Olivier Rodriguez: “He's nowhere convincing, and it's difficult to digest… If I have one thing in common with him, it's that he often sleeps with his disappointments”

On the Channel L'Equipe, the columnist Olivier
Rodriguezspoke about the situation of the former Girondins de Bordeaux striker, Jean-Pierre Papin, with the axis of “old guys” who return to the clubs to help.

“The early retirement of glories, of legends… We don't always know what to do with them, and they always become a little cumbersome. There, it's Jean-Pierre Papin, we're talking about a Ballon d'Or, it's not nothing. Even if it's respectable, today he is a coach in National 3. We have to respect everyone's work, but that still says something of a downfall… When we were Ballon d'Or, I think that we aspire to something other than the N3 of our favorite club”

Then he adds.

“What I mean is that we assigned him to several positions, he was an advisor to the President, we also thought of him for a short interim between two coaches, but did not judge him too fair for occupy such functions in place of Jean-Louis Gasset. Now he is in conflict with Ali Zarrac… What I mean is that Jean-Pierre Papin, living legend and former glory, he is carried around almost everywhere, and despite everything he is convincing nowhere, and that's difficult to digest. If I have one thing in common with him, it's that he often sleeps with his disappointments. To be less bitter, I find that sometimes football is a strange machine, an ogre that goes so far as to devour its own children, and that's what it reminds me of.”

Transcription Girondins4Ever