Monaco (AFP)
"Find the podium": Novice as club coach, the Spaniard Robert Moreno, new coach of Monaco, finds himself facing a difficult mission and must make forget two years of calamitous management in the Principality.
. Moreno without parachute
Like Leonardo Jardim when he landed in 2014, Robert Moreno, short-lived coach of Spain between June and November 2019, does not have a huge CV.
Unlike his predecessor, he only knew in club the role of assistant. First by Luis Enrique (AS Rome, Celta Vigo and Barcelona), then by Carlos Unzué, still at Celta (2017-2018).
An even slim experience when he will have the task of qualifying Monaco for the next Champions League, an economic imperative.
To place him in the best conditions, Oleg Petrov, the club's vice-president, gave him the opportunity to start with his staff.
Four Spaniards accompany him: Dani Guindos, former coach of Equatorial Guinea, as assistant, Juanjo del Ojo as physical trainer, José Sambade as goalkeeper trainer and Marc Selleres for the psychological approach.
On the contractual level, the young coach signed until June 2022. But his salary would be about one third of that of Jardim, estimated at 330,000 euros monthly.
Moreno, whose team is about to meet Paris SG twice (January 12 and 15) in L1, must take back 10 points from Marseille, current second in the championship. Without any question of breaking the piggy bank again in the winter transfer window.
After investing more than 136 million euros in transfers last summer, management believes that the current group is sufficient to achieve the objectives. Owner Dmitri Rybolovlev is waiting for only one thing: results!
. Petrov on the front line
To allow Monaco to return to the top, Petrov had long believed that Jardim was no longer the man for the job.
Recalled in person by Rybolovlev even before the appointment of Petrov, Jardim did not care for this hierarchical superior with whom he had no relationship and only Rybolovlev counted for the Portuguese technician.
But this posture has progressively pleased neither internally, nor at the Prince's Palace, nor, ultimately, at Rybolovlev himself.
If negotiations continue, Jardim could receive compensation below the eight million euros in October 2018 and would fluctuate between four and six million euros.
This eviction and the new check that goes with it being the fact of Petrov, the latter is now in the front line. A position that the Russian leader, a former boss of companies operating diamond mines, fully assumes.
Without Jardim, Petrov now feels hands free. Today he believes he has enough leeway to carry out the requested mission. If he fails, he already knows the sentence ...
. To settle the Vasilyev-Jardim years
With the dismissal of Jardim, Petrov sold off the last important pillar of the Vasilyev period in Monaco. The assistants of Jardim, Caldeira, Vieira and Barros, were thanked. And the future of André Amitrano and Bob Tahri is very uncertain.
After reshaping the medical sector in July and having partly revisited the dying communication-marketing service, Petrov has tackled the tip of the iceberg: the sportsman.
Many heads will be new at the La Turbie training center, where Petrov has an office that he will use more.
By naming him, Rybolovlev also asked him to clean up accounts that turned bright red at the end of the Vasilyev management (severance pay for Jardim, Henry and their staffs, internal commissions or for agents ...).
With the long term, the will to restore the image of a club splashed by the revelations of the "Football Leaks" and by a sports management (more than 70 players under contract, management of coaches) become unsuitable and obsolete.
The Petrov-Moreno duo's construction site is colossal and very risky.
© 2019 AFP