- Many observers thought that the cohabitation between Christian Gourcuff - who will find his former club Rennes this Friday evening (8:45 pm) - and Waldemar Kita would be very complicated very quickly.
- After a little over six months, the two men are working rather well.
- 20 Minutes reviews the supposed reasons for this agreement between Gourcuff and Kita.
The team collects and holds well the rare shocks of this half season. After a little over six months, the president of FC Nantes Waldemar Kita and the coach Christian Gourcuff still seem to be living together on good terms. In the past, while after a few weeks, other coaches (Ranieri, Halilhodzic, Girard) had thrown trouble on their relations with their president, often at a press conference, the Breton, him, continues to praise "the serenity "à la Jonelière. He never openly reproaches his employer and handles diplomacy if he wishes to share an annoyance. The good results helping, Kita, for her part, for example praised her employee at the end of December on the club's website.
While many observers were joking this summer about the life of the duo Gourcuff-Kita in view of the strong character of the two men and especially the reputation of "big consumers" of WK coaches, so far everything is going rather well in the "couple". What are the reasons for this story that has been going on (without a big hitch) for six months?
Because Gourcuff knows it's his last challenge
The Nantes coach, who will turn 65 in April, says it over and over: Nantes will be his last challenge. "Being in the club that always inspired him and finishing there is great for him and you can feel it," blows an FCN employee. He probably wants to close the loop well and does not want to take the lead. Noel Couëdel, his friend and president in Lorient from 1998 to 2000, said nothing else: "Nantes is his football. It is a club with a history. I feel happy, soothed. He knows that this is his last experience, he wants to live it completely. »Leaving to become more flexible in its relationship with its president? René Ruello, his friend and former president in Rennes in 2001-2002 then in 2016-2017, does not think so. “When you reach a certain age, you no longer adapt, you are the way you are, especially Christian. In any case, they seem to get along well and that's good. Proof of the good agreement, Kita has already extended it by one year (2021).
Because only the land interests Gourcuff
“My priority is training. This morning, I did a session with great pleasure, I found the ball, the field, the green square. These are the first words of Gourcuff, fresh out of his retirement, during his presentation press conference in August at la Jonelière. A few months later, his "love" for daily work with his players did not fade. “He is a man in the field, a real technician who loves football, estimates Christophe Revel, in the staff of the Breton in Rennes in 2016-2017. Relations with the media and with its president do not interest him. It is not a sales representative. "Couëdel:" Christian is happy when he is with his players on the field. In Lorient, he had a global view on everything, but I have the impression that all the things aside from football… the agents, the money, etc., that no longer interests him. Ruello, who acted as an intermediary between the two men last summer, also recognizes that "the leitmotif, the passion of Gourcuff, is to shape players and a team".
Because the duo has not yet been tested by a long transfer window
For President Kita, in the past, the transfer window has often been a source of contention with his coaches. Gourcuff crossed two mercatos alongside Waldemar Kita. The first one this summer was already well under way when it arrived in early August. That of January which ends this Friday at midnight seems not to have created great tensions, even if the Nantes coach would have undoubtedly preferred to "validate" the arrival of Edmond before he left for the Jonelière ... Meanwhile, Gourcuff did not want to touch his team in January, he was almost heard. "If Kita interferes in sports, he will not like it," says Revel. If he feels he is no longer the boss of the sportsman, it's over. The endless transfer window next summer will be a real test for the "couple".
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