• After five years on the bench of the Strasbourg club, Thierry Laurey will leave Alsace.

    His contract has not been extended, RCSA announced on Monday.

  • What will be Laurey's place in the history of Racing?

    Can he be considered the best coach the club has known?

    We asked the question to former players, coaches, supporters ...

  • "He is on a podium with four steps," explains Philippe Wolff, president of the Federation of RCS supporters.

“Thank you Thierry.

“Since Monday and the announcement of his departure from RC Strasbourg, Thierry Laurey is once again popular!

After five years on the Alsatian bench, including the last complicated months, the technician receives a shower of public tributes.

From his now ex-employer, Racing supporters, some of his former players ...

With this concert of praise, a question already arises: is he the best coach the club has known since its creation in 1906?

Without going back to the pre-war period, few can contest the title.

"He is on a podium with four steps", details Philippe Wolff, the president of the Federation of supporters of the RCS.

“I don't know in what order but with Gilbert Gress, Jacky Duguépéroux or Paul Frantz.

"

Each coach has his arguments.

The first city is the architect of the only title of champion of France in 1979. Not nothing!

"In my opinion, he is the greatest", quickly slices his former defender Jean-Jacques Marx.

“For his time, he was already in modern football.

Gilbert Gress had imposed green before each match and advocated total football.

Even though we had great players, he was really the architect of our coronation.

"

Racing back in the French Top 15 with Laurey

Before this golden era, Paul Frantz had already brought to the Strasbourg team its first moments of glory in the early 1960s. With a French Cup on the clock (1966) or this European epic against AC Milan, FC Barcelona and Manchester United. "Considered as a master by many coaches, he marked his function with innovative playing principles", greeted the RCSA in 2006, at the time of his death.

In terms of the prize list, a coach nevertheless takes the ascendancy: Jacky Duguépéroux. The only one who lifted two trophies, the 1997 and 2005 League Cups. Before returning to help the club regain Ligue 2 in 2016, after five years in the amateur world. "He is someone who has always been able to respond to the objectives set," explains ex-midfielder Guillaume Lacour. He knew how to mobilize and convey his demands to the group. It allowed Racing to take stages. »Before leaving his place to a certain… Thierry Laurey.

And him, therefore, what will have been his impact?

"He took over the team while the club was in Ligue 2 and gave it back a place in the top 10-15 in Ligue 1 while stabilizing it and working over time", summarizes the former master of free kicks Teddy Bertin.

“In my time, we spoke of Racing as Marseille from the East.

I had known four coaches with Mankowski, Leroy, Pouliquen and Hasek in five seasons [1998-2003]!

It has changed and it is not for nothing.

"

"He gave us a series of emotions"

It's very simple, the ex-Montpellérain will have been the one who will have remained the longest consecutively on the Alsatian bench: 1,454 days precisely. With, of course, a calm management who trusted him. “They had a good time with Marc [Keller]. He was the right coach for the president and it matched for five years, ”reacts François Keller. The director of the RCSA training center also evokes “the last five years of success”, crowned by this 2019 League Cup and the short but intense adventure in the Europa League the following summer.

📊 On average, @RCSA league games under Thierry Laurey produced 2.77 goals (scored + conceded).



🔹 Only Claude Le Roy (2.94) and Léonard Specht (3.27) have a higher average over the last 40 years (among the main coaches). # LiveRCS pic.twitter.com/lXBytQbcrc

- Racing Database 🥨 (@ 1RacingDatabase) May 25, 2021

"He gave us a series of emotions by bringing Racing to a level that we did not expect so quickly", synthesizes Philippe Wolff by refuting the image of defensive coach which sometimes stuck to the skin of Thierry Laurey. A statistic, found by the Racing Database site, confirms this. With him as a coach, the Strasbourg team's championship matches produced 2.77 goals (scored and conceded). This is the third best total of the last forty years, after those of his predecessors Claude Le Roy (2.94) and Léonard Specht (3.27).

“I think the fans will keep the image of a passionate, frank, whole coach.

Maybe it will also have played tricks on him with certain statements but we will keep the best of him, ”concludes the president of the Federation of RCS supporters, also awaiting the name of the new coach.

He will have a heavy task: to succeed one of the greatest coaches in Racing.

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