Stéphane Grégoire: “I could have returned to Stade Rennais in 2007” (First part)

Stade Rennais Online : Since just over a year, you are managing the USM Saran, a club playing in the Division d’Honneur. What is your role?

Stéphane Grégoire : «I’ve got a double function. I am the director of sports and the coach of the club’s first team. I deal with the supervision of the staff and the follow-up with the coaches – there are twenty-three of them -, while working with the various youth teams of the club.»

SRO : Can you explain us the project of the club ? And what is the place of USM Saran in the football of the Centre region?

S.G. : «Since a few years, the USM Saran is a club that isn’t always well positioned as a force in the football of the Orleans urban area. The satisfaction is that the club has got 450 registered player, this is quite a number. Today, our project is to work over all the categories to bring them all back to the regional level. When I arrived, we only had one team there. Now we have three and we aim to have at least five in the future. Little by a little, we will try to make it happen and work well interms of youth training, in the aim to evolve well towards the national levels.”

SRO : Do you have the means to accomplish this mission?

S.G. : «Up to the CFA2, yes. Beyond, it will be more difficult. In terms of finance, we have the possibility to play at this level, not above. But the goal is really to stabilise the club by giving our youngsters an opportunity to play at the regional level. This is the first project of USM Saran. We work a little bit with US Orléans since I’ve now changed sides. A few young players join this club, some other are coming to ours…”

SRO : Your departure from US Orleans in June 2009 had been a surprise for quite a lot of people at the time. Do you keep any grudges after this episode, especially the final year?

S.G. : «Not at all. I signed a two-year contract with Orléans and announced my intention to have the club promoted to the National. And if it wasn’t the case, I didn’t mind leaving. On my last year, we played for the promotion on our final game in Plabennec, a game we lost. So we were not promoted and my contract expired. Besides, I had had a few arguments with a person who had taken much importance at the club and with whom I wasn’t really agreeing. But six months after I left, that person was sacked…”

SRO : As far as coaching is concerned, is your method close to this of one of the coaches you have worked with during your careers?

S.G. : «I tried to remember the good and the less good by doing principally what matches my personality. I prefer it to be my vision, not anybody else’s. »

SRO : You are also a committed person, since you have founded an association in favour of the disabled. Can you tell us about it.

S.G. : «Outside football, I work for the committee of sports for the disabled of Loiret. I obtained a licence after my spell in Orléans, when I took back some studies in order to be able to work with disabled people. Simply because I had the opportunity to take part in an event and it interested me. I found the values of football I had lost with the professionals. Now, I’m preparing a Master’s degree to become an educator in this sector. I work in structures, foyers, with persons having motor disabilities. Besides, I have set-up a foundation for mentally disabled people, the AVSA 45. However, at this moment, I could not really develop it because of football and my work. But I really want to work with this public. Football is a sport really appreciated by disabled people, and I can feel a strong demand for it. This is an activity that can be practiced as part of a re-education program or just for fun. However, I can also practice other sports with them, such as basket-ball…»

SRO : The individual and his individual progression are fundamental to you. How come French clubs basing their policy on the Academy didn’t think about you ?

S.G. : (he laughs) «If I have done a mistake these last years, this was the one. I passed my badges as a Federal Coach (DEF) while I was still playing. In fact, I was very interested in the football at the national level. I understand later that this wasn’t what I was looking for. It is true, that youth training is very important to me. I’ve always kept a good relationship with Patrick Rampillon (the director of Stade Rennais Academy), and instead of taking the reins at Orleans in 2007, maybe I should have gone to Rennes and worked there. I listened to what Patrick Rampillon had to tell me because he was often telling me, « We could welcome you back in Rennes”. At this moment, I’ve also put the family first, I have got boys aged sixteen and eighteen who are well installed in the area. They might not want to move. »

SRO : Especially since you know Pierre-Emmanuel Bourdeau (the manager of the Stade Rennais U17 second team) quite well ?

S.G. : «As well as Pierre-Emmanuel, I know quite a lot of employees of the Academy. I can think of Laurent (Huard, Reserve Team coach, in CFA2), Régis (Le Bris, U19 team coach), Yannick (Menu, U15 team coach). There is also Phillipe Barraud (coordinator of the recruitment at the Academy). My wife and I, we were very interested by this proposition, since we do like Brittany and we still know people there. But it didn’t happen for various reasons.»

SRO : And when the kids will be grown-up ?

S.G. : (laughs) «We will see in time. I know Patrick (Rampillon) well, we are from the same region. We like each other a lot. At the moment, I am in a different project.”

SRO : Thouars remains a special club for you. Have you never thought about returning to your favourite club?

S.G. : (adamant). «I might be a bit stupid, but I often say that a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country. The president (Gabriel Banchereau) called me two years ago to take the reins at the club. After Orléans, I had already refused positions at CFA clubs, one as an assistant manager in Ligue 2, but I didn’t want to leave the Loiret department. Thouars is a particular place to me, but as a matter of principles, I didn’t want to return to my first club.»

SRO : People don’t always realise it, but you started as a semi-pro at the age of sixteen. This is a rather uncommon performance.

S.G. : «It is as if a sixteen years old youngster was starting with the reserve of a profession team today. There might be less and less of them, it’s true. But it was different then, amateur clubs are not the same. This is an experience which allowed me to progress with Bertrand Marchand, who was managing the club then. I played in nearly every category in Thouars, where I spent thirteen seasons, until Patrick Rampillon, again, spent a long time to convince me to join Stade Rennes as a player.”

SRO : Why did you take so long before coming to professional football, when Rennes had made so much effort to try and recruit you?

S.G. : «These are the hazards of live. I had a good job, my wife was a teacher, I played as an amateur in a really decent division. These are the answers I gave to Stade Rennais when they wanted me to sign for them. Personally, at the time, I didn’t need more than that. Finally, the fact I couldn’t get the job that matched my qualification as a public employee finally decided me to change ways. Patrick Rampillon repeated his proposition and I didn’t want to have any regrets later. If I had to fail, at least I would have tried, and if I had not managed to make it at the professional level, I would simply have done something else. I was really doing it with that idea in mind. I could have been terrible, I know it, but in the worst of scenarios I would have played with the National 2 (the level at which the Rennes Reserve played at the time). And if it had gone badly, I would have left for another amateur club or returned to Thouars, simply.»

SRO : Do you consider yourself as a peculiar figure in the world of football, when so many players dream of doing that job while you, on your side, refused it for several years?

S.G. : «Yes and no. I wasn’t that attracted by professional football. I had a job I liked, I lived in my region so I was happy. Benjamin Corgnet from Dijon is a bit like that. He didn’t plan this, he was quietly preparing his degree to become an optician and arrived to professional football a little bit by chance. There are a lot of players in amateur football who are in this state of mind.

SRO : Could the presence of Nicolas Goussé (a former Thouars-man too) in Rennes have made a difference for your arrival at the Stade Rennais?

S.G. : «Not really. Nicolas was younger than me. It is more the presence of Bertrand Marchand that could play into it, back my case to sign in Rennes.»

Soon, read the second part of this interview of Stéphane Grégoire, which will be mainly centered on his spell at the Stade Rennais.