For the first time since his arrival in Normandy, the new president of SM Caen Ziad Hammoud was our guest this Monday, December 16 in Allo Malherbe on France Bleu Normandie as the Norman club plays at Dunkirk to close the 16th day of Ligue 2. The businessman took over from Olivier Pickeu this summer as part of the takeover of the club by Kylian Mbappé and his family through its investment company Interconnected Ventures and its subsidiary Coalition Capital. Ziad Hammoud answered questions from Olivier Duc and the listeners: the opportunity to clarify the new governance of the Norman club, to discuss the ambitions of Stade Malherbe this season and to talk about future investments.
The takeover of the club
“We arrived very late in the Mercato. This created some lack of cohesion at the beginning. The ideal would have been to arrive in June but the negotiations were delayed, each subject had to be finalized with all the parties. And indeed, it was not ideal. But on the non-sporting aspect, there were absolutely no delays. We were seen twice by the DNCG with a complete green light. We are lucky to have financial strength and many clubs envy us at this level. In terms of the organization chart, things had to be done little by little. We have restructured the athlete with the arrival of a performance unit to take the club to a higher dimension.“
The new organization chart of SM Caen
“Someone will be appointed before the winter break to focus on the recruitment part [pour remplacer Yohann Eudeline]. He will work hand in hand with Gérard Prêcheur who manages the technical aspect and training. On the non-sporting level, Jocelyn Flamand arrives and he himself is about to appoint a new financial director to restructure the club. This year is a year of transition where we are building solid foundations, deep roots for the year 2025/2026 which will be the big start for us.“
La communication
“I know it's fashionable to speak every 10 minutes and make lots of statements today. It's not my style. We are more inclined to work and speak when we really have things to talk about, messages to communicate. Without being from the region, we are quite Norman at that level. I don't see this as a fault. It's true that it's a change of style, but over the past three months, me and Gérard Prêcheur, the technical director, have made five or six speeches, that's an average which is quite honest. The idea is not to talk about rain and good weather, we must above all work, we must show the results“.
Malherbe's poor start to the season
“I'm not worried. Things will catch up. It's true that one week before the winter break, we are not where we should be and where we wanted to be. There is work to do, we will take stock in a week, to see where in terms of the winter transfer window we will be able to strengthen the team. But I have no doubt that in 2025, things will get back on their feet and that we will begin to see the first effects of the investments made in these first months in terms of infrastructure and protocols. We are motivated, serene and at the same time ambitious. We know what we're getting ourselves into. Our shareholder knows this environment well. There is sometimes frustration when things don't go well on the weekend. We continue to work.”
Ambitions this season
We are big competitors. The idea is not to maintain or finish between 10th and 16th place. The idea is to fight to always go higher. But we are aware that it is absolutely necessary to build solid foundations for the club so that in the medium-long term, when the rise to Ligue 1 arrives, it will be a lasting rise. We want to promote this club even more. It is a legendary club, more than a century old, which has a lot of history, in a fantastic region. We want this local anchor to remain, and to promote Caen even further“.
The strategy for the winter transfer window
“The technical teams have already been working for several months. The winter transfer window is not the easiest to approach. You have to see the players available. Unfortunately, we had a lot of injuries, we were unlucky. I'm talking about Valentin Henry, Yann M'Vila, Kalifa Coulibaly, Brahim Traoré for example. You have to think about that. We will see who is likely to come back soon, who will be stuck a little longer and base the transfer window on that. The idea is to improve the squad. But it is not on the winter transfer window that we are building the year 2025, and the 2025/2026 season. There will be much more strategic and in-depth thinking for the summer transfer window, with many more possibilities.“
Nicolas Seube maintained or ousted?
“We will sit down during the break and we will see what worked and what did not work at the sporting level and we will see from January how we can improve things. But we let Nicolas Seube work in peace. It’s a word that I particularly like.”
His role with the players
“I'm here in the locker room [lors des matchs] and it's the coach who usually speaks. I had the opportunity to speak at times that I found appropriate. But I don't think talking to the players before and after each match is my role. I am here to distill a few words when necessary“.
Training
“Building solid foundations and healthy bass for the medium/long term requires a lot of training. A lot of resources have already been put in place, whether in terms of human resources, at the medical level, or internal infrastructures. We are going to put financial resources back into the training center to accelerate the growth of our talents.“
