Goalkeeper coach for 8 years, Fabrice Grange left ASSE last week, one year before the end of his contract. A start in controversy.
It was by a press release that ASSE announced the departure of Fabrice Grange, last Thursday, thanking the goalkeepers’ coach for his professionalism. A departure by mutual agreement, according to the club, but Gilles Favard, close to Grange, said on Twitter: “After Ruffier, ASSE turns Barn”. Stéphane Ruffier is however still under contract with the Forézien club, until June 2021.
Ruffier even more fragile
It was also the case with Grange, who according to our information himself asked to leave, and his departure further weakens Ruffier’s situation. Because more than the goalkeepers’ coach at ASSE, Grange was said to be above all that of the Basque, with whom he was very close. Too close, even, according to some. Arriving at the Greens in 2012 to take over from Albert Rust, on the initiative of Ruffier himself and Christophe Galtier, Grange was very protective of the former Monegasque. Close to Christophe Galtier, Jean-Louis Gasset and Ghislain Printant, the former Lyonnais was less so than Oscar Garcia, who had reproached him for inappropriate words towards a member of his staff, and Claude Puel, who therefore preferred not to retain it, and to rebuild without it.
A lot of people had turned their backs on L’Etrat
As for his relationships with the other guards during his Saint Etienne experience, they were of variable geometry. At the origin of Théo Vermot’s arrival from Fréjus against the recommendations of Rafik Allaf, the former recruiter of the Greens in the South, Grange was appreciated by Anthony Maisonnial, Jérémy Vachoux or Alexis Guendouz, but much less by Nathan Crémillieux. Collaboration with young Stefan Bajic, announced as the club’s future goalkeeper, was also difficult. As for Jessy Moulin, reports, sometimes tense, had been normalized lately.
Pinned by Gilles Favard who had called him “locker room mole” and “mourner” on Twitter last fall, after his acting noticed against Nîmes (1-0) and Lyon (1-0), Moulin had seen Grange getting closer to him lately, since the clash between Puel and Ruffier. Finally, within the club, Grange, who had had a collision a few years ago with a security officer, did not have only friends, especially on the side of the training center where his departure was greeted with some relief .
Moulin did not thank him
Note that on social networks, Fabrice Grange was congratulated, on the announcement of his departure, by Ghislain Printant and Mathieu Debuchy, player closest to Stéphane Ruffier in the green locker room. But Jessy Moulin, yet quite present on Twitter, did not post the slightest comment, while the two men nevertheless worked together daily for eight years …
– fabrice grange (@GrangeFabrice) June 25, 2020