Antoine Kombouaré will remain coach of Nantes next season, where the Canaries will return to the European scene, despite his difficulties with President Waldemar Kita, he announced Thursday.
“I have decided to continue and go to the end of my contract”, which runs until the summer of 2023, the technician told the press, after announcing it to the players in the morning.
“There is a fantastic challenge next year. A year with 4 runs (to bring Ligue 1 back to 18 teams), I want to experience that. It’s going to be hot, it’s going to be hard, it’s going to be complicated And then there will be the Europa League…”, he explained.
Kombouaré had spoken bluntly the evening of the Coupe de France victory on May 7, evoking a “not easy” daily life with President Kita: “For 5 months, we have been compartmentalised”.
“It’s like in a family, there are times when we argue a little,” he explained Thursday, after speaking Monday with Kita. But if the discussions have made it possible to level the ground, “the most important thing will be the actions”, in particular the recruitments of the summer.
“I have defined a list of players. I will judge on documents, but I have confidence”, assured Kombouaré, while the management of transfers has already scrambled Kita with many of his coaches.
The summer promises to be tricky for the group from Nantes, with the already recorded departure of Randal Kolo Muani and those possible of Ludovic Blas, Alban Lafont or even Moses Simon.
Kombouaré will not oppose their departure in the event of a stimulating offer for them, nor does he expect the club to sign players not on its list.
Kita “assured me that he was going to invest. There will be departures, yes. But we must not be afraid. We must bring in new players who will bring freshness, desire. .. We can have nice surprises”.
Arrived in February 2021 at the head of a team that was heading straight for Ligue 2, Kombouaré took the Canaries to the play-offs for maintenance.
And with an almost unchanged workforce, he won this season in the Coupe de France the first Nantes title since 2001, with a very honorable career in L1 (9th with 54 points).
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