Having become the unforgettable coach of the Blues, hero of July 12, 1998, Aimé Jacquet previously had an unhappy experience in Montpellier.
There were lots of people on Saturday at the Mosson stadium. In the middle of the international break, the MHSC was celebrating its 50th anniversary and most of the former glories of the Hérault club were present for the occasion. Laurent Blanc, Albert Rust, Yanga-Mbiwa. Fleury Di Nallo, Vitorino Hilton and Souleymane Camara were there.
Several big names were nevertheless missing, including Carlos Valderama, Eric Cantona and Aimé Jacquet. Before joining the DTN and then becoming the coach of the France team, the native of Sail-sous-Couzan had a series of unfortunate experiences, being fired from three clubs in just over two years: in Bordeaux, Montpellier and Nancy.
“He got kicked out like a mess…”
Michel der Zakarian, who himself recently left the Hérault club after a catastrophic start to the season, remembered the conditions of this dismissal, which was brutal to say the least, in the columns of So Foot. “I remember a defeat in Lyon, his city, 3-1, in February 90. Aimé Jacquet was the coach, there had been a big recruitment effort, with Cantona and Paille, and we were last,” he began to provide context.
“The president enters the locker room, he says to Aimé: 'So, what do we do? – I don’t know, president, I’m lost. – You're fired.' Like that, in front of everyone. We were all stunned, he continued. There was a long silence… Aimé was a really good coach, he made us work well. He had been a three-time French champion with Bordeaux and he was getting kicked out like a mess…”
In 2015, for The TeamLouis Nicollin returned to Aimé Jacquet's failed visit to Montpellier. “We both did something stupid. He should have taken a year off and we should have waited a year to take it. Because he is an excellent coach. But when he moved to Montpellier, he hadn't recovered from his failure in Bordeaux and Bez sacked him. That's for sure”, he explained.
France
