After a catastrophic start to the season, AS Saint-Etienne can only note its shortcomings. The Greens have too limited a workforce, undoubtedly because of the choices made by the buyer Kilmer Sports Ventures.
At this rate, it is difficult to see how the Greens could stay in Ligue 1. AS Saint-Etienne has just lost four of its first five matches, including the humiliation experienced in Nice (8-0) last Friday. It is still early in the season and the Stéphanois obviously have time to react. But for the moment, it seems clear that Olivier Dall’Oglio’s squad is not enough. This is indeed the opinion of journalist Bernard Lions who accuses the buyer Kilmer Sports Ventures and its recruitment policy.
« The new leaders of ASSE have forgotten that Ligue 1 is an adult sportcommented the ASSE specialist in the Sans Control podcast. They recruited very young and inexperienced. Of the 10 players, apart from Yunis Abdelhamid who is an old backpacker from Ligue 1, they focused on prospects, young people in development. But the average age is very low, with the quality of the players which is not called into question, I am thinking in particular of Ekwah who arrived from Sunderland, who is a good player, but who has never played in Ligue 1… That’s what’s incredible. »
« You start last year with a basic squad with 12 to 15 players, you look at the season, they lost 12 games in Ligue 2. It’s enormousunderlined the journalist from L’Equipe. The rare players who were cut out for Ligue 1, like Irvin Cardona for example, were players loaned by Augsburg, they did not remain those players. It would therefore have been necessary to recruit widely and recruit experienced players in Ligue 1. But the sporting policy of the new leaders was quite different. » Could the Canadian management have underestimated the level of the French championship?
ASSE in danger until January
« I have the impression that they have not really understood the dimension of what Ligue 1 was in terms of physical, athletic and tactical demands. And we see it with the Saint-Etienne midfielder, the average age is around twenty years, not even 40 Ligue 1 matches and even then, it is Aymen Moueffek who concentrates them all. They pay dearly for this inexperience. And I think there is no solution until Christmas. (…) Whether behind, in the middle or in front, until now, there are gaps which are too abysmal to allow Saint-Etienne to remain in Ligue 1 », Estimated Bernard Lions while waiting for the winter transfer window.
