The weight of 10 French championship titles and 18 consecutive seasons in Ligue 1 was not enough to save AS Saint Etienne. After a barrage under very high tension against AJ Auxerre (3rd in Ligue 2), concluded by the failure of Ryad Boudebouz on his shot on goal (1-1, 4-5 on pens) and by a chaos absolute on the lawn of Geoffroy-Guichard in stride, the Greens sink in Ligue 2. The almost logical outcome of a nightmarish season at all levels, with 20 defeats in the league. 20 Minutes examines the responsibilities of this XXL fiasco in Sainté, and this one is obviously not limited to badly controlled dam against the AJA.
A duo of presidents in distress
In sixteen years at the head of AS Saint-Etienne, the pair Roland Romeyer-Bernard Caïazzo has often been confusing in his choices. His sense of timing once again amazed everyone on Sunday evening. Only 15 minutes after the fatal defeat of the Greens against AJ Auxerre, the shareholders issued a statement of course prepared, and which was not followed by any statement to the press, whether from Roland Romeyer, Pascal Dupraz or players.
“This failure, we must accept it. As major shareholders, we take full responsibility for this. In a while, we will announce important news regarding the future of the club and ours. An essential page of our life will be turned, but we place above all the ASSE institution which, we are convinced, will very quickly find the path of the elite”, specify the two presidents, indicating almost clearly that they will soon to formalize the sale of the club, more than a year after having officially launched this process.
If indeed the relegation and the ultimate show of force of the ultras from Saint-Etienne on the lawn on Sunday do not deter the American billionaire David Blitzer, or any other buyer, which would be understandable… This sea serpent of a sale which does not succeed never before has crystallized the tension between supporters and management. And if Bernard Caïazzo, who has been living in Dubai for two years, is very far from the electric Saint-Etienne context, this weighs a lot on Roland Romeyer (76 years old), more and more marked by recurring criticism and insults from the main groups. supporters, like his house tagged after the defeat against Reims (1-2) on May 14.
After having had the merit of stabilizing the club economically, with the famous salary cap, and succeeded in major human choices on the bench, with Christophe Galtier and Jean-Louis Gasset, Roland Romeyer and Bernard Caïazzo then planted themselves in broad outline. From Ghislain Printant, ex-deputy of Gasset, ASSE systematically found itself fighting to stay in the top flight. Julien Sablé’s interims did not bear fruit, as did the choice of Pascal Dupraz, and especially that of Claude Puel before him, installed with full sporting powers, in a very rare (and therefore very risky) managerial position. in League 1.
The terrible passage of Claude Puel
What better way to understand the abysmal gap between the ambitions displayed by Claude Puel and the sporting reality than an interview dating from January 2020, three months after his arrival on the bench? “The goal is the Champions League. Aiming for fifth place does not interest me. You have to build something to try to go much higher, ”he announced on Eurosport at the time. In the end, he certainly took the Greens to the Stade de France (0-1 against PSG in the 2020 Coupe de France final), but he was saved the same year by the premature end of Ligue 1 ( 10 days before the end) due to Covid-19, with a 17th place. 11th in 2021 (6 points behind the barrage), the former Lyonnais coach was 20th with 12 points in 17 days when he was sacked on December 5 after a memorable rout against Rennes (0-5).
To his credit, he was unable to rely on the slightest major recruit during his tenure in Saint-Etienne, and the late loss and against his will of Wesley Fofana (sold for €40m to Leicester) weighed down part of its 2020-2021 season. But from his quick settling of accounts with Stéphane Ruffier to his disastrous management of supposed executives like Wahbi Khazri and Ryad Boudebouz, Claude Puel never seemed able to give the club a long-term impetus for a large-scale project that was readable and turned towards young people. Even if he has not been at the club for six months, he played a central role in the tumble of ASSE, which went from the Europa League to Ligue 2 in three years, as recalled by the Magic banners. Fans Sunday.
A recruitment next to the plate
Released from the famous winter transfer window 2018 made in Jean-Louis Gasset, with old veterans tipping the Greens from the race to maintain to that for Europe in five months (Subotic, M’Vila, Debuchy), Sainté rushes directly into the wall at each of his choices or almost five years. In bulk, the large investments made at the salary level for players in the hard and without prospect of resale (Boudebouz, Khazri) or even at the end of the race (Cabaye), a record transfer compensation for a supposed crack turning out to be a colossal flop (Diony), or even an expensive bet signed Claude Puel with Adil Aouchiche (ex-PSG). But the apotheosis of disaster class Saint-Etienne recruitment took place this winter, under the direction of Loïc Perrin.
In addition to the choice of coach Pascal Dupraz, the Big Three Mangala-Crivelli-Gnagnon (track wanted by Puel) joined the group to help it in its maintenance operation. Eliaquim Mangala is light years away from his level at Porto and Manchester City. Enzo Crivelli has not scored a goal in an official match since December 2020 and unsurprisingly confirmed his scarcity in Forez, especially after arriving injured. As for Joris Gnagnon, he displayed a good fifteen extra pounds on every picture looping on social networks, and he saw his contract cut three weeks ago, without the slightest appearance with the professional group. With such saviors, plus the chronic bankruptcy of a supposed executive like Timothée Kolodziejczak, Sunday’s dire outcome comes as no real surprise.
Pascal Dupraz, the firefighter no longer has the flame
There was obviously a Dupraz effect, with these 4 wins in 6 Ligue 1 games in the heart of winter, very far from the flat encephalogram of the first leg with Claude Puel. The Savoyard coach remobilized a group mentally and was able to restore confidence in a player like Denis Bouanga. But in just five months with the former savior of ETG (2014) and Toulouse (2016), we have already felt signs of wear and tear in the Saint-Etienne locker room. A time back to 17th place, his team completely plunged twice, in Lorient (5-2) and Nice (4-2), after having systematically led by two goals.
Hard blows for which the chilly Pascal Dupraz has an undeniable share of responsibility, just like in the management of the final sprint, like the hiccup against Reims (1-2) and this final uncontrolled match against Auxerre (1-1, 4-5 on penalties goal), despite a favorable score in Burgundy (1-1). The Dupraz adventure will already stop there in Sainté and we have the impression that no one will really regret it, whether on the side of the leaders, the players or the supporters. While he did not appear in the press room on Sunday evening, he immediately deleted his Twitter account, as if to better disappear from the radar.
The 12th man, really?
Le battle between the groups of supporters who have caused harm to their club is raging this season in Ligue 1. But frankly, the ultras of ASSE should win the day, so many episodes have sealed the supposed advantage of the Greens to evolve in their Cauldron. Two behind closed doors and travel bans followed the pyrotechnics demonstrations that both Magic Fans and Green Angels care about, with incidents and sanctions taken against Angers, Jura Sud and then against Monaco. The maintenance of the 30th anniversary of the Green Angels, with smoke bombs released and interruptions of the match, as expected, resulted in a total camera for the 37th crucial day against Reims. The defeat (1-2) that evening almost cost the Stéphanois a place as a play-off.
The chaos observed after this match, and even more after the one against Auxerre, prove once again how much the ultras do as they please in Saint-Etienne. In a few days, we suspect that the Greens will take a new ration behind closed doors. Suffice to say that the start of the season in Ligue 2, already hazardous, will be weighed down by several home games without support, or even worse. How to open this new era in Ligue 2 in a worse way? The final word in this reversed end of cycle is for Eliaquim Mangala, who assured, on his arrival in January: “See you in May for the final of the Coupe de France and the maintenance”. Bergerac and AJ Auxerre have been there and got the better of this adrift ASSE.