#Girondins #heading #Ligue #Alain #Giresse #Sud #Ouest #club #strong #framework #Americans #destroyed
I couldn’t be in front of my TV. I spoke with the former present. There were some occasions… This match comes at the end of a chain. The illusion I had was not based on a logical reality but on the fact that when you are Marine et Blanc you told yourself why not… It is hard for me to realize it because relegation is not something attached to this club. I knew, in my beginnings, seasons where the initial objective was maintenance. We got there and then we took on a dimension that allowed the club to assert itself as a monument. The descent…
I couldn’t be in front of my TV. I spoke with the former present. There were some occasions… This match comes at the end of a chain. The illusion I had was not based on a logical reality but on the fact that when you are Marine et Blanc you told yourself why not… It is hard for me to realize it because relegation is not something attached to this club. I knew, in my beginnings, seasons where the initial objective was maintenance. We got there and then we took on a dimension that allowed the club to assert itself as a monument. The 1991 relegation was not sporting and there was always that serenity about continuity in Ligue 1. Saying that for the first time since 1960 we are going to fall sportingly is brutal.
What is your feeling?
Sadness for the representation of this club. And anger because this is the end of all the mistakes made since the Americans took over in 2018. Instead of preserving a story, we went in all directions with people who weren’t very competent in terms of football then with the logo story , clashes with supporters.
You had been part of the Surveillance Committee created by the city of Bordeaux. Did you expect an upturn when Gérard López took over the club?
This Committee had been created with the aim of helping to pacify the environment. But the elders, the town hall, the partners, we had our limits: we Girondins are not an association. The club almost disappeared. The recovery of Gérard López allowed to continue. I don’t have the financial information. But sportingly, the season started badly quickly with a team that did not correspond to the reality of football in France, players without the spirit to play maintenance. There was nothing dishonorable. I heard that they lacked confidence. I understand. But the survival instinct?
“The situation must be dire for Haillan employees”
What were the contents of your conversations with Gérard Lopez?
When he took over the club, he asked to see me. I told him about what this club was, its way of working and of living. Then I met him a couple of times at the games. We exchange cordially. He told me that the team was blocked, he had trouble expressing himself fully.
Would you have liked to have been offered a role?
I have always said that I was available, not in a coaching role but as an advisor, as a coordinator. I was in advanced talks with other acquisition candidates: Pascal Rigo, Didier Quillot. Then I have my intervention limits. The club is set up.
Now he is the coach of Kosovo. Is this ancient history?
It is obvious that I have these colors in my blood. Now, what will be the reality of the coming weeks? The central element, now that the athlete has failed, is finances. The situation must be dire for Haillan employees.
How do you feel about the operation?
In the chain from top to bottom, I don’t know if there was really any coordination. I argued with partners who told me that they were not very happy. When the whole sphere has things to complain about, it is because things are not going well. We were not aware of these concerns before at Girondins: the club was square, instead, it had a strong framework. The player who arrives must feel that. By nature, he will always look for excuses. If he listens everywhere, this doesn’t work; so-and-so does that, he’s just going to remember that. We must ensure that the club is once again a strong institution moving forward with one voice. When the club immediately reconvened in 1992, there was a dynamic, a common drive around it. The Americans broke everything.
“In L2, players struggle every week with the idea of reaching higher”
As a coach, you promoted Toulouse twice from L2 to L1 (in 1998 and 2000). What are the keys at this level?
The match is less calm than in Ligue 1 but the commitment is total. The players, many of whom have never experienced the L1, have the idea every week of fighting to get higher, with contexts, stadiums, media coverage that are not the same. Every game counts. Players will have to integrate this and adapt to it.
Is the discourse, linked to the financial situation, that there is no choice but to go up immediately dangerous?
Whether you say it or not, the Girondins will be expected everywhere. When you see how some teams used to L1 have gotten stuck on L2, it’s best not to stay there for too long. The place of the Girondists is in L1, it is normal and obligatory to affirm it.
If this descent is to be useful for a reconstruction, what are the important axes in your opinion?
Recreate a sports dynamic, find all the supports with which you have not felt comfortable this season. This carrier current will drag the athlete with it.
If a delegate president is appointed, must he be from the seraglio “Girondins”?