Stéphane Grégoire : “Stade Rennes is my club” (second part)

SRO : Of all the manager you have known at the Stade Rennais (Guy David, Paul Le Guen and Christian Gourcuff), did one seem to be out of the ordinary, was there one you had a different relationship with?

Stéphane Grégoire : «I spent three years under Paul Le Guen’s management, so I had more a stronger bound with him. With Gourcuff, it didn’t work out especially well. As soon as he arrived, he was told that I had openly defender Paul Le Guen since I found it was a shame to sack him a few months earlier. Christian Gourcuff therefore arrived with a few prejudices about me. He told me clearly that I wasn’t part of the team’s plans. I accepted, and told me that I would train seriously. I came back in the game after a few players had requested my return in the squad. After that, I was lucky since results became better, it did help me to remain in the team. Else, except for the communication, I did evolve a lot with Christian Gourcuff, notably in terms of technique. He has qualities and defaults, but there is not much that can be reproached to him in terms of his work. In his way, he is a manager who marked my career.”

SRO : Do you think that he could have succeeded in Rennes, if he had been given more time ?

S.G. : «I don’t think so. And I told him before he left. He had an interesting method however. But Stade Rennes and Lorient are completely different contexts. By the way, talking about him, I would like to thank me for calling me in the squad for my final game in Rennes. He insisted that I should be in the sixteen when I didn’t not want too, I didn’t feel good about it, since I wasn’t too well mentally. I asked to watch the game for the stands since there was things I had taken quite badly. And without Christian Gourcuff, I wouldn’t have experience the tribute the supporters offered me during this game.»

SRO : Looking back at this season 2000-2001 (before the arrival of Gourcuff), was it not difficult for the squad to live with the atmosphere surrounding Paul Le Guen ?

S.G. : «The advantage is that the squad was very close and strong. We were four or five players behind him (Dominique Arribagé, Olivier Echouafni, Bernard and Stéphane Grégoire). Clearly, it was Paul and us. It was up to the squad to change things, to work harder for better results. But it wasn’t easy, it was a slightly weird season. Players arrived, and we did not really know why or how. But as a player, you have to play, be good and shut it.»

SRO : Have you never feared for your image with the direction when you openly supported Paul Le Guen ?

S.G. : «I’ve always worked that way. I did not forget that Paul Le Guen had given me the captain armband, even though I was not important compared to other players in the squad. I was doing my job, I was respecting my hierarchy and my supporters, with who things were going rather well. So maybe the management could have seen me as a pain, a player who talked too much and could be disturbing… I had a course of action and I kept it. As with Christian Gourcuff, with who I wasn’t agreeing on a fair number of questions. But I’ve always been honest with him. I would never have tried to sabotage his work. I know, and even more so today, that the work of a manager isn’t an easy task/”

SRO : When you talk about these facts, it feels a bit like that way of behaving has disappeared with the years in modern football. Is this the way you feel?

S.G. : «Indeed, it is one of the reasons why I came out of professional football. These are values that have been lost. Sometimes I feel that they (the professional players) haven’t understood the trick. The individual has become more important than the collective force. Each player has got his agent and tries to earn a living as well as possible. This may be a reason why I didn’t have a great career. I realised but maybe too late that those who cared about the club and the coach were not those who signed the big contracts. Players who mess up with the club for two or three weeks by refusing to train receive a big check when they arrive in another club. I have a feeling we’re running in circle, walking on our heads. To be honest, I’m sometimes ashamed to admit I was in that world. The funniest thing is that I hid it when I returned to the University. On the first few days, they didn’t really pay attention, because I wasn’t a really famous player. Then one of them discovered I used to be a professional player and they all rushed on Internet to find out who I was. Then they came to ask me “why did you not tell us?” I replied that it had only been a few years in my life.»

SRO : Don’t you think, also, that amateur football is more and more affected by what happens with the professionals?

S.G. : «I do agree. And this is something I regret deeply in the amateur world, since we see that sort of behaviour all the way down to the Division d’Honneur. Even I, in Saran, received letters from players who want to play for money. In our club, we are not in that state of mind. The players are just earning enough to pay for the fuel, no more, so fifty or hundred euros depending on the trips. When I played, the amateur players all had a job while nowadays, in the CFA, some don’t need to work on the side. They can easily play in the cup on the Wednesday and in the league on the Saturday. When I remember my debuts in Thouars, this was absolutely impossible for us.”

SRO : As far as good times are concerned, what would you keep from your time at Stade Rennais?

S.G. : «I really spent five great years in Rennes, as I did later in Ajaccio and Dijon. I remember my double against Metz very well (2-2, 1997-1998 season). I was pleased the other day when my son found my two goals on Internet, I had never seen them, like most of my other goals in fact. I’ve often been told about the goal I scored in Marseille (0-1, 1997-1998). But what is nice is that I receive messages of sympathy from the Rennais, since they are everywhere in France. I often meet some of them in Orléans, they come to watch USM Saran games and greet me. These are always good moments. Stade Rennes is the club that made me discover the first division and trusted me. I only keep good memories from my stay at this club.»

SRO : And if I tell you about the Juventus Turin, in the final of the 1999 Intertoto Cup ?

