Leaving OL left him with a (very) bitter taste. Officially presented this Thursday by Dijon, Grégory Coupet returned to the end of his adventure with the Gones, where he was the goalkeepers’ coach since 2018 and the departure of Joël Bats. At the end of the contract, and without news from the club according to him, he signed up for the next two seasons with the DFCO, where he will occupy the same position.
“No news” from OL
“It was done quite simply, I called Peguy (Luyindula, sports director of Dijon). As I was at the end of the contract, I said to him: ‘If you still have contacts in New York, we don’t never know. ‘ A week later, he called me back to tell me that he was thinking of me, not for New York, but for here. As I was still at the end of my contract and especially that I had no news from him. OL, I couldn’t leave the door ajar for a long time, “explained Coupet.
“Peguy called me back and asked me ‘where are you at?’, I replied ‘still no news’. He told me that he had spoken to the president and that he wanted to meet me We saw each other. A week later, still no news from OL. I went to meet Olivier (Delcourt, president of the DFCO). It was so simple. On the one hand, no news, another club that wanted me, “added the former goalkeeper of the Gones and the French team, who did not frankly appreciate the attitude of the Lyon leaders. Today he oscillates between anger and misunderstanding.
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“I was not asking for an increase, nor for an upgrade, but just to know if the adventure continued or not. I have no bitterness because thanks to them I am here and I am super happy, but there is of misunderstanding. (…) I don’t know why they didn’t trust me and why I had no feedback from the club, “said Coupet. A misunderstanding far from new.
“The previous season, they recruited Tătăruşanu without even talking to me about it. You can imagine that I was even more alert the following season. I asked from January-February what they intended to do with my guards and incidentally what we were going to do since I was at the end of the contract. I had no answer. I had been asking since February to have a face-to-face meeting, which seemed logical to me. There was no way to have this meeting, “he insisted.
Disappointed not to have seen Juninho face-to-face
Juninho, the sports director of OL, also took it for his grade. “On May 5, when the end of the confinement was announced for May 11, I sent a message to Juni saying that this might be the occasion to provoke a face-to-face meeting with Rudi (Garcia), him. and myself. No answer. I was a player eleven and a half years there, they must know me a little and know how I do it. I like things frank and direct. There is never had a way to see and discuss. It’s a misunderstanding. How was the meeting with Juninho? It was a videoconference, not a face-to-face meeting, it disappointed me a little. “There has never been a way to meet face-to-face,” said Coupet, who also spoke about his rather cold relationship with Garcia.
“We didn’t have any hooked atoms. We have a slightly different vision of what management and the collective side are. That’s how it is. That’s why I think have never had a return with him and no opportunity to speak concretely, “he said. In May, in an AFP interview, Jean-Michel Aulas said himself “surprised” by Coupet’s departure, who was replaced in Lyon by Christophe Revel.
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