The position of left side has been damaged at ASSE since the departures of Faouzi Ghoulam and Benoît Trémoulinas, the club chaining flops for six years. What Claude Puel intends to remedy this summer.
Benoît Trémoulinas remains an exception to ASSE. The former international is the only player to win the left-back position since the departure of Faouzi Ghoulam. However, it was during the 2014-15 season that Trémoulinas donned the green jersey, the space of six months, loaned by Dynamo Kiev. The former Girondin, an excellent counterattacker, like Ghoulam, to whom Christophe Galtier had preferred the valorous Jonathan Brison during the final of the League Cup won against Rennes (1-0) in 2013, then returned to Ukraine before join Sevilla FC.
M’Bengue, Assou-Ekotto, Katranis, Silva, Trauco, nobody won
The specialists in the left corridor who have succeeded each other since have all broken their teeth. None managed to win. First there was the interlude Benoît Assou-Ekotto, who came after a white season in England, to Tottenham, and left a year later, turned against Galtier, who wiped a volley of green wood from the former Cameroonian international, in the media. If Assou-Ekotto leaves the image of a whimsical player, the Stéphanois supporters keep a more painful memory of Cheikh M’Bengue. The Senegalese international, who also arrived free from Rennes, remained a year without playing before being integrated into the transfer to China of Ole Selnaes. In the meantime, he was of rare mediocrity and ended his adventure in Saint-Etienne with Ghislain Printant on two gross raise errors that cost two goals and two defeats.
Kolo by default, like Tabanou before him
In 2017, ASSE recruited two players to the position of left back, after trying in vain to recover Massadio Haidara, current RC Lens player for free: Alexandros Katranis and Gabriel Silva. The first, who chained loans, will probably never wear the green jersey, while the second, extended until 2023 last year, has never really won. Arriving from Flamengo last summer, Miguel Trauco, elected best left back in Copa America 2019 with Peru, finalist of the competition, did not really justify his reputation, his defensive shortcomings having relegated him to the bench. It was Timothée Kolodziejczak who finished the 2019-20 fiscal year as a holder, like the previous one, while the native of Arras, versatile, does not hide his preference for the axis. Before him, Franck Tabanou had also helped out, at the end of his Stéphane adventure. A left winger, the former Toulouse driver had taken a step down in 2014-15 before leaving for Swansea, then returning six months later on loan for a second, less conclusive experience.
The position is also damaged at the training center!
Since the transfer of Faouzi Ghoulam to Naples in January 2014, only one player trained by ASSE has played in L1: Pierre-Yves Polomat, today in Turkey (Genclerbirligi). It should also be noted that the Forézien club has recruited in recent years several players for this position for its reserve team. But the Cape Verdean Michel Delgado was no more established with the green reserve than the Franco-Turkish Dihlan Sagun. Arrived from the Montpellier reserve last summer, Lucas Llort (21) still has a year of contract at the club, which did not offer a first professional contract to Mathis Mezaber (19), holder of the position during the Gambardella Cup final won by the Stéphane U19s against Toulouse (2-0) a year ago.
#MondayMotivation 😁🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/HpeCN080MW
– AS Saint-Étienne (@ASSEofficiel) June 22, 2020