Romain Ferrierformer technical director of the training center and former coach of the U17 Nationals
Girondins de Bordeaux, for Girondins4Ever and before the match against Stade Rennaishas given his news since his dismissal at the beginning of November.
« How are you. There are the Christmas holidays coming up so it will also be a good time to cut and turn the page gently since it is a soap opera which lasted several months. For us, given how we operate in football, it starts at the beginning of July for the restarts and ends eleven months later. So this first part of the season was unfortunately, given what happened for the club, completely ruined. »
It was through the media that you learned of the fall of the club with the loss of professional status and the closure of the training center. How do we react when we learn all this from the outside?
« That is to say, we are surprised and shocked right away because we don't expect that. Obviously, we manage the athlete, we don't know exactly in detail what's going on. But in view of the last few seasons we knew that it was complicated in terms of management, we had seen that. Even already at the end of my first season in Bordeaux in 21/22, the club almost fell by the wayside. But there, despite everything, we didn't necessarily expect it. Above all, it's the brutality of telling yourself that it's over, of immediately becoming aware of the consequences that it will have. Indeed, it is learning it indirectly in fact. We really get into a whirlwind where immediately, to the nearest second, as soon as the information comes out we are bombarded with phone calls from worried parents, players, agents. They're like, what's going on? What are we going to do? So yes it was violent to learn it like that. But we could not lament our fate. Unfortunately the news had fallen, we had to bounce back, in any case try to bounce back, be straight and solid for the young people, for the players. We have a form of responsibility, we have created a bond with them for several years, they have trusted us. And there, in fact, everything collapses. What are they doing? The first thing is that they will try to ask questions to their contacts who are their families but also the contacts at the training center level, at the boarding school, and the coaches as well. This affects all families, there are obviously a lot of concerns. What are we going to do now? What will become of my son? There are still quite a few young people who came from New Aquitaine but despite everything, it's an upheaval because we have to find a local high school, we have to find a club. Then paradoxically they were not completely free so they were still under contract but the latter had expired. The situation was still incredibly unfavorable for them. We are entering a chapter that we do not know at all, justice, a cessation of payments, a legal recovery. Now I'm used to it all, I know everything by heart, all the steps that need to be taken and what we went through for many months. »
