Results and finances at half mast, future of Claude Puel uncertain, sale of the club at a standstill: Saint-Etienne, adrift, receives Angers this Friday, October 22 for a capital match, with the only horizon of maintaining in Ligue 1, determining for the future of the club.
Last four lengths from Bordeaux, first non-relegation, ASSE, swept away in Strasbourg (5-1) on Sunday, is looking for a first victory on this 11th day, under penalty of seeing the atmosphere become seriously strained with its supporters ultras.
In this context, the future of Claude Puel, trainer and general manager, is inevitably in suspense, all the more since the ultimatum posed by the ultras from Saint-Etienne on Thursday in training, where they deployed a threatening calico: “Puel: we give you 24 hours to resign“.
“I think the supporters will be behind their team and that is the most important. We are at home and we must put pressure on our opponent and not create a harmful atmosphere for our team.“Said the technician at the pre-match press conference Thursday afternoon.
An umpteenth defeat could cause his ouster but such a departure would only temporarily ease the tensions around the team without improving its value.
Because, for lack of resources, ASSE has not been able to recruit over any of the last four transfer periods.
And the 35 million euros of the sale – in several deadlines – of the young Wesley Fofana for Leicester, in particular, served only to fill the deficits and to finance last season.
This summer, Saint-Etienne could not keep the defender Pape Abou Cissé, on loan from Olympiakos, who had largely contributed to the rescue of the Greens.
Puel no longer has the means obtained by Jean-Louis Gasset (December 2017-2019) who arrived at ASSE when the team was already at the bottom of the rankings, and who had benefited from large investments, via loans, to return to Europe in a little over a year.
“This economic model was no longer sustainable after the club had taken on heavy debt to try to titillate the top of the ranking. We had to sell youngsters just to make sure we play in Ligue 1“, Puel told AFP last January.
“The DNCG validated the reversal of our sporting and economic model at the end of the 2020-2021 season, but our payroll remains inadequate with our income. Structurally, the club still generates deficits“, for his part admitted in September the Executive Chairman Jean-François Soucasse to the daily La Tribune-Le Progrès.
“The club will be able to bring this season to a close“, he had however affirmed, leaving to consider a tight cash flow and therefore, an all the more urgent transfer.
In 2018, the two shareholders, Bernard Caïazzo (67 years old) and Roland Romeyer (76 years old), already wanted to sell the ASSE Groupe holding company, which they each hold for half.
With the prospect of the mirific contract of TV rights signed by the LFP with the ephemeral broadcaster Mediapro, they then rejected offers from powerful buyers, such as that of the American fund Peak6.
Since then, the financial situation has worsened with the crises of the withdrawal of Mediapro and the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, and ASSE has further subscribed to two loans guaranteed by the State (PGE).
The current shareholders, who have not reinjected their own funds since 2018, are probably no more in a position to reject offers from serious investors, such as the one brought by local entrepreneurs, led by Drômois Olivier Markarian and supported by a Luxembourg financial institution.
Wishing to make a clean sweep of the past, they have the favors of Romeyer and local elected officials, but not those of Caïazzo who is not part of their project. However, he wishes to remain a minority in the capital to continue to sit in the bodies of national football, and would not intend to sell his shares. On the contrary, he continues his hypothetical quest for a billionaire investor.
The two shareholders must agree to the sale and will also have to agree quickly to stand surety in order to borrow to strengthen the team which will be further weakened this winter by the departure of six to eight players at the Coupe d ‘ Africa of Nations in January-February.
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