Toulouse. Calvel: “I give him my opinion, but in the end it is he who decides”
Promoted to Danijel Andjelkovic’s assistant at the start of the season, Rémi Calvel, the club’s former full-back, confides in this pairing before the trip to Nancy.
Rémi, eight months after taking office, how do you define your role within the partnership that you form with Danijel Andjelkovic?
We know each other pretty well (the two men played together at Fenix between 2010 and 2016, editor’s note) so that automatically made things easier. As the new number 1 (replacing Philippe Gardent, editor’s note), Dani needed to put his mark on the team, to have a little space, so at the beginning I developed a little behind in the level of training in particular. Regarding the distribution of work, on the other hand, we very quickly chose to work 50-50. We try to distribute the tasks fairly. In the management of the group it is the same thing.
You don’t always agree on everything do you?
No, but that’s what’s interesting. If for a moment you have to decide, it is obviously Danijel who has the last word. I give him my opinion, which I try to argue, but in the end it is he who decides.
The number 2 often has the ear of the locker room, is this also the case for you?
Danijel was number 2 for five years so he himself had established a relationship with the players who are there but anyway, we try not to be too present in the dressing room. We both consider it a place that belongs to the players.
Precisely, you evolved with players like Ilic or Chelle who became friends but who are now under your orders. Did you have to adapt?
Everyone did it wisely. They want to see us succeed and they support us in managing the team. There is no problem because on the whole the same interest is to try to take the team as far as possible, so in the end it is quite easy to manage this relationship within the team.
Despite a very inexperienced partner, the current results plead for you.
We still ended up last in the championship (6th day, editor’s note) so we’re not going to lie to each other: there was a bit of stress because we are indeed a pair who are discovering their new responsibilities. We worked a lot, we played better and that reassured us about the direction taken. We thought it was just a matter of time, we didn’t rush. If we had been told at the start of the season that we would have qualified for the knockout stages of the European Cup and in the fight for the Top 5 in the league, for us it’s great. For the moment we are super happy but the next three months will be decisive to validate all that.