#Bordeaux #tragedy #career
January: “When you sink in the shit, there is no brake, it is free”
Great start to the year for the Girondins, hard hit by the Covid epidemic. A total of 21 players will be declared positive between the end of December and the beginning of January. The club can do everything to put pressure on the League and the Federation to postpone the Coupe de France match against Brest and the reception of Marseille, that will not happen. The Bordeaux lost logically in Armorique (3-0) with a team made up mostly of reserves, and especially against OM (0-1) for the first time since 1977 with players not fully recovered. The fans cry for a foul, not knowing that the club and the players are frankly not free from reproach. In mid-December, during internships at Clairefontaine, part of the staff took the opportunity to experience “Paris by night”. Back in Bordeaux, all these little people meet again in a restaurant for the traditional Christmas meal. While the first cases of Covid are detected, the club still authorizes M’Baye Niang to celebrate his 27th birthday in a restaurant in Mérignac, provided that the celebrations end at 10:30 p.m., according to information from the southwest. The boom, in which several players from the squad participate, will end after 4 in the morning despite the cancellation of a private MHD concert. The scapegoat for this catastrophic episode will be Thierry Delmeule, the club’s doctor, who will be removed from the first team.
The defeat against Marseille on January 7 will not be without consequences either. Four days later, Laurent Koscielny, Josh Maja, Samuel Kalu, Otavio, Mehdi Zerkane, and Paul Baysse were dropped from the first team. Accused of being the defender most involved in the goals conceded by Bordeaux, captain Kos is informed that he will no longer play for Girondins and is reinstated in an unlikely post of club ambassador while maintaining his player’s salary (nearly 300,000 euros per month). ). Otavio, Maja, and Kalu are transferred, Baysse is warned that he will not play this season and Zerkane is accused of having provided a false positive test to not play the Cup match against Brest, which he has always denied. Another consequence of Cengiz Ünder’s goal in Matmut-Atlantique, the partnership between Girondins and Winamax is terminated. “We are waiting for a sponsor to support explains Thomas Jacquemier, deputy general manager of the club, in the columns of The team. We have humor, but it was not the spirit of a society. The principles of the contract were not respected. » After the match, the sports betting operator tweeted: “There is no time to lose in Bordeaux: the players have returned to training in a bid to maintain their one-year invincibility against OM next season. »
Two days later, the Girondins without Winamax in the shirt continue to provide material to be a chamber when they return from Rennes with a 6-0 in the suitcases. As much as the score, it’s the post-match statements that hurt. Vladimir Petković makes his horoscope speak: “I’m Leo, it’s my sign in the horoscope, and one of my characteristics is to never let go” while Bruno Genesio plants the 7Y goal by declaring that he “must relativize about the opponent”.
“The problem with Bordeaux is that the management tried to find a culprit, instead of finding solutions. » to sam
At the end of the transfer window, Bordeaux has four signings: Danylo Ignatenko, Marcelo, Anel Ahmedhodžić, and Josuha Guilavogui. Incorporated captain, the latter declares that “There is positive pressure. The one that makes us give our best, that we shine. And it is this that will make the maintenance operation a success. » To celebrate, Girondins returns from Reims with a 5-0 win in the bag.
Nordine Goose: “When Bordeaux lost against OM, I was in mode: “Well, we lost the only thing that was important to us”even if it was predictable. There, we will not see them again, Bordeaux-Marseille. We should relaunch an invincibility series against a Ligue 2 club. The people of Bordeaux are so easy that we could be proud of it when in real life they are broken. »
Sam: “It is incredible to have 21 players affected by Covid. They are the only team in Ligue 1 that this has happened to. When you’re a professional footballer you get paid super well to play, so in times of Covid you don’t go out. The loss against Marseille confirmed that it was shit. There was nothing more to look forward to. Frankly, I didn’t think we were going to bottom out like that. Then you shamefully fire Koscielny. This is where I say there was a problem between the players and the management. Bordeaux’s problem is that management tried to find a culprit, instead of finding solutions. History with Winamax is slapstick at its peak. When you sink into shit, there’s no brake, everything spins freely. The January transfer window wasn’t that bad, but you could take Neymar or Mbappé, by then it was too late to put the boat back in the water, although I didn’t expect it to flow that much. »