The Ligue 2 championship ends on Friday June 2: relegated and penultimate, the Crocos will complete against Sochaux (8:45 p.m. at the Antonins) one of the worst seasons in their history.
It’s time for accounts, and there are some who are settling them. After former coach Nicolas Usaï and soon-to-be ex-captain Benoît Poulain, who spoke exclusively to our columns a few days ago, it was current coach Frédéric Bompard who let loose at a press conference. pregame on Thursday.
Frédéric Bompard: “I never thought I would have to go through this…”
“It’s a complicated end. We had to find 11 players to put on the pitch against Sochaux. It’s a nightmarish season. I never thought I’d have to go through this. You can’t imagine my disappointment…”
The 60-year-old technician did not really want to be there, at the Bastide training center, in front of four journalists. But to be there, he did the job, without language of wood.
Of the 14 players who went pale for the der to the Antonins? “If I feel like I’ve been betrayed? No…I’ve never criticized them in public, I’ll protect them until the end…”
“The synthetic Bastide is a car park”
On the working conditions he found in Nîmes when he arrived in December? “I’ll tell you a secret: I signed my contract one morning; in the afternoon, I went to visit the facilities. I was stunned by the structures, the pitches. The synthetic on which they play and train the reserve and the young people, it’s a parking lot (sic).” Of course, NO is not OM, Roma, Losc or even Guingamp, his previous clubs (as assistant then briefly n°1 in Brittany).
“I’m not going to be positive: there’s something to worry about…”
On the future, with or without him? “I haven’t seen the president again. I need to talk to him again. I know what I want, I have to know what he wants. He’s still the CEO of the club. But I’m not going to to be positive. There is cause for concern. Many players are at the end of their contract. We received them all this week with Sébastien Larcier (the future sporting director, if he wants it). Very few wish to stay. The only one who really told us is Mahamadou Doucouré (23). He wants to show what he is capable of.”
We are not in Koh Lanta but if there is only one left, it would be Doucouré…
We are not in Koh Lanta but if at the end, there is only one left, it would therefore be Doucouré, the pro who has played the least for two years because of repeated injuries! The world upside down.
What if he could do it again, the world, go back to December and change something to keep himself going? “I wouldn’t change anything, assures Bompard. I would just have liked to be there from the start of the season, to save time… and not to work with the same players but to choose some of them.”
We would have changed the defensive block…
We would have changed the defensive block, which conceded 41 goals in 22 days under Bompard (1.9 on average, worst defense in Ligue 2) while Nîmes had conceded 19 in 15 games under Usaï (1.3 average, 12th defense).
The Crocos certainly scored more (27, or 1.2 on average, 10th attack in L2 over the period against 14, 0.9 per game, 13th) but they scored fewer points.
They will have scored more goals, fewer points… and made history
They will have made history, too: with 22 defeats, perhaps 23, they will bear the responsibility – and the guilt – for one of the worst seasons in the club’s history. I can’t wait to get it over with this Friday. Failure and match.
The group for Sochaux: Mégier, Paget, Sbaï and Ngakoutou called up for the first team
The 15 (only) Crocos summoned for the reception of Sochaux: Maraval, Nazih (goalkeepers), Poulain, Djiga, Mégier, Paget, Fofana, Zerkane, Delpech, H. Sbaï, Pagis, Saïd, Doucouré, Tchokounté, Ngakoutou. Eleven surviving pros, therefore, and four players from the reserve team
Note that Benoît Poulain, to whom the coach had told that he would not play again this season, was summoned. Normal, Frédéric Bompard only had Djiga as a professional defender available…
The absents : Dias (goalkeeper, choice), Sadzoute, Labonne, Sy, Guessoum, Burner, De Gevigney, Vargas, Ambri, Thomasen, Lopy, N’Guessan, Benezet, Koné, Mousset (unavailable).
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