“Meet Pierre Aristouy, the New Coach of FC Nantes”

PAlmost ten years later, the story stutters. With another visibility. Launched for the first time on the bench of a senior team in January 2014 for a maintenance operation in CFA (3rd level) of the Stade Montois, Pierre Aristouy, 43 years old and coach of the U19s of FC Nantes, was appointed this Tuesday at the place of Antoine Kombouaré to try to save the Canaries, relegation four days from the end with two points behind Auxerre (16th). “I am convinced that he will succeed,” said agent Christophe Hutteau, who accompanied the former striker at the end of his playing career and the beginning of that of…

PAlmost ten years later, the story stutters. With another visibility. Launched for the first time on the bench of a senior team in January 2014 for a maintenance operation in CFA (3rd level) of the Stade Montois, Pierre Aristouy, 43 years old and coach of the U19s of FC Nantes, was appointed this Tuesday at the place of Antoine Kombouaré to try to save the Canaries, relegation four days from the end with two points behind Auxerre (16th). “I am convinced that he will succeed,” said agent Christophe Hutteau, who accompanied the former striker at the end of his playing career and the start of that of coach. “We will all be behind him,” says Eric Saint-Martin, general manager of the Stade Montois omnisports.

In a decade, the Landais has built his career in the image of his personality: “rigorous, leaving nothing to chance, demanding with himself and with others”, says Eric Saint-Martin. When the latter, then president of the football section, entrusted him with the keys, Pierre Aristouy was this pro (Nantes, Grenoble, Bayonne, Saint-Gratien, Pau) returned to close the loop and begin his retraining, where he grew up. , where his parents live and where he returns every summer. “He had started to graduate. He was in charge of the sports section, sports studies in high school. He had been entrusted with the U15s. The results of the first team precipitated things. It needed a shock. It was not easy to coach boys with whom he had played. But he was serious, thoughtful. »

Requirement and Identity

Red lantern, the Montois stadium will go up 14 points behind and finish 9th. The following seasons, with the lowest budget, the Yellow and Black finished 5th then 2nd. “He had brought order and discipline, not just in everyday life, but tactically and in training,” said Christophe Hutteau. He was one of those players who hate to lose, even small games. »

Eric Saint-Martin remembers a “coach putting a lot of pressure on his leaders, not with disproportionate demands but in the search for perfection”. “He is frank, wanted to put a professional frame at the amateur level. He liked to manage everything, while being attentive to the ideas that we could bring to him, ”says Thierry Chiarello, one of the two assistants whom Aristouy had chosen.

The technical ideas were anchored by FC Nantes 1990-2000, integrated at 14 years old in training and with whom he played his 11 L1 matches. “In his speech, he quoted sentences from Coco Suaudeau or Raynald Denoueix, points out Thierry Chiarello. They wanted players who stuck to this philosophy: movement, ground play, intensity”. “He wants enterprising teams: he’s not going to yell at a player who misses a pass, but one who doesn’t dare,” says Christophe Hutteau.

Deadpan

Obviously, this “tongue-in-cheek” faithful of the Madeleine celebrations “who does not get into the slum easily” but “who must be known”, did not hesitate for long when the FCN called him to take in hand the reserve. “He wouldn’t have gone anywhere,” said Thierry Chiarello. Despite his convincing results with the young Canaries – champion of N2, champion of France U19; hatching of Merlin, Louza and especially Kolo Muani – to see him arrive number one “was neither expected nor anticipated”, says Hutteau.

Proof, Aristouy, struck last year by the sudden death of his sister, does not have his DEPF, a necessary diploma in L1 and L2 for which the system of admission to training annoys him. Fate again accelerated the process.

Simon Elissalt: “The impression that it’s easy for him”

Former team-mate of Pierre Aristouy then players under his orders at the Stade Montois, Simon Elissal, today sports director, recounts his memories and the personality of the new Nantes coach.
The player/coach transition. “When he talks about football, it’s like when he was playing: it seems like it’s easy for him. It was innate in him, he is a leader of men. For my generation, I think we lived with him our best footballing years because we enjoyed ourselves in training, we enjoyed ourselves in matches. When he took over the team and we were last, he got down to making us happy again. We had only played, only the ball and he had brought us his knowledge of football. »
Its principles. “For him, football is played with the head. He liked possession, trapping the opponent by creating superiority on the sides, anticipating recovery with always the collective above everything. He made us understand that we would achieve nothing on our own and he always repeated Johann Cruyff’s phrase: “Playing football is simple. But playing simple is the hardest thing in the world. »
Son management. “In management, he had a professional approach, was very demanding, a little too much sometimes with us who were amateurs. We felt he needed to go higher. It has reached limits with us but that’s how we progress. He’s a good guy from Montois, a Landais, his parents gave a helping hand in the offices and at the bar. I don’t keep in regular contact but he called me last year when he found out that I had seriously injured myself. »
His arrival in L1. “Logic, I don’t know, because there is rarely logic in football. He was with the Nantes reserve (U19), they sent him back with the U19s. He was able to remain patient but on the football results, there is no photo: he deserves it. He advances his teams, his players. His vision of football will inevitably find a cost among the players. Is that going to be enough to keep them going, I don’t know, but he has things to teach them. »