Football: “Auxerre is the victim of the power of the rich”, says Guy Roux

2023-06-04 14:11:42

He finally decided to go to the stadium on Saturday evening for the Auxerre-Lens match (1-3) which could allow the team of his life to save themselves. But Guy Roux, the emblematic figure of Burgundy football, admits today that he suspected before the meeting that AJA would not save themselves. For Le Parisien, he nevertheless draws some alarm bells for the future.

How did you experience the relegation from Auxerre on Saturday evening?

Guy Roux. As you know, I have a physiologically fragile heart and complicated emotions are difficult for me to live with. But there, deep inside me, I knew that Auxerre could not play a great match. Lens is naturally stronger. My only hope was that our friends from Angevin beat Nantes, but that didn’t happen. But I console myself by telling myself that behind Auxerre, my two favorite teams are Nantes and Lens. At the same time, in this match, I saw incredible things with gross errors of goalkeepers like I had never seen in more than forty years. Alas, there was also some with our goalkeeper. To sum up, I would say that Auxerre had a disastrous defensive game yesterday and Lens were stronger.

“The France of football is lazy”

How to qualify this relegation?

I would say that Auxerre is the victim of the power of the rich! How can we accept, for the comfort of the wealthiest, to go from 20 to 18 clubs in L1. And the same in L2. The big ones only think about themselves and don’t give a damn about the little ones. They want to tire less for their European matches. I find that the France of football is lazy. Fewer matches, more League Cups and more extensions in the Coupe de France. So, I’m going to propose a new reform for the cup: we start with penalties and then everyone in the shower! This way, we will get tired less. Frankly, it annoys me to always do less. If we had stayed at 20 clubs, AJA would be in L1 today.

But does Auxerre deserve to go down?

There were no unfair games that cost us points. Let’s be frank, we came on late during a play-off against Saint-Étienne, which put us late for recruitment. Then, Auxerre was mediocre in the first leg before recovering. And we had a deceptive schedule since we only met the big clubs like PSG or Lens in the last few days. It’s a fair descent.

Are you worried about the future now?

Administratively, the club is doing well but sportingly, it will be complicated. I would like the coach, Christophe Pelissier, to stay but we lack a sports director to manage recruitment. In my time, I took care of it but it is no longer possible today in modern football. Auxerre would need a Leonardo. The one who helped PSG so much to build a great team when Qatar arrived. If there is not an organization set up quickly, then we will still have to be worried about Auxerre. Because the AJA is completely naked in French football.