Clément: “A dominant team”
“Coaching remains a passion“said Philippe Clement, who signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with Monaco with the goal of qualifying the team for the next Champions League. “The pressure? I went back to Genk with Bruges, he stressed. Then we managed to be, for the first time in 130 years in the history of the club, champions of Belgium twice consecutively with Club Bruges! It’s pressure! I like this pressure! “ he added during a press conference at the La Turbie performance center, on the heights of the Principality.
“Even if sometimes the opponent is stronger and you have to be smarter.”
Arrived from Bruges with three assistants, Frédéric De Boever, goalkeeper coach, Jonas Ivens, physical preparation specialist, and Johan Van Rumst, who, like him, signed a contract until June 2024, Clement said he wanted to adapt to the Monegasque group. Moreover, Damien Perrinelle, already present in the previous coaching, complete that of Clément. “You always have to adapt to the qualities of the players, he explained. But I want a dominant team, with commitment and a lot of desire. Even if sometimes the opponent is stronger and you have to be smarter. “
“Create a family”
If Clément enjoys leading a team “of one of the top five championships in the world “, it’s a predicted “a time to adapt, to understand the men behind the players”. But he also assured to know Monaco and the L1, of which he has “met Paris SG twice in the Champions League “ (1-1, 4-1 this fall). And above all recognized that his “strength, the years spent with different clubs “, were the human relations with the players. “To create a family, even if the players are more individualistic than ten or twenty years ago”, to he curriculum vitae.
Present alongside their new coach at a press conference, Paul Mitchell, English sporting director of Monaco, and Oleg Petrov, Russian vice-president and general manager, justified the arrival of Clement and the ousting of Niko Kovac, to whom they have paid homage, by a will “to enter a new phase“of their project. “The results were not in line with the potential, the ambition and the objectives planned this summer, said Mitchell. We analyzed the situation well and, with the main shareholder (Dmitri Rybolovlev, Editor’s note), we decided To continue our progress and meet our objectives.” The Champions League preliminary round elimination against Shakhtar Donetsk was a pivotal moment. But not only.
“When the train passes …”
“We must show the greatest respect for the work of Niko (Kovac) who laid the foundations, continues Mitchell. But we kept our best players and this summer. After our start to 2021, we will be strong from the first game this season. Or, on has never been in the Top 5 of Ligue 1. We want to be the favorite’s rival. We are 17 points away (from Paris SG, Editor’s note), that’s too much! ” Was this the perfect time to change coaches, however? “It’s never the right time “, played down Clément, who does not understand “leave Bruges“. But “when the train passes, you have to take it”, he said. Monaco, who travels to Nantes on Sunday, is currently 6th in L1 four points from Nice, runner-up to PSG, but also qualified in the 8th finals of the Europa League and the Coupe de France.
Petrov presents his new coach, Philippe Clément: