Last in Ligue 1, AS Saint-Etienne has not won a single match since the start of the season. Worse, ASSE remains on a series of 5 defeats in a row in the league. Put on the dock, the coach of the Greens, Claude Puel, made a point of clarifying the situation by partly evading the poor results of Saint-Etienne.
Indeed, the 60-year-old technician pointed out the catastrophic state of ASSE’s finances, and highlighted the great work done to put the Forez club back on the right track.
“I joined a club which has lived far beyond its means, which no longer has enough to honor this policy, which finds itself in great financial difficulty without any possibility of recruiting for a fee, which owes the contrary to lower the wage bill, and in which there is no asset at the level of the players, no young people who have been developed apart from Saliba, already sold. I tell myself that I am a bit masochistic, I am gone where no sane technician, who wants a career, would have gone, because there were only blows to be taken. “ confided Claude Puel before continuing.
“What has been done for two years in Saint-Étienne, under the conditions in which it is done, is quite exceptional. Sometimes I try to explain, but hey … We only remember“ they won “Or” they lost “, that’s how it is. It’s a thankless job because people do not know. They would like us to play Europe while we are on a mission to save the club and in particular financially , by releasing assets with the development of young players. Before others benefit, later, from our work … In the meantime, I must continue to move forward, trying not to put all this weight on the players and the staff. “
Words that are not surprising, since Claude Puel had announced this summer that this 2021-2022 season would still be very complicated given the financial situation of ASSE.