Frédéric Paquet: "Working on the transfer window is a team effort"

The transfer window

“The club has attained the four objectives that it set for itself: create a competitive team; recruit talented and experienced players like Wahbi Khazri, Rémy Cabella, Timothée Kolodziejczak and Yannis Salibur but also to conserve the team’s main players such as Mathieu Debuchy, Yann M’VIla and Neven Subotic who joined us during the previous winter transfer window; integrate young players trained by the club; anticipate and invest in players with potential, which we did by recruiting Franck Honorat while leaving him at Clermont’s disposal so that he can become a stronger player. These four objectives were attained thanks to the financial efforts made by the shareholders. They gave us the means to create an effective team. Every decision was made collectively and that’s what must be emphasized as well. The shareholders, the general management and our sport’s management team were guided by a shared vision”

The Team

“Our team is composed of players who have technical qualities but also human qualities. We wanted players who share the same values. That’s the case. Yannis (Salibur) just arrived and already feels at home in Saint-Étienne. The players who represent our Sport’s project have another thing in common: they are competitors. We have warriors who don’t cheat, who deserve to wear the jerseys they wear. Our coach and our staff don’t like to lose. That’s what our public expects. All our supporters have high expectations. Our players will have to meet these expectations with a level of efficiency that is consistent with what the public expects. For the moment, the players aren’t all equally prepared. They have to develop their instincts. Jean-Louis Gasset and his staff have already shown their ability to rapidly create a powerful dynamic during the second half of last season”

The objective

“We have a great team but ASSE isn’t the only club to be reinforced. Our competitors have made efforts as well and we expect to play in a very tight championship. We want to finish as high as possible behind the four untouchables who play in another category because their financial means are much superior to our own: PSG, Monaco, OL and OM. Beyond fourth place, the rankings are open and the aspirants don’t miss. We’ll have to fight during every match, take every point. Some teams that are maybe less flashy than ours will be really motivated when they play against us. We’ll have to be efficient no matter who our adversary is. We saw it last Sunday, Amiens didn’t give us the three points. We’ll have to live up to the investments made by the shareholders.”