At 82 years old, Daniel Hechter always keeps a clear opinion when he talks about the PSG of which he occupied the functions of president between 1974 and 1978. The former fashion designer sweeps the news and looks back on the first steps of PSG to whom it gave a national dimension.
What did PSG lack to win the Champions League in Lisbon in August?
DANIEL HECHTER
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There is no backlash because, except against small teams, we do not have possession of the ball.
Against Dortmund or the other teams in the European Cup, PSG did not dominate its subject.
There is no game distribution, at no time does the environment make a difference.
Players like Thiago Motta, Rabiot or Matuidi allowed to have a good midfielder.
We can not say that those who replaced them, Gueye and Paredes, are at the level.
The midfielder is unbalanced.
Against Bayern, the Parisians were suffocated in the middle.
It's annoying because PSG have never had such a formidable attack as now and will never have one like this again in the future.
It was the year to win!
Now it will be much more difficult.
Seeing PSG win the Champions League is one of the few things I want in my lifetime.
This is the club of my heart!
Which players should PSG recruit during the transfer window?
Midfielders!
There was one with Alcantara who signed for Liverpool.
It's very difficult to find the ideal player for your team during the last week of the transfer window.
The other problem is Bernat's long injury
(Editor's note: rupture of the cruciate ligaments)
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I don't have the impression that Bakker is at his level… This team lacks cohesion between the backs and the front lines.
You can feel football, that's what I learned with Just Fontaine.
“Tuchel makes a lot of mistakes when it comes to coaching,” says Daniel Hechter./LP/Arnaud Journois
Is Thomas Tuchel still the man for the job?
No and since its beginnings on the Parisian bench.
We compared him to Klopp
(Editor's note: the Liverpool coach)
but he is not at all at his level.
Tuchel makes a lot of mistakes when it comes to coaching and for me he is no better than Laurent Blanc or other French coaches.
If we take a foreign coach, he has to be better than those here.
Carlo Ancelotti was a very good coach for Paris but the leaders did everything to make him leave at the time
(Editor's note: in 2013)
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I have the impression that Leonardo is a bit lonely.
Among the leaders of this club, there are none who really know football and that is the problem.
It's hard to make decisions on your own.
What should be done to convince Mbappé and Neymar to extend their contract with PSG?
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The only thing that convinces is the result.
Mbappé is a great player but if he feels he can not climb higher with PSG it is obvious that he will leave.
Neymar is a little different because he has made a reputation that he does not deserve.
It is a very great player who wet the jersey.
When he's there, he makes up for the midfielder's shortcomings.
If I was president of a big foreign club, I would take it immediately.
I want him to extend because I want to see great players on the pitch, who constantly surprise us, but I feel that it is going to be complicated.
How did you start this adventure with PSG?
Paris FC had asked me but I realized that the leaders were completely incompetent.
I gathered a few friends at home including Jean-Paul Belmondo, Francis Borelli and Charles Talar to suggest that we take over a club in Paris.
They all agreed.
I called the president of PSG Henri Patrelle to offer to help him with the ambition to access Ligue 1.
Why do you think that the date of creation of the PSG is in 1973 rather than in 1970?
When I took over the club, PSG no longer existed.
It had become a small amateur club and we had to ask for professional status again.
The people of Paris FC used FC Saint-Germanois to access the D1.
And when they did, they removed Saint-Germain to keep Paris FC.
Me, I made a commitment to the mayor of Saint-Germain-en-Laye so that the name of the club does not change.
How did you hear about Just Fontaine?
A few days after the agreement with Henri Patrelle, PSG faced Poissy in the final of the Coupe de Paris.
I got to know Just Fontaine thanks to Jacques Bloch who worked for me as sports director.
We saw the final together and it immediately stuck between us.
The first year, Just held the position of technical director, but he managed the team.
He was a fantastic technician, a real team leader.
At the time we were only allowed three professional players plus young people to make up the team.
Why is PSG a club apart?
Probably because he was born in pain.
The break with Paris FC has made the leaders of Saint-Germain extremely suspicious.
As we were the Paris club, we had the label of a billionaire club except that our means were limited.
Just Fontaine and I were able to create a club spirit with a perfect osmosis between the leading players and the hundreds of supporters present with us at the start.
PSG has aroused a lot of jealousy for a long time ...
Today, it is normal with the sums injected.
The provincial clubs are a little jealous and there is nothing we can do about it.
In the 1970s, we already represented the club in the capital so we were heckled in the provinces.
