🗣 A former Saint-Etienne coach contemplates returning to the field

Like every week, we watched Club ASSE. Romain Revelli was the guest of the show last night on the set of TL7. He spoke about his news and that of AS Saint-Etienne.

Good balance between trust and fear

Romain Revelli : “The substitutes can be decisive. We often say the entrants. There are those who start and those who end the game. It’s a role and it often reflects the state of mind of a group. We feel now. It’s a state of mind. From the outside, already before, I felt a good state of mind.

Today there is a good balance between trust and fear. At the start of the season, there was perhaps a little too much confidence. Then a little too much fear. On matches like the one in Le Havre, you are trailing 2-0, in those moments, you can sink. Attention. And there, even at 10, we feel a good mix. The team takes its rhythm.

Being a substitute is a role. The entries show an interesting mood.

Pétrot pays the imbalance

Leo Petrot? He was my captain at Andrezieux. The year before he left for Lorient. It has strengths and weaknesses. For having seen the match, he also pays for the imbalance. We are very open, the pistons are very high. But Leo, when there is not too much balance, it is not what he prefers. When you play like that, you really need fast players behind. We see Briançon go through on the pass. But it’s true that you have to be careful when you put your buttocks on the ground.

I’m looking at it from a little further today but a player like Krasso, it really seems to me to be the man +. He has a technique where he uses his body. In a team that plays a lot in placed attack, he fixes the opposing defense and manages to trigger shifts. He is a boy that I follow a lot when he played on the lower floor and that I trained Andrezieux. He seems to me to be a very important player for this device.

Coach’s loneliness

Coaching remains a tiring job. Especially in everyday life, in the management of players, especially with the pressure there is in Saint-Étienne. Press conferences and games without a channel. It’s a lot of juice, preparation from time to time, we need to be supported.

Sometimes we feel a bit alone. I think they were very, very scared at one point and today everyone is focused on maintaining. Do not ignite and take the points. Everyone wants to hear the next projects but I think it’s maybe a little early to talk about it. It could break the good dynamic.

Today, I don’t think anyone wants to buy the club. If he doesn’t have the insurance, he’s fine. In league next year. It’s special seasons with four descents. That changes things up a bit. Everyone is tense. Communication, you have to be careful. There is no more soft stomach in these championships. But at the same time, I’m going to have a somewhat paradoxical speech, because coaches may need to be assisted. We take everything on us, recruitment, matches, etc. Then we also get paid for that.

Do not put too much pressure on yourself against Niort

Facing Niort, we have to beat them. There is something at stake. But beware. It remains a team that wins games from time to time. There are still a lot of matches left, do not believe that it will be the rocker even if it is very important. Don’t put pressure on yourself, especially for this one.

Dunkirk was a good experience. But when you are in a club, there is the pitch and everything that happens next to it. It was tough especially last season. There were a lot of little extra-sporting problems. I think I had been at the end of the story.

We made the collective decision not to finish the season despite good results. There were transfer window concerns, shareholder problems, I am known, I also have a temperament to say things. I no longer felt the desire to fight for this club, I’ve always worked like that, it also played tricks on me in my career.

I would also have to learn to be a little more political sometimes. But I also have my character and that is also my strength. I can be sometimes excessive is a little sanguine. I have no regrets since I’ve always worked like this, I need projects from people around me, well expressed, this was no longer the case in Dunkirk.

His best years at ASSE

Next summer, I want to go back to coaching, even on training. And I’m back in the area. When we count, we immediately have fewer phone calls. It is a profession in which you are more in demand when you are in office.

I’m not necessarily looking for a number 1 position. We have brought out great generations in Saint-Étienne. Guilavogui to Bamba. Zouma etc. Then I was deputy. Maybe that’s where I was the best. I was number 1. It was great.

Above all, I want to put this experience into a position where I will be surrounded by people who are like me. I’m going to take the time and it will be mainly the men’s project that will be decisive today. I am not frozen.

I was born in Saint Chamont. I spent six years playing in Saint-Étienne and then 7 or 8 years as a trainer or assistant.