Sitting in the reception room of the Château du Haillan, you almost have to strain your ears to hear it. With black eyes, cap on his head, Jean-Louis Gasset slips, half serious, half laughing: “I explained to my players that football was weird and that we were perhaps on the verge of 'an extraordinary season. No one can know what we're going to do. If we had told you that Choupo Moting would be the king of Paris because he qualified his team in the semi-finals of the Champions League, you wouldn't have believed it! "
Seen like that, his Bordeaux can indeed have other ambitions than a place in the top 10 of Ligue 1. Because the mission of the former assistant of Laurent Blanc (in the Girondins, in the France team and in PSG) seems impossible on paper, or at least even more difficult than that in Saint-Etienne.
Arrived at the winter transfer window, Gasset had managed to bring the Greens back to the Europa League in spring 2019. In Bordeaux, in a club which owed its survival only thanks to the 30 million euros paid by its owner King Street, but where the he recruitment envelope this summer is almost non-existent, he must urgently rebuild everything.
While he had come to an agreement with Frédéric Longuépée at the beginning of July, he had to wait a month before arriving, in particular watching the DVDs of last season's matches, because of the endless series of the departure of Paulo Sousa. The Montpellier did not lead his first session until August 10, twelve days before the opening of the championship against Nantes, without a single friendly match since the one against Auxerre was canceled due to a case of Covid-19 in the club Burgundy.
"Our first league meeting will be like a friendly match, except that it's worth three points," sighs the coach. So to try to make up for lost time, he does Gasset. With his legendary banter, he vociferates, places his players, rooms and advances with his ideas and the smiles return. Tactically, no more puzzles of Sousa's patterns, place 4-4-2 and a possession game: “I found the players tired, a little traumatized by the long summer drama. This is what came out of our individual and group meetings. I told them to focus, to do more. At the start, our ambitions must be measured, put this great club in a better place. "
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Its president Frédéric Longuépée, who knew and appreciated his new coach at PSG, ensures that Gasset "is the man for the job". The latter has already given an overview by going to meet the angry Ultras gathered at the entrance of Haillan at the beginning of the week. He was accompanied by Alain Roche, the new sports director and another former PSG. The duo left to applause. A first victory which will have to call for others, this time, on the ground.