Christophe Galtier, used to enchanting his interlocutors at press conferences in Lille, Nice, or Saint-Etienne, must understand a new context at PSG, where each statement is scrutinized, dissected, amplified.
The Parisian coach also showed his first signs of annoyance a few weeks after his oddity about the not very green trips of the Parisian group in the league.
“Ah, finally a question about football!
".
Two days before hosting OGC Nice on Thursday, Christophe Galtier sent a gentle little tackle to journalists to make them understand that after a quarter of an hour of press conference, all the same, gentlemen, he would be time to finally talk a little football.
If this friendliness slipped without malice by the former Lille coach is a bit of demagoguery - he had indeed taken a good five minutes just before to explain how Mbappé's role was different at PSG and in the France team - we understand the message.
After a turbulent international break for the PSG internationals, there was no shortage of subjects when it came to getting back to the daily grind, and Galtier found himself having to comment on each other's media releases instead of talking about the match against Nice which, let's say, did not seem to interest many people.
“But it is not the fault of the journalists present at the press conference, reframes a former member of the house, a time close to the Parisian communication cell.
They do their job.
The problem, in this precise case, is the confrontation of the personal strategies of the players.
The guys use the media too much to get their messages across and then it falls on the coach…”
“Am I a PSG coach or Minister of Sports?
»
Very happy to find himself with an attacking trio prohibited for those under 18, Galtier must also, on the downside, manage the egos of each of his stars and the sometimes stormy relations between Mbappé, to whom we have promised the keys to the car at the time of his contract extension, and Neymar, whom we wanted to push out and who does not understand the new aura of his teammate in the PSG project.
It is moreover this delicate management of the extras which had made Thomas Tuchel say in his time that in Paris more than elsewhere, “it is not always only football”.
“Am I a coach or am I a politician, a sports minister?
“, he pretended to ask a German journalist a few days before being weighed down.
Former head of communications at the Elysée under François Hollande, another post where you spend your time answering everything and its opposite, Gaspard Gantzer understands only too well the exit of Thomas “top, top” Tuchel:
"Paris Saint-Germain is a special club with a very strong sporting but also diplomatic and political dimension, and therefore the coach, who somewhere is also the club's spokesperson, must prepare a bit like a prime minister. and have hardened steel communication.
Whether it's him in his role as PSG coach or us, at the Elysée, we spend our time having to manage the moods of each other, the little spades with interposed media shots.
We try to smooth things over and spare everyone, but it's not always easy!
".
Coaches often lonely in front of the press
Especially since solidarity is not really part of the vocabulary of Qatari leaders with regard to their coaches.
It must be said that with his 12,000 different hats, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi spends less time at the Factory than an elected RN in the European parliament.
Once the smiles and hugs of the first presentation conference are over, the Parisian coaches are quickly abandoned in the middle of the battlefield, and it is up to them to take the balls for everyone, especially on windy evenings.
“This is the great specificity of PSG compared to all the other clubs, confirms this former member of the house.
Here, there is only one person who communicates, it is the coach.
For me it is a concern.
Some fought at the time for there to be more regular speeches from other leaders to discuss subjects other than the team, the game and the management of the group.
In vain, even if Leonardo, in his time, could have a little fun in the mixed zone when he had messages to convey.
“In Paris, you are all alone,” confirms Guy Lacombe, who has also experienced this, although in infinitesimal proportions.
Which makes the former Parisian coach say that “Galtier is doing very well so far.
Mocked by some of our colleagues after the failure of Zidane's recruitment, Galtier was able to quickly put everyone in the pocket, in a style that we already knew him in Lille, Nice or Sainté: charming, smiling, frank and not stingy with words.
In short, a treat for the Parisian followers who suffered so much from the passage of the tornado of warm water Mauricio Pochettino.
Gaspard Gantzer deciphers: “He understood something key in the communication of leaders, it is that people decipher the com' strategies, the language elements, the postures.
They see when there is sincerity.
And so he went a little cash, in a relaxed, natural way, with a simple vocabulary and a sincere background speech.
The problem is that he took two or three bullets in the meantime and that he is walking on eggshells now.
»
Galtier is cooled by the “sailing gate”
Gantzer obviously alludes to the tidal wave caused by the (bad) joke of the sand yacht.
"An easily anticipated thing moreover", smiles the ex-adviser com' of François Hollande.
He should have abstained or answered something agreed and quickly moved on.
In general, we understand, it is better to limit oneself to responding only to subjects that we master on the fingertips.
“That's what I advised the politicians I worked with: stay in your lane.
The press often questioned the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, Laurent Fabius, on matters relating to national politics and he replied that it was not his job.
Ok to talk about Afghanistan or Europe but not about crime in such and such a city or the economic situation of the country.
Of course he had an opinion on the subject - we all have an opinion on everything - but we are not bar pillars at the commercial café.
You have to know how to stay in your place.
»
“The sand yachting was very clumsy on his part but it did not deserve such reactions, it was very violent, continues a former Parisian employee.
That's always the problem with PSG.
The media must write, speak and debate constantly because it is the club that sells and crystallizes all the angry subjects.
This is also what prompted the predecessors of Galette to make a belt and suspenders after a while.
“Most of the coaches I worked with ended up not giving anything to the media,” he confirms.
It's a shame but I can understand them in a way.
They preferred to come out of a press conference having said nothing rather than give the stick to be beaten”.
No missteps to report on Tuesday evening in Lisbon.
It must be said that the journalists had been wise: no one asked Galtier why the Parisian bus had (still) made the empty trip from Boulogne.
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Christophe Galtier
Champions League
Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG)
Soccer
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