Jean-Louis Gasset coached the Greens from December 2017 to June 2019 with success.
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PASCAL GUYOT / AFP
The Girondins de Bordeaux welcome this Wednesday (9 pm) to the Matmut Atlantique AS Saint-Etienne for the “Gassetico”.
A Jean-Louis Gasset who left sportingly good memories in the Forez but that some supporters and observers consider partly responsible for the current difficulties of the Greens.
His entourage takes his defense with
20 Minutes
whether on a personal or economic level.
He may have left for eighteen months, Jean-Louis Gasset is still talking in the Forez.
Well, most of the time.
It must be said that his sports record during his stint with the Greens (December 2017 - June 2019) is more than respectable with in particular a qualification in the Europa League after having saved the club from relegation.
But there are also some criticisms.
A little music has been suggesting for a few months that the new coach of the Girondins de Bordeaux would be partly responsible for the current difficulties of the Stéphanois ...
"Sacred subject ... It divides even within our team", admit with a smile the managers of the Twitter account, Sainté Inside.
Between his surprise departure, his short-term vision at the time and the failure of his loyal assistant Ghislain Printant… There can be debate.
And some supporters or observers of the club do not hesitate to recall it when it comes to explaining the poor results of the ASSE of Claude Puel, 15th in Ligue 1 before moving this Wednesday (9 p.m.) to Bordeaux .
A bitter start for the supporters
“More than the situation of the club, I especially have the feeling that some supporters have in the way his departure from the club, recognizes Faustine of the site Envertetcontretous.
He said he was tired so many people did not understand that he could sign for the Girondins a few months later.
Jean-Louis Gasset would have abandoned the Greens then in full rise.
At the time, the main interested party assumed: “My mission is finished.
I am coming back home.
Between my passion and my family, I chose my family.
Today, those around him want to put things in context:
I can understand how [the supporters] are feeling but they don't know everything about his life.
When Jean-Louis [Gasset] arrived he was still very affected by the death of his wife but he fought for this club.
He gave everything.
It was right at the end of the end, completely done.
"
Moreover after his departure, "he thought he would never re-train, he wanted to become a consultant in a club, he had also signed a contract as a consultant with Médiapro", adds this relative.
If he resumed service, it is only because Jean-Louis Gasset mourned his loss, found someone to help him get back to the field and that it was Bordeaux who knocked on his door.
Does its passage still weigh on Saint-Etienne finances?
This is perhaps the criticism that comes up most often about Jean-Louis Gasset.
Saint-Etienne would pay today the management of its workforce at the time.
The club would have bought too many players and especially would have overpaid them on his advice.
Who are they ?
Debuchy, M'Vila, Cabella, Khazri, Kolodziejczak, etc.
“He had a short-term vision that paid off because we were able to dream of the Champions League.
The problem when you dream is waking up!
We are in considerable debt, but the first responsible are the club leaders who have not supervised their choices, ”according to one of the members of Sainté Inside.
“When I arrived, I had the perception of a high level group but which could not fit into the future.
The club was going into the wall.
He was in debt to follow this pattern that had lived, “slips his side Claude Puel, without specifying who he was targeting precisely that day.
Its management or the former deputy of Laurent Blanc.
Before the #FCGBASSE meeting, Jean-Louis #Gasset returned, with a certain nostalgia, on his time with the Greens.
He has not the slightest regret about what he experienced on the Forez side despite the criticisms received on the management of his group a few months after his departure.
pic.twitter.com/fyBuA5DI6Y
- Florian Sabathier (@FSabathier) December 15, 2020
In his defense, a former leader wishes above all to recall that "the accounts were already in the red before Gasset".
His clan, he is stepping up to the plate against this received idea: "Already in transfer, it did not cost anything because many arrived free and that of Khazri was paid with the money of Ronaël Pierre-Gabriel [side trained in the 'ASSE transferred for around 6 million euros to Monaco].
For salaries, you have to make the balance between what they cost because many have left since then and what the results have brought financially to the club with the European Cup.
It is also he who launches Saliba [transferred for 30 million euros to Arsenal].
In all this, there is a failure with Ntep and a player perhaps in surplus, Boudebouz [he arrives in the 2019 offseason where Printant takes over].
In the end, it is a false trial that we make him!
"
Printant, a failed assistant
It is a vast philosophical question: Can one be responsible for the failure of another?
"We, the biggest criticism that we make is to have pushed internally for the enthronement of Ghislain Printant", explains Romain de Sainté Inside.
Jean-Louis Gasset would have his share of responsibility in the crash of his faithful assistant and successor Ghislain Printant at the head of the Greens in the summer of 2019. The latter had experienced a catastrophic start to the season in the wake of his departure before being dismissed by its management after two months of the championship.
Jean-Louis Gasset and his deputy Ghislain Printant in the background.
- Mehdi Fedouach / AFP
On this point, an acquaintance of the two men perhaps recognizes a casting error at the time: “Ghislain [Printant] is a formidable assistant but he surely has a limit of competence.
Not technical but psychological.
When he's number 1, he changes and tends to mess around with everyone.
“And for once, Jean-Louis Gasset is not there for much.
Puel, its opposite
Finally, the current Girondins coach can not be held solely responsible for the results of the Greens for more than a year.
If Claude Puel decided to exclude some former big salaries like Ruffier at first then Boudebouz, Khazri and Trauco (reinstated since) to make room for young people at the start of the season, it is not for nothing.
"Those in charge, it is especially the leaders, judges a good connoisseur of the club, when one goes from Gasset to Puel, one goes from one extreme to another.
There is no logic, no sports project in this.
“And once again, there too, the Girondins coach is not much to do with it!
In the end, supporters and observers can always discuss the consequences of Jean-Louis Gasset's move to ASSE but “what he did in Sainté, he did very well and overall everyone has a lot of respect for him here, ”concludes Faustine.
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