AS Saint-Etienne : “And you guys have a goalscorer now! ” | ASSE News

Zapping Goal! Football club ASSE: the debrief of the match against FC Metz

“This is not the one we expected, but ASSE found its center forward, Anthony Modeste, on February 2, at the time of the children’s snack or the nap for a footballer, Monday chopping a market which one wonders why it lasts a month, since almost everything ends or unravels at the end of the last evening when the minds of the negotiators fog up. Sometimes we get a surprise trio, not always a winner, like in August 2011 when Roland Romeyer posed all smiles with Gradel, Nicolita and Kitambala. Conversely, we experienced the negotiations that broke down at 11:55 p.m. in 2017, when everyone believed the deal had been signed with Salibur. This time, no photo, the Guingampais sneaked through a back door, while his agent called “President we were bad”.

ALSO SEE: ALL THE NEWS FROM ASSE

Modest, not a bet on the future but an investment for the present

Two years ago, Jean-Louis Gasset did not need an hourglass to count down the time of hope. If he had smiled in front of the press “believing in Santa Claus”, he was not going to coach the center forward he had ticked off his list. No more than Ghislain Printant the following summer and we imagined the bad joke repeated this year, without laughing, for Claude Puel. The performance of his boss on Egyptian TV could even have drawn a grimace. In the kingdom of Robert Herbin, the president of the Directory should have known that in the land of the Sphinx, we do not stir up susceptibilities, even less in business. Except to want to make it fail. In Zamalek, we did not like and it is for Galatasaray that Mostafa Mohamed, long coveted and then announced in Saint-Etienne, scored two goals this week.

Bernard Caïazzo asks himself questions “It is strange and surprising” with a comment that could also offend the Turks “Galatasaray is not known to quickly pay the amounts he offers”. But let’s turn this badly written page. The time is no longer for regrets. Anthony Modeste arrived, happy to have kept his phone handy when his agent called him to mention ASSE’s interest. Banco for the one whose father, Guy, was seen arriving in 1972, on the annex of Geoffroy-Guichard, at the same time as Gérard Janvion, Gérard Pinson and Ludjen with a career broken by an injury. Anthony with a fate tinged with green also by Serge Recordier his father-in-law and Etienne Mendy his agent, had already almost come twice in the Forez. The third was the right one, and he is no longer a youngster but a confirmed striker, not a bet on the future but an investment in the present.

As with Gasset, Puel avoided the parallel with Antonetti

The urgency is there and Claude Puel did not wait to start Cissé and Modeste in sectors where no one had the right key. Against Nantes in the second period and then Metz, we had a glimpse of this contribution, even if it was more difficult in front. By dint of playing without a center forward, the Stéphanois have lost the habit of this anchor point, this solution in the finish. Frédéric Antonetti noted that “I analyze the content. Saint-Etienne, who scored a good free kick, won only 1-0 and never destabilized us ”. Not wrong but Puel has reason to breathe “In three matches, we have won twice with two clean sheets. We have kept a good structure with good solidarity to keep the result and without conceding any chances ”.

We understand his relief. Without making it a personal matter, beyond the result, there was the shadow of Antonetti, the one who had brought ASSE back to L1, as there had been in Bordeaux the shadow of Gasset who had given back the taste of Europe. Fair or not, a defeat against Messins as before the Bordelais would not have cleaned up the climate around the club, the management, the choices to leave Khazri and Boudebouz on the bench, Aouchiche in reserve. We will not tell you that there will not be some debates, but they will be with 26 points in the background, 7 in front of Nantes, 11 in Dijon and Nîmes. Also with the hope of discovering a goalscorer. Modeste assures him, “scoring is like riding a bike, you can’t forget it” It remains to give him a few balls … “

Didier BIGARD