2023-09-20 06:11:09
Seville (Spain) (AFP) – Recognized coach in Ligue 1, Franck Haise discovers at 52 the Champions League against Sevilla FC on Wednesday (9:00 p.m.) in Andalusia while his club, Lens, has been plunged into crisis since the start of the season.
Published on: 09/20/2023 – 08:11
3 mn
When the ship pitches, caught in a storm, it is to their captain that the sailors turn. In the world of football, players look to their coach, the first guide often held responsible for the poor results of his team to the point, sometimes, of being ejected from the bench.
It is therefore up to Franck Haise to raise the bar for the Sang et Or, last in Ligue 1 with four defeats in five matches, the last similar to a shipwreck at home against the promoted Metz (1-0), far from the cruise of last season, finished in second place.
“I didn’t think I would be there, with a point after five matches,” admits the Lensois coach, taking care to avoid the annoying word: crisis. “Lens is in great difficulty. It is not anecdotal to lose as many matches in five days as during the whole of last season.”
The entry into the running of the Artois club in the prestigious Champions League should have been a celebration for the Lensois, one more step in the rise of Franck Haise, elected best coach of the last financial year, very popular in the mining area and respected by the press.
Here he is already in an emergency, while the 2023-24 season is nothing like the previous one. “I knew it would be different. Certainly more complicated. There, we have to deal with it, and the first who has to deal with it is me,” he assumes.
“Believe in us”
Courted by other clubs in the off-season, the Norman decided to continue the adventure, undoubtedly driven by the great momentum of his troops during the final spring sprint (eleven victories in twelve matches) and by the idea of discover the joy of European evenings.
Franck Haise in his technical zone at the edge of the pitch during the L1 match between Paris-SG and Lens at the Parc des Princes in Paris on August 26, 2023 © FRANCK FIFE / AFP/Archives
But at the dawn of starting their campaign in C1, twenty years after the previous one, the Artesian troops, almost neophytes at this level, arrived in Seville in a precarious state of form. “There are the little ailments and certain players who arrived later, but also those who are at the club and who are not 100% (…) But we must continue to believe in ourselves,” he insists.
In this heavy context, Franck Haise retains significant legitimacy in view of his fantastic career since 2020. Certainly, the current crisis is out of all proportion to the few slumps of the last three seasons. But each time, he was able to find the keys. A new keychain would be wise this time.
Ahead of the defeat against Metz, the coach had a very positive speech regarding the C1: “If we don’t take it with pleasure, it’s because we’re really old fools”, he said in La Voix du North. “Everyone should try to have fun. We don’t know when it will come back.”
Added to the need to “do the maximum, while obviously remaining humble”, here is Franck Haise’s recipe.
© 2023 AFP
1695191174
#Franck #Haise #method #put #test #Champions #League