Monaco due to yesterday’s match won 1:0 against Nantes, left a relegation zone for the first time in a few months. They remain unbeaten for the third time in row, what the team couldn’t achieve for the whole season.
Leonardo Jardim’s proteges experience a surprising season. After losing almost every key player in the squad within a year, the club decided to strengthen the squad with young talents. However, because of their lack of experience and a plague of injuries, Monaco got to a relegation zone.
Jardim parted company with the club, even though the whole fault couldn’t be blamed on him. On his place Thierry Henry has been hired, but it wasn’t the time for experiments. The Frenchman didn’t have any experience as a manager, he was only an assistant in Belgium national team under Roberto Martinez.
In the short period of time Henry became frustrated just as the rest of the team, even though he was hired to fix this. Public and individual criticism after bad results added fuel to the fire, instead of motivate players to try harder. The Frenchman doesn’t have such status in Ligue 1 as in Premier League, so it is hard to expect that he would gain an unconditional respect.
In the manager’s chair he lasted for only three months. In 20 games the team lost 11 times. Jardim has been hired again to the rescue, what is not often seen in football world.
There is method in this madness. Even though the first two games, with Dijon and Guingamp in Coupe de la Ligue have been lost, since then the team won against Toulouse, drew with Montpellier and gained three points versus Nantes. Still there is a hard challenge to remain in the league for the next season. Jardim’s proteges have still games with Lyon, Lille, PSG or Saint-Etienne to play. However, a spark of hope has appeared, now it is the players’ task to make a fire from it.
[photo: AFP/East News]
