He was propelled to the bench on May 9, as interim coach, after the ousting of Antoine Kombouaré. Pierre Aristouy, 43, will remain the coach of the FC Nantes first team next season. The management has chosen to extend for two seasons the coach who made it possible to snatch the maintenance in Ligue 1 in extremis and which should make it possible to recreate the links with the formation, we learned on Saturday from sources close to the club. Pierre Aristouy has only four L1 matches on the clock as a coach and does not have the professional football coaching license (BEPF), which will force the club to pay a fine of 25,000 euros per L1 match that it will lead next season.
But with more intense training sessions and strong choices in his compositions, he managed to keep Nantes in L1, thanks to a narrow victory a week ago against the red lantern Angers (1-0). “This support is very strong and gratifying but I had four very difficult weeks. I will never criticize an L1 coach again, it’s a ruthless world, a very hard world, ”he commented immediately afterwards.
Former club striker
“I think he can improve a lot. I want to keep it, of course, ”said President Waldemar Kita, usually fond of more recognized names but who left the hand in this affair to his son Franck, deputy president of the club.
Originally from Mont-de-Marsan, Aristouy spent 16 years at FC Nantes: ten as a striker from the training center where he entered at the age of 14, and the last six seasons as coach of the reserve then of the U19s . Under his leadership, the U19s have also won the title of French champions in these two seasons.
His longer-term installation on the bench of the first team should facilitate relations between the training center and the various coaches, who have often neglected the young people. Antoine Kombouaré had even cut ties by sending them all back to reserve at the end of January.
Departing executives
Since his arrival at the head of the first team, Aristouy has often referred to Raynald Denoueix, the coach of his debut and the last title of champion of France of the Canaries in 2000, who had 18 players from the training in his band. Far from going that far, he pleaded this week in several media for a group of 16 experienced professional players, reinforced by young people from training.
It remains to be seen what its weight will be in Nantes’ often chaotic transfer window choices, especially since several executives are once again on the way out, starting with Ludovic Blas and Alban Lafont.