Failing to know the identity of its owner for the next season, AS Saint-Etienne has already found a coach. After unsurprisingly formalizing the end of the collaboration with Pascal Dupraz on the bench on Thursday, the Saint-Etienne club has just announced his successor this Friday. Without a club since leaving Troyes at the end of December, Laurent Batlles was chosen by the leaders of ASSE, with a contract until 2024. A great architect of Estac’s accession to Ligue 1 a year ago, the former midfielder with 75 games played in the green jersey between 2010 and 2012 will therefore try to do the same in Forez.
After the end of his career in 2012, Laurent Batlles joined the club’s supervision cell, then the U15 staff of the Greens. He then became coach of the ASSE reserve team, with a climb to National 2 to his credit, relying in particular on Mahdi Camara, Mickaël Nadé and Charles Abi, whom he should therefore find when the group resumes. stephanois.
Laurent Batlles was deputy to Christophe Galtier at ASSE in 2015-2016
Also assistant to Christophe Galtier at Sainté in 2015-2016, Laurent Batlles ticked a lot of boxes, to try to straighten out a club traumatized by the terrible outcome of their return barrage lost against AJ Auxerre (1-1, 4-5 on penalties in goal) and the serious overflows that followed on the pitch. This is confirmed by the Saint-Etienne sports coordinator Loïc Perrin, with whom he played for two years: “Laurent Batlles corresponds to the profile we were looking for: that of a coach who has worked in Ligue 2, who has experienced a rise in Ligue 1 who knows ASSE, its identity and its values”.
“Training the first team is an achievement for me,” explains the 46-year-old technician. With a lot of desire and self-sacrifice, we have set ourselves goals for this new season. Relegation hurt everyone, me too. We will now rebuild. That’s good, the construction site is colossal in Sainté.