Zapping Goal! Football club ASSE: Laurent Hess’s edit on Denis Bouanga
Goal ! Saint-Etienne: Abdel, what is your view, from the outside, on the risky policy of massively throwing young people into ASSE?
Abdel Bouhazama: Is it really risky? Yes and no. Claude Puel’s predecessors had already integrated young people. It wasn’t until the goal changed that there was a little reluctance to have them play. What is happening now reminds me a little of the beginning of Christophe Galtier’s era. We tend to forget him but when he took the team, he was not afraid to integrate the young people. Whether it was Manu Rivière, Jo Guilavogui, Faouzi Ghoulam, Kurt Zouma, Kévin Mayi … Christophe Galtier had been a bit of a pioneer.
But how do you feel about this choice driven by Claude Puel?
As director of training, I am happy. We must not forget that training and ASSE are a long love affair. Already the Greens of 1976 had a strong locally formed spine. We come back to that. It’s not the same time, not the same profiles, but when I see what Claude Puel is doing in Saint-Etienne, I tell myself that he has a lot of merit.
“When I see what Claude Puel is doing in Saint-Etienne, I tell myself that he has a lot of merit”
Last season was still pretty tough …
Yes, but the transition is going well. If we take the 2020-21 fiscal year, we see that the start of the season was magnificent and that thereafter there was a big slump. When you play with young people, it’s hard to be successful over time. It takes some psychological endurance. Over a whole championship, it’s difficult. Support work is important. The final result of the season (11th) showed that Claude Puel knew how to manage very well.
Sometimes the scales seemed a bit out of balance with a lot of young people …
Of course, only putting young people in is dangerous. We can quickly put them in difficulty. But Saint-Etienne was able to manage all this well with the Khazri, the Kolodiejczak, the Boudebouz, the Hamouma … We have a policy a little similar to Angers SCO. The conjecture means that more training is required. Few clubs have the means from PSG to recruit Messi, Neymar or Mbappé and knowingly do without the products of their center. Today, when a club calls on a youngster, it already saves a lot of money, but it also creates an interesting asset. Young people who play, it is an experience that is stored for the future. And we come to create Wesley Fofana which leave for 35 M € … For me, it is really a super interesting policy for Saint-Etienne. Especially when it’s done intelligently.
Since you have been in Angers, you have brought out several offensive nuggets (Boufal, Pépé and now Cho). How do you explain that ASSE has so much trouble doing the same and mainly focuses on producing defensive players? Is it easier to find the right profiles in Maine-et-Loire, far from the competition of certain large training centers like OL?
Already, there is a real point of difference between ASSE and Angers SCO. Without insulting my club, we do not have the same ambitions at the base. In Maine-et-Loire, we have a little less pressure on having to play the leading roles. In Saint-Etienne, we expect ambition in recruiting and this often involves the quest for experienced offensive players. From players who have a cost. What is expected of a training center is that it regularly feeds on the defensive aspect. It’s a little less hard than in front. In Angers, it is not easy either. We are still a stabilized club in Ligue 1. But above all we have carried out real fundamental work …
That is to say ?
We must never lose sight of the fact that training is a team effort. They are recruiters who unearth, educators who support … And especially a coach of the pros who has a sensitivity (or not) to launch young people. Often according to the objectives that we set for him. The luck that we had with Nicolas Pépé, with Rayan Aït-Nouri – who was an offensive eccentric that we switched to the left side – or Mohamed-Ali Cho today, is that we had from the departure a better visibility to give to our young people. These players quickly knew they would have their chance. Perhaps if, in 4-5 years, the club changes its ambition and targets Europe, this policy will have to be reviewed. But I don’t think it happens. Mr. Saïd Chabane attaches great importance to young people. At the SCO, the “club project” is to have a third of the workforce resulting from training. We are fortunate to have a real bridge between training and the pros.
Saint-Etienne has this famous “club project” …
Yes, and that is very important to the coach. When you play your place based on the results of the weekend, you have to be courageous. At the same time, it also imposes a very big requirement. Whether it is Stéphane Moulin or Gérald Baticle – who is today the number 1 coach at the SCO – they are very demanding personalities. To talk about it with my colleagues from Saint-Etienne, I know that Claude Puel has this same type of requirement. Today, we have to bring young people faster and faster in the first team. We are obliged to protect them with early professional contracts. You have to have a clear course and stick to it.
“The requirement between the two clubs is the same but the expectation is much higher at ASSE”
But, suddenly, how to explain a better success of the offensives at SCO Angers than at ASSE?
