For the 4th time in his career, the eternal No. 2 who has accompanied six different coaches since 2006 has taken the reins of a team “to be of service”, with no ambition for the future but with the stated intention to apply their ideas.
Originally from the South, he has spent most of his career in Little, first for seven years as an attacking midfielder (1995-2002) before going through recruitment and training then becoming Claude Puel’s assistant in 2006.
In 2008, he followed Puel to Lyon: under the leadership of the two men, OL stayed on the podium in L1 and won the first Champions League semi-final in its history in 2010 (lost against Bayern Munich), ten years before the second drop this summer. But in 2011, Puel was sacked and Collot with him.
“This is football. I’ve been thanked and life goes on, that’s how it is. I have fond memories of it, I had some great moments there with a quality squad, where we were always trying to win. It was full and very rewarding seasons, ”he said Tuesday.
“Leader of men”
Returned as deputy in Lille, he had already provided interim in 2015 and 2016, before returning to the shadows, then joining Nantes as right arm of Vahid Halilhodzic, his last trainer in Lille.
In the Nantes locker room, his designation and his voluntary speech were well received after the hesitations that marked the last months of Christian Gourcuff. “‘Pat’ is the man for the job,” assured the keeper Alban Lafont, who hailed “a leader of men” and sees all the qualities of a No. 1.
But the results did not follow: with certainly more energy, the players won only two points out of nine. A 1-1 draw against the red lantern Dijon, a 3-2 defeat in Reims after conceding three goals in six minutes and finally a 1-1 draw snatched at the last second on a gag goal against Angers. “We can speak of a miracle,” Collot admitted.
It must be said that his choices have sometimes surprised. Certainly, he immediately made waltz the 4-4-2 that Gourcuff had always aligned, replacing it with a 4-3-3 intended to bring more security to the defense, with Andrei Girotto on sentry.
But he also chose to leave on the bench performing players like the full-back Sébastien Corchia and especially the attacker Randal Kolo Muani, revelation of the start of the season.
“Areas of turbulence”
“He is not far from being the best striker I have played against since the start of the season”, greeted the Angevin defender on Sunday. Romain thomas. However, against Dijon and Angers, the international Espoirs was only the luxury replacement of a Renaud Emond in need of balloons.
Collot explained that Emond was responsible for “wearing down the adversary” for Kolo Muani, who also had to be preserved. But the game against an unbeaten Lyonnais since mid-September is probably not a priority for Nantes, 15th 3 points behind the jump-off, which has not won since early November.
“The coming weeks will be difficult (…) We must be aware that we will struggle for a while in areas of significant turbulence,” Collot warned.
Especially since the vagueness still reigns over who will take over to become the 15th coach (not counting the interim) in 13 years of presidency of Waldemar Kita.
Collot himself sees himself as staying number 2, especially since he does not have the BEPF, the compulsory diploma to train a professional team. He had tried to register for training when he was in Lille, but he had not been selected and did not try again. At 53, he still has time.
– .
