, beyond the sports field”
Thus, when William Saliba appeared in Ligue 1 in 2018 (at 17), he was surrounded by two real captives, Loïc Perrin and Neven Subotic. Times have really changed since on the defensive level, much more than a drifting Timothée Kolodziejczak (30 years old), Harold Moukoudi (23 years old) is now a framework, from the top of his 45 matches in Ligue 1, to surround Mickaël Nadé (22 years old) and Saïdou Sow (19 years old). Is Claude Puel the only one responsible for this excessive “youthism” within a Saint-Etienne workforce in full doubt?
“It’s simple, Claude Puel arrived as general manager and he even found himself a member of the club’s management board, recalls our source insisting on remaining anonymous. That is to say, he has from the start full powers over everything that touches the club or almost, beyond the sporting field, from the extension of a youngster to details of the training center. The situation in Saint-Etienne today is therefore in my opinion his entire responsibility. “
Years of “outperformance” with Christophe Galtier?
However, it is difficult to blame Claude Puel (under contract until next June) for the lack of quality of his workforce, so much he would have liked to have the economic possibilities to recruit more than the only Uruguayan striker Ignacio Ramírez (24 years old) , arrived on loan from Liverpool FC… from Montevideo. In view of its economic fragility, accentuated by the Covid-19 crisis, shouldn’t we finally consider that it was almost abnormal to have seen the Greens play so regularly in the Europa League in the last ten years, especially in view of of salary cap long applied in Forez?
“I often reminded the leaders that Christophe Galtier was making exploits so many players” outperformed “with him at ASSE, supports Alain Blachon. There, these kids are fighting, they give the maximum. But the captain’s armband is perhaps too much of a burden for a youngster like Mahdi Camara for example… ”The young Greens are aware that they could already have gone to Ligue 2 without the premature end of the championship in March 2020 (they were 17th, ten days from the end). Last season, a good start and then “a burst of pride” embodied by Wahbi Khazri (6 goals in 6 L1 games between March and April 2021) allowed them to avoid the worst (11th). Sunday (8:45 p.m.), the Lyon neighbor will dream of putting their heads even more under water, if at all possible.