Saint-Étienne (AFP)

Two days before the explosive derby against Lyon, Saint-Etienne official Friday Friday the arrival of Claude Puel, the former technician rival Lyonnais, at the controls of a club where instability seems to be the main game background these last years.

At 58, Puel will start with the Greens by the famous derby against Lyon (11th), which has only one point in the standings, and where its history, between 2008 and 2011, was very complicated, especially by his relationship with the public and ultras groups.

They accused him of an unattractive game and the lack of titles after a glorious period during which Lyon had been seven-time champion of France (2002-2008) but also winner of the Coupe de la Ligue (2001) and of the Coupe de France (2008).

Even if Puel maintained the club's standing in the Champions League with a semi-final in 2010 lost to Bayern Munich (0-0, 0-3), the story ended in pain, and even before the courts.

Puel was sacked one year from the end of his four-year contract, before losing before the industrial tribunal and then on the various appeals, until the court of cassation in 2016, which rejected all his requests for compensation while claiming nearly seven million wages and damages.

Hello atmosphere for the reunion Sunday in the field with the club Jean-Michel Aulas. At least it gives him a nice business card with fans Etienne!

After Robert Herbin, Jacques Santini, Robert Nouzaret, and Alain Perrin, Claude Puel, who was also on the bench of Monaco (French champion in 2000), Lille and Nice, is the fifth coach to have led the two rival clubs. professional.

- Chronic instability -

The former Monaco player (1979-1996) who found a post in France after two and a half years spent in England in Southampton (2016-2017) then Leicester (2017-February 2019), where he was sacked in the two cases, is already the sixth technician at the bedside of the Greens for 27 months.

Christophe Galtier (2009-2017), the ephemera Oscar Garcia (June 2017-October 2017), Julien Sablé (October 2017-December 2017), Printant (June 2019-October 2019) who replaced Jean-Louis Gasset (December 2017-June 2019) of which he was the deputy, succeeded one another at the head of the professional team.

Captain Loïc Perrin (34), who began his career with the Greens in 2003, will have even played for eleven coaches with Frédéric Antonetti, Elie Baup, Ivan Hasek, Laurent Roussey and Alain Perrin.

The last four were appointed under the mandate of the two current majority shareholders, Bernard Caïazzo and Roland Romeyer, which began in 2004.

Puel, who likes to control everything and arrives as general manager and coach, therefore arrives in a club where instability is not limited to the field. We can also talk about a succession of CEOs with Vincent Tong Cuong, Stéphane Tessier, Frederic Paquet, left early September, and now Xavier Thuilot who comes in the luggage of Claude Puel.

Puel has also chosen Jacky Bonnevay (58) as his assistant coach with whom he was already working in Leicester. But he especially conditioned his arrival in Saint-Etienne to that of Thuilot (52 years) who held the position of DG in Lille where the two men met.

- Expanded sporting skills -

Puel wants logically to rely on a strong man, of confidence, in the offices where Romeyer (74 years), president of the directory is present daily.

After the departure of Tessier (2010-2015), Romeyer had accumulated his function with that of general manager.

The arrival of Xavier Thuilot will inevitably limit the influence of Romeyer who militated yet, and since June, for the arrival of Puel, while Bernard Caïazzo (65 years), chairman of the supervisory board, supported the candidacy of Printant.

In the end, Puel will have expanded sporting powers until the recruitment, mission hitherto assigned to David Wantier, whose repeated failures should weaken his position.

© 2019 AFP