Patrick Collot.

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FRANCOIS NASCIMBENI / AFP

  • Patrick Collot will be on the Nantes bench, Sunday, at Beaujoire, for the reception of Dijon, red lantern.

  • The Avignon resident, assistant to several coaches in Ligue 1, is used to going from number 2 to number 1.

  • A man of values, Collot is also a leader and a great leader of men.

Going from number 2 to number 1 for a short period of time is a bit like the story of his life.

Sunday at 3 p.m. at La Beaujoire, on the occasion of the match against Dijon, Patrick Collot will sit on the bench of FC Nantes with the label of head coach.

Monday, President Kita asked him to replace Christian Gourcuff and take the reins of a formation, more in distress than its ranking (14th) suggests.

This is the second time he's changed his costume along the way.

Just before Gourcuff's arrival and Halilhodzic's sudden departure, in August 2019, the 53-year-old Avignon resident had already provided an interim of a match.

This time, the interim will not go beyond January, by choice and also because President Kita wants a new coach.

In Lille, Collot had already provided two interim, one in a single match in 2015 to compensate for the dismissal of Renard and then another longer after the ouster of Antonetti a year later.

These emergency missions quickly gave him the label of "service firefighter".

“To be content to think that Patrick is only that, it is reductive, plague Jean-Michel Vandamme, who was among other things director of the training center in Losc.

He has all the qualities to be a good number 1. He is fair and a good tactician.

It is a guarantee of righteousness with the players.

I have seen other technicians who have a different career than him and who nevertheless have less qualities.

"

"Not the type to stab number 1 in the back"

“He doesn't like to sell himself, he doesn't have an agent and doesn't want one, says TV and radio host Stéphane Pauwels, who held the position of

team manager

in Lille from 1999 to 2002. This is not a guy who has ambition.

He is a club servant, he has the profile to become a long-term coach.

“Problem, Collot does not have the BEPF, professional football coach diploma.

"This is the only complaint I can make him ..." regrets Vandamme.

Collot is the model assistant.

"Not the type to stab number 1 in the back," Vandamme said.

"He is loyal and faithful," adds Rachid Chihab, who had him as deputy at Mouscron during the 2014-2015 season.

I had complete confidence in him.

He knew how to step aside when needed.

"Monday, when Waldemar Kita informed him of the mission incumbent on him, he spoke to Gourcuff ... Stéphane Pauwels:" He is atypical in the field, he has real values ​​and is very respectful.

When you have respect for others, generally, others have respect for you ”.

Able to shake the walls of the locker room

Collot, suitable interim for the FCN?

"There is no better person for this," Vandamme believes.

He will try to bring together all the skills and energies to make the players understand that they are going to live well together or die together.

"Rachid Chihab believes that he is capable" of galvanizing the players ", of" giving them new impetus, a new breath ".

A man capable of big rants.

“He is able to shake the walls like never before, blows this close to the FCN.

As soon as it is a hassle, it is he who often speaks… ”“ In the tone of his voice, you know he is not laughing… ”agrees Thibault Peyre, ex-defender of Mouscron.

Leader of men, leader… Patrick Collot was already driven by his qualities when he was a player.

Stéphane Pauwels still has "the hairs" which bristle when he tells this anecdote: "In 2001, Lille played for Manchester United in the Champions League [1-0 victory for the English].

Vahid put Collot, 17th… He is not even on the bench when it was a dream to play this match.

I saw him cry in disappointment, then he straightened up and went to make a speech of a force, a power.

Sincere, genuine.

He looked at his partners one by one and said to them, "If one of you doesn't wet the jersey, it will be bad for him!"

That day, I said to myself: "He will be a coach, it's innate in him!"

"

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