Monaco (AFP)

"I'm not destabilized easily": after two slaps received against Lyon and Metz at the beginning of the championship, 3-0 each time, the Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim is already under pressure when welcoming Nimes Sunday. A feeling that the Portuguese knows well.

"Everyone here is used to the pressure of football," says Jardim, "that's part of our job, nothing changes." Before receiving the Crocodiles, 19th of L1 with zero points on the clock as Monaco, the coach faces.

He has "the obligation to win this game, it's always the same," he slips. But Sunday, the acts will have to follow. Otherwise, the Portuguese coach would enter a zone of strong eddies, like that of last year, which ended up costing him his post in October.

True, he has since returned to the controls and saved the club from relegation. But since his return in January, Monaco is bad. The weaknesses have not always been corrected.

"It's a bit of a continuation of last season," he says confidently "Little by little, the club is bringing players in to make a difference." Recruitment and field work will create a new dynamic " .

For this, Vice President Oleg Petrov, balancing between obligations to strengthen the team and reduce the number of contracts, tries to satisfy him.

Jardim wished the elders of Sporting, Silva and Slimani? They are there. He wanted new offensive cartridges? Onyekuru, Ben Yedder and Martins cost 87 million euros. Without mentioning the return of loan Baldé, bought 30 million to Lazio in 2017. Or even the case Falcao, Monaco wants to keep ...

Jardim nods. But he is still waiting for a central defender and a midfielder.

- Jardim: "Oleg knows" -

"Today, the group is not yet fully formed, he said, this will be the case within a week." As if to clear his name, he continues: "Only six or seven players have completed all six weeks of pre-season, the others were not there, it's almost as if this job was to be thrown away."

The Portuguese can not be content with this argument, real but insufficient, since it relates to a situation common to the majority of clubs. So, since his arrival in France in 2013, he protects his family.

"I defend the club's elders," he says, "Falcao, Glik, Subasic, Jemerson, those who have been champions, they work a lot, Falcao too, and if he does not play, he's hurt." Otherwise, even if he wants to leave, he would play.

"I give importance to the important things, asserts Jardim Oleg (Petrov, who supported him on Wednesday, ed) knows what is happening at the club.He knows what we say at our appointments. He knows what he's talking about, unlike people who do not know anything, but who also speak ".

A spade barely masked towards its detractors, the press or even the Net surfers who, on Twitter, made emerge the tendency #Jardimout in France last week: "One does not destabilize me easily", insists the Portuguese.

"What supporters are we talking about," he says, "those who are behind their cell phones, today in society, we are hiding, we are afraid to talk face to face. We want to always change everything: mobile, home, woman or man! There is no respect, those who want to change the old or the coach, would change father and mother if they could. " Or maybe just the current results of AS Monaco ...

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