Philippe Clément future coach of Belgium? He gives his answer
Will Philippe Clément succeed Roberto Martinez at the head of Belgium? The main interested party gave his answer, without language of wood.
AS Monaco coach since January 3, 2022, Philippe Clément finished third in the French championship and his club took part in the third preliminary round of the Champions League against PSV Eindhoven.
Seven months after his arrival in Monaco, Clément gave a long interview to our Belgian colleagues from Sport Foot Mag and took the opportunity to discuss many topics.
He first compared Ligue 1 with the Belgian championship: “What changes is that there are no players of the caliber of Wissam Ben Yedder in the Belgian championship. What I mean is that there is no equivalent in the talent/experience ratio. Because Belgian clubs cannot retain their best players over time. And it’s true that as a coach, working with finished products like Wissam is quite fulfilling. Another difference is that the staff is much larger than in Belgium. For the rest, I don’t think I would be a different coach in the way I coach if I find myself one day on the Liverpool or Manchester City bench. »
If AS Monaco made a nice move on the transfer market with the arrival of Takumi Minamino (from Liverpool), the Principality club lost Aurélien Tchouaméni (transferred to Real Madrid). To replace him, Philippe Clément is counting on Eliot Matazo but he does not want to put pressure on the young player: ” He is twenty years old. When Aurélien was twenty, he wasn’t ready to start either. Not for a whole season with a match every three days. It’s the same for Eliot. He has the talent, now we have to take the developer’s time. In three or six months, he could be his successor, but at the moment T, he is not yet ready to replace him for an entire season. »
With his fine career in Bruges then in Monaco, Philippe Clément is regularly cited to take over from Roberto Martinez, who could leave the Red Devils after the 2022 World Cup. A position that interests Philippe Clément but not immediately: “It can be a goal. At some point. But not right now. Because I want to continue working every day with my staff, with my players. I wouldn’t have the patience to do the job of a coach today. I still have too much energy (he laughs). I don’t want to say that Roberto Martinez has no energy, but that’s another life. »