Without making a diagnosis, I can explain to you what we do at home in Angers. We focus our sessions a lot on “specific attacker”. Our methodology with the Pro 2 group is to finish over a quarter of an hour, after each session, on offensive work. So it is not necessarily much but we are in the repetition of the gesture. Does this way of working give the players confidence? I do not know … What I am sure is that Angers SCO did not have the means of ASSE to invest in big attackers. Perhaps we have also made room for our young people much more easily in this sector. Now I wouldn’t pretend to say that our way of working is the best.
In less than ten years, the facts are there: you have nevertheless released Sofiane Boufal, Nicolas Pépé and today Mohamed-Ali Cho …
Saint-Etienne also released attackers. Bafétimbi Gomis, Manu Rivière, Jonathan Bamba, it’s not that old. It is true that ASSE has sold Fofana, Saliba or Zouma better than the players we are talking about … But these are already exceptional sales. Zouma at 15 M € in 2013, it is huge for the time! I don’t think there are really any truths. It’s also a lot of success in recruiting. We came across young people and parents who said to themselves: “It may be easier to have visibility in Angers SCO than elsewhere”. Today, we show it with Mohamed-Ali Cho who plays regularly at 17 years old. We have been preparing it for almost two and a half years. By giving him playing time, Stéphane Moulin had already prepared him.
When we see the early departures of Allan Saint-Maximin, Jonathan Bamba, the difficulties of Charles Abi, we say to ourselves that there is still a small problem at this level at ASSE …
You have to realize that wearing the ASSE jersey is heavy for a young striker. We don’t necessarily remember it, but even for Bafé Gomis it had been very hard. You tell me about Allan Saint-Maximin, his debut at 16-17 years old was complicated. The same goes for the Kévin Mayi, the Idriss Saadi who were predicted to have great careers. Now the expectation that there is Geoffroy-Guichard on the attacker is strong. It is almost “psychological pressure”. We forget that we have to do with kids! The fervor, the demand on their shoulders, is sometimes the same as for senior players. The kid, he enters the field inhibited, subjected to a big responsibility (He blows) His jersey, he weighs 100 kg. The difference with Angers is that Mohamed-Ali Cho was able to arrive little by little, quietly. The environment is more controlled …
Media and popular pressure is an additional difficulty to apprehend?
The requirement between the two clubs is the same but the expectation is much higher at ASSE. With Angers SCO, we made up for some of our delay and we can see the difference. By the time I arrived we were being left alone. And then we started taking out a few young people and recruiters from big clubs came to see how we worked. We are entering the category of French clubs which form well, a small pin on the map of France. We have the good sides but the problematic that goes with this change of course. At one point, it’s hard to stay in hiding. In Saint-Etienne, it’s like that all the time. There is the weight of history, the weight of the institution … When you are a striker for a club of this fame, you have to manage with this pressure. Charles Abi, I saw him play against us several times. It takes patience with him. Even with an early talent, the coach must make sure to stay well connected. Psychologically, they’re still kids. Now I think that Claude Puel does a real fundraising work around young people and accompanies them as best he can.
Do you think we are too hard on some, especially attackers trained in ASSE?
The problem is that we often tend to judge an offensive player on his performance. An attacker who does not score a goal, even if he works for the team, we consider that he did not have a good game. It is terribly reductive. Even in the press, we read it: “The youngster fought but he lacked precision, was not decisive”. It is often accompanied by a bad grade. The offensive player’s rating slider is always higher than the defender’s. He is expected to score goals and basta. When you take these comments all the time, it’s hard to live with.
“When I see Camara captain of ASSE, it’s still a strong message”
On the current generation led by Claude Puel, you did not have the chance to train many …
Indeed, I remember that the Mahdi Camara or Mickaël Nadé were on our shelves but they were not yet at the club when I left. In any case, it allows me to salute the excellent work of the recruiting unit at the time, the Ludovic Paradinas and Rafik Allaf, who found these players for us.
Do you still have some nice surprises or favorites?
When I see Camara captain of ASSE, it is still a strong message that we send. Even though there are players much more experienced than him who could have claimed the armband, he is already seen as an elder. I also like little Moueffek, currently injured, whom I know well and who was on our shelves at SCO Angers. Generally speaking, there is a lot of quality. I wouldn’t be surprised if many were sold at the end of the season …
🚨 BUTASSE alert! 🚨
VAMOS!
Presentation of Juan Ignacio Ramirez the Uruguayan striker who is the only summer recruit of the transfer window of ASSE!
Find your Holy Goal on newsstands or in our online store ➡️ https://t.co/DvJwVnmOsm pic.twitter.com/yClqwCSPiU– Goal! Saint-Etienne (@ButASSE) September 7, 2021
Training file (4/4)
This week, Goal! Saint-Etienne was interested in the Puel project seen through the prism of the trainers who left the Green House. Every day a new interview. Last part with Abdel Bouhazama, former coach of U19 and now in charge of training at SCO Angers.
