“Real longevity is six, seven years”: the confessions of Éric Roy after two years on the bench at Stade Brestois

Certainly not, no. It’s a bit surreal. At the same time, it’s fantastic to experience these emotions yourself, but also to be able to transmit them to others. In football, you have a lot more disappointment than joy. In general, there is a French champion, one who wins the Coupe de France… You have many more failures than successes. But here, we feel like we’ve been blessed by the gods. We still have to put it into context. If we had told the supporters that we were going to experience this, they wouldn’t have believed it, even if it didn’t fall from the sky. What we managed to do must become a standard.

Were there times when you could have lost your temper?

I am lucky to have a measured character. But we can quickly become inflamed by what we have experienced and that is dangerous. I think I still managed to take the time to appreciate, step back and realize. In our professions, we often find it difficult to gain a little height, but it is essential to protect ourselves physically and psychologically.

For me, the guys who really lasted are Guy Roux, Arsène Wenger, Alex Ferguson, Jurgen Klopp… People who manage to spend decades at a club.

What does this go through?

I take time for myself. I work out in the morning, before everyone arrives. I sometimes leave earlier than others because I need to take a good nap. I recharge my batteries, I do some breathing, some visualization. But I am not, like many coaches or business leaders, supervised by an outside person. For now, I don’t need it.

You have been coaching Brest for two years. It’s rare for a Ligue 1 coach to last so long at a club… Why does it continue?

There is already stability in the club, beyond the coach. In terms of governance, on sports, on non-sporting, on the presidency… Afterwards, it’s always the same, you last if you have results. So far, they’re not too bad. There is also certainly what we, the staff, have put in place, with a receptive group which has also progressed.

I think that the very essence of the coach, his primary mission, is to help his group progress. It’s a great satisfaction. But for me, the guys who really lasted are Guy Roux, Arsène Wenger, Alex Ferguson, Jurgen Klopp… People who manage to spend decades at a club. As soon as you pass six, seven, eight years, you are able to renew yourself. That’s true longevity.

Do you see yourself staying in Brest for seven or eight years?

And why not? I have no limits, no prohibitions, and in both directions, to stay or to leave. Everything is possible, everything is conceivable, but nothing is certain. You know very well that you can lose ten matches in a row and find yourself out too, it can happen. When you see what’s happening with Manchester City over the last 15 games, you say to yourself: “If it happens to clubs like that…” Guardiola that he is, when he has important players injured, it’s not not the same team. This is why you must always have this humility to tell yourself that you are also very dependent on your players, and that it is they who, even if you support them and train them, make you win. And if you can’t create a connection and have a strong bond with them, if you don’t have the players with you, you can’t have results, you can’t exist.

Were you afraid that the mayonnaise wouldn’t set this summer?

You can still have fear. We had important player departures as soon as I arrived, with that of Franck Honorat after six months. We had built a gaming identity based on his qualities. My job is to adapt to the human resources I have, and try to put them in the best conditions with complementarities. This year, important players left, others arrived, and our job was to find the best mix possible, doing things a little different from last year. Apart from three or four matches where we were below our level, the team has good performance and still manages to show things.

With different profiles, we can do a lot of things. When the transfer window was over, I no longer had any doubts. But before the end of the transfer window, during the first two matches, it was complicated.

Do you have the impression of having revolutionized the coaching position a little, by arriving without an assistant in Brest?

Adapt, perhaps, at least it’s not me who’s going to say that. But I see that it rarely happens anyway. Maybe in my next position, I will go with a staff, I don’t know. Afterwards, you have to be honest: I had everything to gain by coming to Brest. So, I could have lost, not maintained the team and definitively given up on my coaching career. At the same time, seeing how it went, it also reassures me that you don’t have an obligation to come with an armada of guys who are your friends or people you’ve worked with. . If you come across honest, hard-working, professional people, and then you do your part, it can work.

I had resigned before there was a possibility of him leaving. So if he had left, I would have stayed because I was under contract but it would have been different. And it would have been complicated, I think, for the club.

For what ?

You have a sports director who is a bit of the architect of a squad: even if we discuss and I give my opinion, it is still him who acts. When a sports director announces that he is going to leave in April, you can work behind it, but if he leaves in July, it is not easy. It was a discussion that I had with my president, to tell him that we had to do everything to keep him and it wasn’t just financial.

Beyond the club that gave you your chance, what does Brest represent for you?

It is a land of welcome, a land of recognition of my work. We have had a lot of collective and individual testimonies, from people I meet, from supporters… Today, I really like it here. I don’t know what my future will be, but there is this recognition, in both directions. They reached out to me and I think I gave them back too. This is a message that I also had with the president. He told me: “Greg (Lorenzi), I put it in place, anyway.” I replied: “How long has it been, President? It’s been eight years. I think he told you has done well too, in eight years.” At some point, you give someone a chance, they are sure to be grateful to you. But you may also want, in a career, to perhaps have other means, another environment.

It’s very complicated because many things come into play: the athlete, the financial, the living environment, the family. Since I have been in Brest, I have not seen my children, I see my wife occasionally.

Were you asked last summer?

I told the clubs who contacted me, French and foreign, that I didn’t want to meet anyone. For me, it was impossible for me to leave this summer.

Are you at the end of your contract in June? Are there things that could make you stay or leave?

That’s what I’m saying. You are grateful and you know what you have. The grass is not necessarily greener elsewhere. Well, yes, a contract, things like that, more pragmatic. It’s almost accounting. But then, working comfort are things that I also talked about with Greg when he was asked. You know the way you work here, how it’s going to be, how it’s going. You know the negative sides, the positive sides. It’s very complicated because many things come into play: the athlete, the financial, the living environment, the family. Since I have been in Brest, I have not seen my children, I see my wife occasionally.

Perhaps there is also this reflection of not being able to do more with this team next season?

It’s obvious that this is part of the thinking. Doing better is complicated, doing differently is possible. If we wait until we make the Champions League every year, there will be disillusionment. But what I also like here is that people don’t get excited. They will remember all their lives that they saw a Brest – Real Madrid, it will mark generations. But we must maintain reason, know where we come from, what we are. If that’s integrated…

It is obvious that with Brest, for me we have already won something. There is no line on the prize list but in the hearts of the people, we have won something.

What if a more upscale club comes to approach you?

All the clubs that come are more upscale and have more resources (laughs). If I leave, I won’t go to the second division and I would even say that in France, come on, five, six clubs may interest me. I can’t tell you how people perceive me. In any case better than when I arrived in Brest, that’s for sure. I wasn’t too bankable at the time.

But now you are.

I don’t know if I am. For many years, I didn’t make people dream.

Are you still operating without an agent to represent you?

Yes, even if many want to meet me (laughs).

But have you gained confidence in yourself?

No, because I have always had confidence in myself. It’s my character trait, I hope it’s not misplaced ego. I think I am a true football professional who knows the game, the players, their expectations. I wasn’t in office for ten years, I always had the feeling that I had nothing to envy of many. You still had to be able to express it. It’s not pretension. There are guys who are still at a higher level, like Klopp, Wenger, Mourinho, Guardiola, Ancelotti, but at one point they had this progression to go to the biggest clubs and won there. And when you’re in Brest, it’s difficult to win. Win titles.

Would you like to win? Is this where you want to go?

If I leave, it is indeed to go to a club where I will have the possibility of winning. This is why few clubs are really interesting. And in France, there is almost only one club (Paris) to win the championship. Well then, there is the foreigner, and it’s a bit of the unknown.

Haven’t you already won with Brest?