The first season, we even played all of our away games.
At the Parc des Princes, the Corsicans living in Paris came to support Bastia, the Alsatians supported Strasbourg, the Bretons came to Rennes ...
They say that OM is a popular club.
Is this the case with PSG?
It was my will at the time.
There was no supporter.
To remedy this, I went to high schools, telling myself that the sons of Bretons, Corsicans and Alsatians were Parisians.
In the company of the players, I gave lectures in high schools and then we created the first supporters' club.
We sold a subscription in the gallery with a supporter card for only a symbolic franc.
Today, PSG are still popular because they are the best French club.
But since the Canal + era, the club has become a multinational.
What was the best memory?
Accession in D1.
We left with a team of amateurs and juniors reinforced by three pros.
At the time of the break we found ourselves 2nd in the standings.
I ask Just if we have a chance to climb.
He answers me: "Yes if I have a goalscorer".
We recruited François M'Pelé who played in Ajaccio and we went up after an epic play-off against Valenciennes (1-2 in the first leg, 4-2 in the return).
In just one year I had been able to recreate a team in the 1st division.
Who was your best player?
Mustapha Dahleb!
He was not only a great player but he became a great gentleman.
At 20, he came to negotiate his contract without advising.
Which player would you have liked to recruit?
I had agreed with Franz Beckenbauer the defender champion of the world of Bayern Munich.
At the time it was difficult to maintain ourselves and I needed an experienced player to supervise the young people.
I even went to Munich to negotiate with him.
But our sponsor RTL ultimately did not follow.
At the time you only played maintenance ...
We had a team that gave emotion.
We conceded goals, we scored… When we faced Saint-Etienne at Parc des Princes during our first season in D1, the stadium was all in green.
The supporters shouted "go Greens" during the meeting.
We were leading 2-1 and in the 87th minute the stadium started chanting “go to Paris”.
We were able to conquer a Parisian audience.
There was an extraordinary atmosphere at the Park.
We have also carried out a training policy that has resulted in twenty-one professional players including Jean-Claude Lemoult and Luis Fernandez who have become internationals.
How did you come up with the idea for the Hechter jersey, which is still praised by supporters today?
For me the stadium is the greatest spectacle and it has to be dressed like a play or opera.
I designed this jersey in the colors of Paris.
For a designer, it's not the most difficult… Red and blue to represent the city and white to bring a touch of styling.
For Daniel Hechter, the new PSG jersey is "good" but looks too much like the one he created in the 1970s ./LP/Arnaud Dumontier
Do you like the fiftieth anniversary jersey?
It is good but it is practically the same as mine!
A year ago, I proposed to PSG to design them the fiftieth anniversary jersey.
This one would have been in the same spirit but new.
The leaders did not follow up.
In 1975 you brought Johan Cruyff to PSG…
He dressed at my house.
I knew Johan and his wife.
I asked him if he would like to strengthen our team for the tournament in Paris and, very kindly, he accepted.
He played two games with us but we couldn't afford a star like Cruyff.
He was an exceptional guy as a football player, coach and philosopher.
The double ticketing scandal forced you to leave PSG ...
I had to get out of the way because I politically disturbed the Seguin-Chirac team.
I had too much influence in Paris.
If I had stood for election in Paris in 1977, I would have been elected because I enjoyed great popularity.
When I returned to the Park the day after the delisting, 50,000 spectators were shouting "Hechter president" and "Chirac resignation".
You can deceive 50 or 100 people but not 50,000. Two years later, I won my case at the Council of State.
All sanctions have been lifted.
I was, of course, president but I was not aware of this double ticket office.
What do you think of the evolution of PSG?
It's good that the Qataris have arrived and that they are injecting a lot of money.
It made it possible to build a great team.
Now winning the European Cup is another problem.
It takes experience.
A soul is missing for the top European level.
The one that exists at Real is not yet in Paris.
This is also called club culture.
The new leaders did not understand this very well.
All the players and managers who have worked with PSG embody the soul of a club.
Who is your favorite player?
I have two!
The Neymar-Mbappé duo is exceptional!
These two players accompanied by any center forward constitute the best triplet in the world.
It's a treat to see them play!
Is it harder to be president at PSG than elsewhere?
No.
Each club has its own characteristics, its problems… The difficulties of a president are always the same.
You have to get the best results.
Being president of PSG allowed me to live one of the most beautiful pages of my life but also one of the most difficult.