S.G. : «On that day, it is a real pity we didn’t have a thirty-thousand-seat stadium like now. This remains a particular double tie, I remember managing a great game on the first leg, and I even hit the bar. I also remember that René Girard (then the assistant of French national team coach Roger Lemerre) had come down to shake my hand and congratulate me for my performance. But I still regret that we played in front of twelve to sixteen thousand people at home. I often played at the Route de Lorient in a stadium in renovation. This is one of my only bad memories, that and the state of the pitch. I remember finishing games absolutely exhausted because of the bad state of it.”

SRO : When you think about it now, don’t you feel that you were in with a chance against the Juventus ? Especially remembering the first half in Italy when you had an opportunity to manage something great?

S.G. : «Absolutely! I remember this first leg in which the team was at the right level. And finally we lost this game in Italian style with goals by… Del Piero? (he is reminded that it was a brace by Pippo Inzaghi) And that guy, he tackled the ball we still don’t know how, and he scored. What is really frustrating is that we played an excellent game. The return leg was more of the same! I had the same feeling a few years later against Aston Villa. We should never have lost there, we conceded a goal early (Dion Dublin after five minutes) and we could not equalise and qualify despite two excellent games. These are good and bad memories at the same time.”

SRO : Why do you think it is, that you have left such an impression on the public at the Route de Lorient, so much that ten years later, your name remains unforgettable in their memories?

S.G. : (slightly embarassed) «I don’t know if I have really left a mark at the club. I wasn’t the best player or the most gifted technically… But if you tell me so. But you know, I’ve always been honest with this club. I don’t know.»

SRO : You sound like you are surprised and a little bit embarrassed by this?

S.G. : «Some truly great players have been playing for Rennes, much better than me. Maybe people remember that I stayed for five years, that I was the team’s captain… This surprises me a bit. But it is true that everywhere I’ve been, I had good returns from Rennes fans who kept a good image of me. When you reach the end of your career and you enjoy a nice reception from your former clubs, this is always a satisfaction. Recently, it allowed me to spend a day with the disable people I take care of in Dijon. I did the same in Rennes last season with a group from Saran, thanks to Patrick Rampillon and Georges Bartel (the club’s financial director). We were very well received, they had opened the doors to the dressing rooms a few hours before a game. The people I was accompanying are still talking to me about it.»

SRO : Can you recognise yourself in one of the current players of Stade Rennais ?

S.G. : (he laughs) «I’m often being told « look, there is a player who looks a bit like you, who has the same spirit as you, it is Romain Danzé". I don’t know him very well, I saw him play a few times, he really is a player with a great spirit, versatile. A bit like me, he isn’t the best player but he is always present. Talking about him, it reminds what I could hear when I was a player: “You are not the best, but at the end of the day we know we can rely on you”.”

SRO : Was your versatility an asset for your career ?

S.G. : «I would say it was the other way round. I had the most fun in my last seasons when I played as a centre-back. This is a position I should have played at earlier. I felt comfortable there. As for the versatility, the managers are using it and it then becomes very difficult to settle down at a given position. I am pretty sure the Rennes fans where having bets before the games to try and find out where I would start. I played at every position in Rennes, except goalkeeper and centre-back. Maybe in a friendly but I don’t think so. It isn’t widely known but I was one of the bests in the endurance tests. Also, there is something that should be rectified, since I saw on a website that my weakness was my pace. It makes me smile since I was often equal to Jean-Claude Darcheville on that type of tests. I know this can be surprising to some. But then you have pace and pace. I was not as explosive as some, but in terms of acceleration and distance, I was one of the bests.”

SRO : What is your opinion on the way Stade Rennes has evolved since fifteen years, especially since the arrival of the Pinault family ?

S.G. : «François Pinault has made the club change considerably both in terms of a sportive and of media aspect, which is very good. I remember, when I left Rennes in 2002, I was saying that the Stade Rennais would become a good club as soon as there would not be fifteen departures and fifteen arrivals each year. I’m not watching the club as closely now, since my three sons are respectively supporting Lyon, Lille and Auxerre. This is surprising since one of them was born in Rennes. As a consequence, I follow the club from quite a distance. Stade Rennais is clearly one of the leading eight teams in France, but we never know where to place them at the end of the season. From the outside, you wonder whether the Stade Rennais would be able to be on the podium over the long term. If they manage to qualify for Europe every year, they will improve further, that is certain.”

SRO : Shall we finish with a little word for the visitors of Stade Rennais Online and the club’s supporters in general ?

S.G. : «I’ve always tried to show on the pitch who I was in the real life. I hope this is what they will remember. I took much pleasure with them, I had diverse and strong emotions with the Rennes shirt. To me, at the professional level, Stade Rennes is my club. And it will remain Stade Rennais because I’ve lived so much there: Joys, disappointments… I will always remain a Rennes supporter whatever happens. I will never forget this banner that was displayed for my final game: “Stéphane Grégoire, for ever…” And after that I have been very nice with you since I scored an own goal with Ajaccio in the Coupe de France (3-0, Round of 64 in January 2003). At this time I thought I had scored my last ever goal in this stadium and I was pleased (he laughs). I’d like to go back more often but it isn’t close to home. And with my activities, I don’t have much time.”

- Photo : srfc.frenchwill.fr