Handball. At Caen HB, the looming departures weigh down the atmosphere
By Aline Chatel
Published on
updated on 24 Mar 22 at 21:20
We won’t take it again. By justifying the “benevolence” when announcing in January the non-renewal of five contracts in his team, Roch Bedos has despite himself warned of the tensions he had not imagined. The Vikings remain on three heavy defeats justified mainly by attitudes incompatible with the high level. “The state of mind is not good, observes the Caen coach. I think the emotional part has taken precedence over everyone’s rights and duties. »
“Sourness has taken over”
For some priced players to look elsewhere, the pill is very hard to swallow. The joie de vivre that characterized the Caen group took a turn for the worse. When Laurent Lagier-Pitre, Evaris Muyembo, Alexian Trottet, Maxime Langevin and Justin Portat* learned that he was not kept in the team, there was half a season left to play. “It seemed normal to me to anticipate to allow the players to turn around, explains Roch Bedos. You can’t be surprised when you do this job. When a player leaves a club that wanted to keep him, that’s normal. When it’s the other way around, it’s not pretty. The technician, touched by the turn of events, continues:
The nervousness must last four, five days. He can’t blow up who we are as a person. Or I think sourness took over some things.
Roch Bedos conceived that “it hurts when you had to be in the nails”, resulting in a sometimes deficient “introspection”. But he aspires to turn a new page after having “identified limits”. “Have all efforts been made to be able to continue?, he asks. This is also the question that must be asked. We change cycle with the desire to start again with a much younger group. We don’t change everything. There are players still under contract, others who have been extended. »
Caen wants “champagne handball”
Concretely, Caen aspires to “modify [son] style of play”, especially from an athletic point of view. “We want to offer a spectacle sport, advances the president Thomas Lamora. We want to bring a fresh handball with speed and desire. We want champagne handball. “This new desired identity involves recruitment, mainly around young players (“we do not have the budget to recruit athletic and experienced players”, specifies Thomas Lamora), and results in a rather substantial reshuffle.
Changing cycles after two years happens in many places. Some positions are readjusted.
As often in Caen, the start is bitter. “They are good in Caen, but perhaps we need to give a little more,” underlines Roch Bedos. Those who were at the end of their contract and who accomplished what was expected of them were extended. It’s not a grief on the person, but on the player. I think sometimes we mix everything up. The working atmosphere is affected at least as much as the results, could well comfort the leaders of Caen in their difficult choices for the winter.
* A sixth departure is recorded with the retraining of Romain Guillard as assistant coach of the team.
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