LEAGUE 1 – Three months after the suspension of the championship due to a coronavirus pandemic, the players of AS Saint-Etienne resumed training in small groups this Thursday. At the end of the contract on June 30, Loïc Perrin was present and can hope to play the final of the Coupe de France against PSG this summer.
After a 2019-2020 fiscal year concluded in seventeenth place in L1, but which must still see it play the final of the Coupe de France against PSG this summer, ASSE is again in working order. Forty professional players under contract and the veteran captain Loïc Perrin resumed Wednesday, behind closed doors, the road to the Robert-Herbin technical center where the workforce underwent a battery of medical, biological and physical tests.
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Sportingly, only the elements still linked to the Stéphane club after June 30 have been convened. Thus, the circles Yohan Cabaye (end of contract) and Jean-Eudes Aholou (end of loan from Monaco) were not present, as was the defender William Saliba, transferred a year ago to Arsenal for 30 million euros .
Loïc Perrin, 35 years old in August and also at the end of the contract, was however there. The case of the captain of the Greens, who only played in Saint-Etienne where he was born, is different: he could sign in the coming days an extension of two months to allow him to play the final of the French Cup . And thus end his career otherwise than constrained by the Covid-19 crisis, if the League legally validates the operation.
The middle Franck Honorat, meanwhile, is in the process of finalizing its transfer to Brest for a sum of about five million euros. For the rest, a strict health protocol has been implemented in ASSE premises to maintain a distance between the players who have thus been able to avoid crossing paths. The rooms in the technical center, usually used by residents of the training center, act as individual changing rooms for changing and showering.
The players will return to the field on Thursday in small groups, before resuming collective training on Monday during a session open to the media, followed by a press conference by general manager Claude Puel. Still for health reasons, the players will not sign any autograph and will not take any selfie on the access road to the technical center as they are used to. Supporters were also advised not to go to the entrance to the premises.
Internship in Dinard in August
For the time being, no friendly match has yet been scheduled pending an exact schedule for the French Cup final in late July against Paris Saint-Germain. An internship in Dinard (Ille-et-Vilaine) is however already planned from 10 to 15 August.
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