“Interview with Sports Manager on Overcoming a Setback and Mobilizing a Team and Supporters”

A state of mind not warlike but that of someone who wants to give everything to go and provoke destiny all together, players, club, supporters, and ecosystem. There remains a possibility, and we should simply have no regrets.

At the final whistle, Friday evening in Annecy, how did you feel, personally?

I took it like everyone else, I’m not a robot. I was touched, affected, sad for this group. It’s always easy to judge from the outside, but inside you’re dealing with human beings. I saw their suffering, we all knew we had missed an opportunity. But I quickly turned the page.

You spoke to the players on the bus, what did you tell them?

In life, we don’t stop time. Very logically, and very calmly, I explained to them that we no longer have the possibility of changing what had happened, even if it had been a minute before. If there was no longer any possibility (of editing Ed), we should have moved on to an acceptance phase. As there are still opportunities to play, I told them that the more time we spend focusing on what we can still do, rather than what has happened, the better.

For what reasons do you believe in it?

We will have with us a sold-out stadium for the first time, an ecosystem that has regained pride in following the club and a town hall that displays the colors of the Girondins – a strong gesture. From there, we have to take the city and the stadium with us.

And besides, I see it as a sign of fate, or a virtuous circle to close: this love that people have for their club and its players today, I felt it in the first leg in Rodez. Seen from the outside, we were in a very complicated situation but we had been able to count on the energy of the group, of these young people, I told myself that we had rebuilt a foundation.

All I can ask is that for once – and this is not a criticism – the four sides of the stadium come together on this issue.

Isn’t the difficulty that the fate of the Girondins on Friday will not depend solely on its result against Rodez?

We don’t depend on anyone else for this game. This ability to go for a big victory will come from the quality of the group, its feeling of revenge, but also from the capacity of this stadium to take it. All I can ask is that for once – and this is not a criticism – the four sides of the stadium come together on this issue. No other Ligue 2 club can manage to mobilize 42,000 people

In your career as a sports manager, have you ever experienced similar situations?

When I was in Lille, we had a crucial match to win in Toulouse so as not to go down, in a hyper unstable environment. And we concede a first goal! We equalize and we take a new goal. And there, something that can only happen in sport. While we hadn’t scored a single goal from a direct free kick, Yves Bissouma, a young player I’m still following in England, chooses to shoot one directly from about thirty meters, and it equalizes! At that moment, the team said to themselves: ”This is for us”. And we escape on a third goal at the last minute.

Against Rodez, should the team, in your opinion, go on the attack from the kick-off or build up their match?

I had the chance to experience high tension sporting events, there is a balance to be found. I don’t think the players should pack the game chaotically. We have the quality to build it. On the other hand, we have the ability to pack and make the match crazy through this stadium. This team must not throw everything it can do out the window.

Are you still going to talk to players during the week?

I believe in this group so much, it deserves it so much that I wanted to help, but in the end I didn’t talk to them in Annecy. I kept a little regret. So yes, I will talk to them but without being overbearing. It may be paradoxical but I am calmer before this match against Rodez than in Annecy.

Can you imagine, all the same, the consequences of staying in Ligue 2?