Inducted Tuesday, the new coach of Montpellier Hérault gave us his first impressions. Workforce, staff, transfer window, ODO took stock of the hot issues of the MHSC.
What is your state of mind three days after joining Montpellier Hérault SC?
I am very proud and very happy to have signed in this club which is healthy, ambitious and with means.
How were contacts made with the club?
It was late because my priority was Brest and the athlete. I still had a year of contract but I knew that clubs were interested in me. I told my agent to take care of it as I was focused on maintaining. The concern is that I thought to save myself before but between the emergence of Nantes, which recovered very quickly, and us who had difficulty in concluding … Besides, we are doing pretty well at the end. It all took a long time and as soon as the championship ended, with the chance not to go to the play-offs, the discussions accelerated. It happened after all the stress of this season.
Signing in Montpellier, is that a progression for you?
Of course, it is an ambitious club which has a rather glorious recent past but which is also coming out of a good season. Montpellier finished eighth, offered play and scored a lot of goals. I take this succession and it is a responsibility. It’s a step forward, I change my caliber without denying anyone. With Brest, I played the maintenance. I spent two great seasons there with goals that have been achieved but it is true that other concerns await me with other means.
You are Gardois like two of your predecessors (Michel Mézy and René Girard) who marked the history of the club …
I understood it well and I was made to understand it. I will gladly lift a trophy like them. It is a great succession to take with a lot of responsibilities behind. I saw Michel (Mézy) at the club, he gave me a few little reminders, a little southern “rooming” but always in a friendly manner.
What roadmap has Laurent Nicollin set for you?
The goal is to continue working on what has been done for a while. The roadmap is also to work with the training center, there are good young people. We are currently working on an implementation to continue to promote this efficient center. The focus will be on post-training this season, in addition to the rest.
Have any goals been set?
Not yet on the results. We are still working on the implementation with some of my staff who come with me from Brest. There is also one here with histories. Everything is being put in place so that we are a big united team to receive the players.
Who will the staff be made up of?
There will be Grégory Pérès who was my assistant in Brest and whom I know from Dijon. We were together at the training center and he was with the reserve team. There will also be Benjamin Guy, who was the athletic trainer for my entire Dijon period, as well as Maxime Flaman, video analyst who will come to work with the one already at the club. Pascal Baills will stay with us as an assistant, as will all the medical staff. Romain Pitau (current trainer of the reserve, Editor’s note) will also come with us. He will have an important role in being this link with the training center commissioned by Francis De Taddeo. Jean-Yves Hours joins us to train the goalkeepers.
You are interested in mental preparation. Have you made a place in your staff for a specialist in this field?
This is something that we will certainly see a little later. This is what I had set up in Brest. This person couldn’t come at the start of the season so we couldn’t do the job we wanted, but she accompanied a lot of players. We will see the trend among MHSC players, assess how they feel about this team. If there are needs, we will eventually call on someone.
In terms of the workforce, there have been announced arrivals (Thuler, Leroy), players are at the end of their contract (Hilton, Congré). Should we expect departures, Laborde for example?
It’s really too early yet. There is nothing fixed. We planned a bit like all clubs on a recruitment but it is still too early to announce things.
You are recognized in Ligue 1 for being an attacking coach, was that at the heart of the discussions with the president?
I think that if they made me come, it’s because there is also this idea of the game. We already saw it last season here, there are players who go in this direction. there and have technical capabilities. But it will not be just that, it will be necessary to find a balance. But yes, there is a desire to be able to develop the game with this team, which will nevertheless have to be reinforced at the defensive level because that is where the pack hurt last year.
Precisely Michel Der Zakarian has often pointed out the absence of a real sentry. Is this a profile you are looking for?
Yes there will certainly be in the recruitment a guiding idea on this central axis, more a sentinel when we are really fixed on the workforce. Because there are still uncertainties about players who are under contract and can be called upon. The other years, we were on long mercatos, there we will be, with the states of each other at the club level with the financial uncertainties that are added to the Covid, in a transfer market that will last until the end August. It will be very, very long, it will take a very long time to set up the teams, everyone is impacted financially, all the teams will try to sell and then buy afterwards. It will really spread out. For recruitment, we will do what we can at first but after that there will be a wait.
However, will you be able to rely on significant technical potential (Savanier, Delort, perhaps Belhanda)?
Yes, I will rely on that, on what is already in place and I will also rely on young shoots who can come and strengthen this team. If we manage to keep the big bones, there is real potential.
Olivier Dall’Oglio est né le
May 16, 1964 (57 years old) in Alès
(Gard). Trained in Alès, he has
played 384 pro matches
(Alès, Strasbourg, Perpignan,
Rennes). As a coach, ODO notably reached the Gambardella final in 2004 with Nîmes where he held the post of head of the training center, took Dijon from L2 to L1 and twice maintained Brest, his last club before the MHSC.
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