Christian Gourcuff is not going to be jaundiced by his dismissal in Nantes… Basically, he no longer liked the evolution of his job as a coach.
Like those of his generation, the ex-Lorientais for a long time thought that his profession sometimes resembled that of the peasants: accepting the rhythm of the seasons, patiently awaiting the growth of young shoots and reaping the fruits of labor when they ripen.
But that was before.
When clubs were mostly in the hands of passionate leaders rather than those of managers or investment funds.
Financiers seeing the young hopes of training centers as heads of gondolas to be sold as quickly and as dearly as possible.
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Two weeks ago,
Laurent Blanc
, without a club since leaving PSG in 2016, lamented what the role of coach has become.
"Football is taking a direction that I don't necessarily like," he said on TF1.
It's up to us, the coaches, to adapt.
We are in total financial speculation.
We value the players not in relation to what they do on the field but to what they generate in financial value.
We buy them for 10 million euros to sell them for 30 or 40 million.
The job is more and more difficult, we are technical people above all.
"
Laurent Blanc, who has not coached since 2016, regrets “the total financial speculation” of the clubs.
LP / Philippe Lavieille
Christian Gourcuff
, who already sensed his ousting from Nantes, had also depicted the evolution of the profession with a lot of bitterness.
"We are in a world of opportunists and careerists," he blurted out.
Coaches now have agents and everything works out of interests.
This sight is unbearable to me.
The world of football is like that of society: immediate profit is a priority.
Careers are built on it.
"
Luis Fernandez
is not far either to follow on the tune of nostalgia and "it was better before".
“My job is to win titles, loose the winner of the Cup at the head of PSG in 1996. No money.
It's important the money, of course, but it necessarily comes from the titles.
There, everything is reversed.
Why such a gifted coach as Marcelo Bielsa did not keep up with Lille?
Because he refused the strategy of short-term financial enhancement.
Football is not a stock market product, and coaches are not traders!
"
Luis Fernandez's PSG (center) won the European Cup Winners' Cup in spring 1996. LP
Fernandez, yet one of the most talkative and demonstrative coaches on a bench, praises patience.
"I prefer to grow a group than transfers," he continues.
Today, the financiers have invested almost all the major European championships except one: Germany.
And it is there that the clubs are most regular and where we let the coaches do their job as technicians.
Is it a coincidence?
"
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Alain Giresse
, who has led four clubs and six selections, shares the same observation.
“I have always thought that my job was that of a builder,” he says.
Today, we are more in breeding
(smile)
.
Young people must be fed quickly to make them shine and sell them at a high price.
By doing this, we shoot ourselves in the foot because we can no longer project ourselves over two or three years.
We only think of immediate profitability.
As a result, the risk of failure is greater and the coach is more and more often fired.
I hope we have come to the end of this model.
It does not lead to anything.
Especially for the supporters, who only want emotions, and to whom we say:
The goal is to make money.
Frankly, nothing is wrong with all of this.
"