Sochaux demotion – ‘Totally incompetent’: Samuel Laurent, self-proclaimed al-Qaeda specialist who sank Sochaux

He is public enemy number 1. Considered the gravedigger of FC Sochaux-Monbéliard, Samuel Laurent, its general manager, is not ready to put a toe back in Franche-Comté after the administrative demotion of the club which raises fears of a deposit balance sheet. “SL: you killed the FCSM“, could we read this Tuesday morning in front of Bonal alongside other much less sympathetic tags still. Patron of the Cubs for four years, he followed a completely unique course. His history and his way of governing ended up plunging the venerable FCSM in the underworld of French football.

Samuel Laurent is the great-nephew of the first scorer in the history of the World Cup (Lucien). His grandfather, Jean, also defended the Sochaux colors after playing in the World Cup in Uruguay. However, the DG, born in Montbéliard, has never hidden his total ignorance of football until he takes a certain pride in it. Unlike the other presidents parachuted to the top of the clubs, he has neither the profile of a financier nor that of an administrator. He never managed a budget or managed a team. His appointment says it all about the Chinese owners’ interest in their new toy.

Al-Qaeda, controversies and the ivory tower

During his wanderings, he became friends with Zhong Naixiong, the founder of the Nenking group. After taking control of Sochaux, he endeavors to get rid of all those who could help him navigate in an environment he does not know. In 2021, he separates from his sporting director, Thomas Deniaud, and his deputy, Emmanuel Desplats, at the club for 20 years, prefers to set sail rather than continue to work with a man who cannot stand contradiction. Alone in his ivory tower, he puts out all checks and balances.

Hugs to the players, disproportionate lifestyle

“I wasn’t an expert either.rewinds Jean-Claude Plessis, iconic president of the FCSM from 1999 to 2008. I was boss of garages at Peugeot and I never opened an engine. But boss, it’s a job for men, you have to surround yourself well. When I landed in Sochaux, I called on Jean Fernandez and Bernard Genghini. Samuel Laurent did just the opposite, he cut everything around him to make himself indispensable. And since he is Nenking’s only interlocutor, he can tell them anything and everything.“His management will end up weighing down the club’s accounts.

Blinded by a 2021/2022 season where his men were close to rising, he decided to go all-in by granting pharaonic salaries to his summer recruits (80,000 euros and 400,000 euros in bonuses for Ibrahim Sissoko) and extended contracts at heights that do not correspond to the reality of the club. Sochaux leads the high life, the president yields to all the whims of his players whom he never hesitates to cuddle in front of the cameras when he treats his other collaborators with much less regard.

Laurent pulls out all the stops: 14 trips by private plane during the season (an incongruity for an L2 club) and two internships in the winter of 2022 (the first in Spain in facilities where OL are staying, the second in Lyon ). A lifestyle that does not stick to what is done, in general, in Ligue 2 and even less in Sochaux, anti-bling-bling club par excellence. “We need to know what happenedgets carried away Plessis. How did he arrive at a deficit of 22 million euros? He hid the truth.“

Liar, manipulator or mythomaniac?

The truth, precisely, does not seem to be his compass. “I remember one day when he told me on the phone that Nenking was going to invest in a billion euro real estate and land buyback program in Franche-Comtétestifies Fabrice Lefevre, president of the association of supporters Planète Sochaux that Samuel Laurent liked to caress in the direction of the hair. I don’t know if he’s a liar, a mythomaniac or a manipulator, he’s very difficult to pin down.”

Volcanic, he does not help to restore the image of Sochaux by regularly exchanging insults with his counterparts in the stands. At odds with the League, the Federation, the coaches’ union for violent remarks towards Jocelyn Gourvennec (“It was twice our priority because indeed he had a pedigree. But hey the starlets, we gave at the level of the players, now at the level of the coaches, it’s good!“), his divisive personality weakens the institution.

“What I blame him for is not being there when the club needed him in recent monthscontinues Plessis. When you lose eight matches in a row (note: at the end of the season), it is the president’s role to go into the locker room to solve the problem. The person responsible for this fiasco, his name is Samuel Laurent. He is totally incompetent, he admits it himself. Last summer, while Sochaux presented its flagship recruit, Ibrahim Sissoko, the one who embodies his ambitions, Samuel Laurent did not participate in the press conference. And for good reason, he did not wake up from his nap. A year later, all of Sochaux is K-.O.