Get French Football News sat down with former France, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Everton striker Louis Saha this week for a wide-ranging football chat.
In this final part of a four-part interview, Louis spoke about the struggles of his first club, FC Metz, and the wider problems facing Ligue 1 clubs.
Another of your former teams, who are doing even worse than Tottenham this season – are my team, FC Metz. When you played for them they were challenging for the title, with players like Robert Pires. How do you explain the fact that they have become a yo-yo club?
Oh yes, it’s been hard going this season! I think a lot comes down to framework. When you have results that look like repeated bad cycles and lots of yo-yoing, then for me it means that there is a problem with the structure. You can change the players, change the managers, but if you end up repeating a pattern, then there is a structural problem.
FC Metz are among the best clubs in terms of developing players – some unbelievable players have come from there. So I don’t think it’s a problem related to players coming through the academy. Maybe it’s a need to keep those players for a little longer. That would be good in terms of the stability of a club – try not to be a springboard club too soon – that might be something that could be managed. Although it’s a risk and sometimes you have to admit defeat because there are bigger clubs that splash the cash straightaway, as soon as you’ve developed a player. But for the good of the team, you need to try to keep those players at least one or two years longer than they have done the last few years. I think it’s been very detrimental, I find it quite striking.
Then of course in the course of this season there have been key matches that Metz should have won but which they lost, home matches against direct relegation rivals where they didn’t show the necessary solidity. In a league like Ligue 1 you get punished for that – you only need four or five really poor performances like that and it’s the descent into hell. Well that has happened too often and it’s a cycle that has repeated itself. That’s the club’s problem.
I think that the issue of clubs needing to sell players as soon as they come through youth development is a Ligue 1 problem, because so many clubs have financial issues?
That’s very true. That’s why we end up with lots of feeder clubs. When you have an academy and you find yourself forced by necessity to play that selling game, then there is less stability. Whereas a club like AS Monaco, which is not a club known for its youth development with the same structures as a club like Metz, don’t have the same issues to contend with.
I’m not a specialist but if I try to put my finger on it, some do it very well, others not so well. It looks like FC Nantes may fall through the trapdoor too. But there are other clubs that manage to do it very well, like Stade Rennais. Three or four years ago, I saw Rennes being like Bordeaux in terms of big financial difficulty. Ligue 1 clubs are under a lot of financial pressure under the oversight of the DNCG [France’s football financial regulatory body] It’s extremely tough because it’s not regulated to the same extent in Europe – it’s not at all as regulated in other leagues. So French clubs inevitably get cleaned out and clubs like Metz, who have developed great links in Senegal or in other countries and manage to bring through super-talents then have to sell them. It’s a really tough game to play and that’s where you need to try to ensure your investment lasts not just three years but maybe four to five years. That’s what I think, with my modest level of knowledge anyway. I think it’s a real shame.
Louis Saha was talking exclusively to Get French Football News courtesy of Wiz Slots
GFFN | Jeremy Smith
