- The time has come for Paulo Sousa one year after his arrival at the Girondins de Bordeaux.
- In a very complicated extra-sports context, the Portuguese tried to impose his hard work and winner without convincing results on the ground for the moment.
- Disappointed by its leaders, it could even leave the ship at the end of the season according to its communication in recent weeks.
Two places. This is the progress of the Girondins since the arrival of Paulo Sousa, March 8, 2019. Sunday in Saint-Etienne (3 p.m.), the Portuguese coach will blow his first candle at the head of the team. If this season Bordeaux (12th) can still believe in a European qualification (four points from 5th place) unlike a year ago, the record of the former midfielder of Juventus and Dortmund remains all the same insufficient today: 13 wins, 11 draws and 17 losses in 41 games. And an average of 1.2 points per match in Ligue 1.
These are the facts. But to judge the first year of Paulo Sousa in Gironde, it is necessary to associate the context because outside the field he lived 12 months in hell for a coach (divorce between the owners, very limited financial means or conflict with the supporters) . Events not really on the agenda for those who wanted to "raise the level of their team to make them find a rank at the height of their history" when they arrived. A gamble that has so far failed. However, not everything is to be thrown away.
A huge hard worker who put the club in order
Arrived in Bordeaux on the advice of the current football director of the club Eduardo Macia, this globetrotter from the sidelines (nine clubs in ten years) initially restored order and professionalism in an institution that was going to pieces. Strict rules of life, expanded technical staff, redesigned infrastructures… Paulo Sousa can draw on his great experience in the world of football: "I am very demanding with myself so I ask the same thing of others", likes- he remember. He is above all a workaholic as a member of the locker room points out:
“It brought only positive. Requirement at all levels. They are often small things but they change everything. It brought a superb working atmosphere. He says that we are like a family and that is true. And I have never seen a coach and his staff so invested and good. "
A culture of work and winning that he has been trying to impress for a year to his players but also to an entire club in deep sleep in recent years. On this point, the "process" (his favorite expression) is underway and rather bears fruit with his players. Apart from a few tasteless matches due mainly to the technical and tactical limits of its workforce, there is nothing to complain about on the state of mind of its team unlike previous seasons. This one often showed character to return to the score for example. It has a lot to do with it.
[# FOCUS🧐]
🤓 Deciphering the play style of @girondins de @paulomcdsousa! #FCGBDFCO #Girondins pic.twitter.com/DVNNe4ZCFt
The other success of the Portuguese, it is to have brought back a little spectacle on the ground. An innovative trainer like his modular game system installed during a rather successful first part of the season, he advocates attacking football even if it is not necessarily suited to a very physical championship. Despite the lack of a size in front, the Girondins have the fourth best attack in Ligue 1: "He managed to revive a player like De Préville at the bottom of the bucket, Hwang that nobody knew is a very good recruit, Otavio has taken on a new dimension, Basic is progressing day by day… It clearly improves its players and that is often a good sign, ”explains a former great French coach.
Feeling betrayed, he blows on the embers
So what is his team doing in the soft stomach of the championship? First of all, there is what he does not master. The lie of the former co-owner of the GACP club who had promised him significant sports investments to build a project to find the Champions League in three years. Problem, the American investment fund has never had a round in their pockets. A form of betrayal for Paulo Sousa. She brought him out of his hinges on numerous occasions by making him lose sight of the field a little. To the point of being almost obsessed with the non-recruitment of an attacker for a year.
Nantes-Bordeaux: System, workforce, state of mind… Why is Paulo Sousa no longer able to do it with the Girondins? https://t.co/wudOCgvnl9 via @ 20minutesBord pic.twitter.com/MO4kYpkElZ
- 20minutesbordeaux (@ 20minutesbord) January 25, 2020Then there is what he masters. And like any good coach, the Portuguese has the defect (or the quality according to the opinions) of being very stubborn. If this trait of character has nothing to do with the end of last season in pudding water, it has a lot to do with this terrible slump between December and January (six defeats in seven games) which today seals the Bordeaux season . "It took two months to realize that his system did not work, that all the teams had understood, and in addition it was sometimes not suitable for some of his players," insists a close to the club. Players may be too limited tactically as his captain Benoit Costil admits: "We had to go back to simpler things".
But the damage was already done: a tumble in Ligue 1 (from 3rd to 12th place) and two eliminations in the cup. The sports crisis adding to the extra-sports crisis among the Marine and Blancs. In this context which is still very tense today, Paulo Sousa does nothing to appease him. On the contrary, he does not lose an opportunity to put the fuel on the fire since in particular the winter transfer window and his disappointment with the lack of financial means of the club despite the takeover of King Street. And it does not matter if last Sunday against Nice at least 15 Ligue 1 coaches out of 20 would have liked to have their bench: Oudin, Kamano, Jovanovic, Adli, Maja and Aït-Bennasser. Today, he does not hesitate to titrate with red balls against his direction in a direct or indirect way. As if he was looking for a break…
Already ready to leave the ship?
Communication expert to the point of quoting the motto of the French Republic - "freedom, equality, fraternity" - to respond to his leadership or never forget to stroke the supporters in the direction of the hair, Paulo Sousa seems to prepare his exit over the wire weeks. Despite two successive reframes from his management - the first to ask him to focus only on the field and the second to stop putting all the problems in the public arena via his entourage - he said last week in the Gazzetta dello Sport. be looking for "ambitious and winning projects". It would therefore already be on the market.
A statement badly lived by some supporters while he runs one of the historic clubs of French football with bonus the third biggest salary of coach of Ligue 1 (280,000 euros monthly). In recent weeks, popular support has been more and more discreet: "We are not fooled by Sousa but the emergency is elsewhere (the departure from King Street)", slips a historic supporter.
It must be said that the omnipresence of its agent annoys more and more and not only internally. It was the only thing on which GACP and King Street met. As in other clubs, the latter would systematically seek to take his share in each transfer from the club like that of Rémi Oudin where he obtained the mandate of the Stade de Reims through intermediaries and even directly solicit the player for ask him why it was taking so long to reach Bordeaux according to the information from 20 Minutes.
🔴⚽️If it looks calm on the ground, it could be hot behind the scenes:
Sportif An increasingly precarious sporting interest
PauloThe Paulo Sousa case to manage
👉 Cracked supporters # Bordeaux #Girondins #FCGB https://t.co/P18qWdbbE0
Today, therefore, difficult to imagine Paulo Sousa blowing out his second candle on the Girondins' cake. Despite this situation, the former Fiorentina coach has so far never mentioned a possible departure with his leaders and the club has not started any research to date to find him a replacement. A meeting is even scheduled for early April between the two parties to discuss the next transfer window according to our information. In the meantime, Sunday in Saint-Etienne, he will not let go of his players one centimeter as usual and an end of the season in apotheosis is still not to be excluded ... As long as the lighter is used to celebrate its first season in the Girondins and not to anything else!
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