If there was ever a time for a side to give up on a game, it was two weeks ago at the Parc des Princes. AS Saint-Etienne had just beaten Dnipro in the Europa League and made the long and tiring journey from deepest, darkest Ukraine, returning to France when most people were starting their Friday morning routines.
Christophe Galtier’s men travelled to the Parc des Princes without even getting the chance to go home first, having travelled directly to Paris from Dnipropetrovsk. They were soundly beaten by a superior PSG, but the big result of the week was already achieved. They seemed to turn up just to get beat before going home to climb into bed and sleep for a while.
That sort of attitude may never be forgivable, but when you punch above your weight you have to pick your battles. And Christophe Galtier’s side certainly do look like a team that believes they’re punching above their weight.
Once again they’ll jump out of the frying pan this weekend, and this time land in the fiery atmosphere of the Gerland on derby day.
The good news for Sainté is that they’ll have a considerably shorter trip from the Forez to the Capital of the Gauls. The bad news is that they’re going to actually have to turn up for this one.
If Saint-Etienne are serious about a podium finish, they’ll need to stop seeing themselves as plucky outsiders and start believing that they belong amongst French football’s current elite.
The last few seasons have ended with a certain sense of déjà vu for Galtier. Last season they finished on 69 points, two behind Monaco in third. The season before that they finished on 69 points again, and once again they were two points behind third-placed Lille. Turning just one simple draw into a win might have been enough. Surely that proves to the players that they’re more than just scrappy insurgents?
You can see why it’s tempting for Saint-Etienne to feel like they’re punching above their weight, though. Losing the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Josuha Guilavogui one season, then Faouzi Ghoulam and Kurt Zouma the next is enough to make you feel like you’ve had your heart ripped out. The summer just gone saw the departures of Max Gradel and Franck Tabanou. They’re always playing catch-up, papering over cracks.
There’s a vicious circle at play. In order to qualify for the Champions League, Saint-Etienne need to keep hold of these sorts of players, but in order to keep those players – or at least replace them effectively – they need the money the Champions League can bring.
Lyon, Lille and Monaco have all fallen at the play-off stage in recent seasons, so a podium finish doesn’t guarantee Champions League football and the money that goes with it. But it does give you a chance to spin the wheel of fortune. The play-off round is a £40m tie and the Champions League proper is a real grass-fed cash cow.
But if Saint-Etienne want a piece of it, they have to stop thinking of themselves as the a minnow battling the bigger fish after losing their best players. Instead they need to start thinking of themselves as a team that belongs in the competition. They have to stop being a team that targets the teams below them for points, hoping to gain a European place simply by slipping-up less than the bigger teams above them. In short, they have to stop being a bully with an inferiority complex and start believing that they’re good enough to do it with the resources they have.
The gap between Saint-Etienne and a Champions League spot may only be about two points on paper, but it’s a gap that can only be bridged with a change in mentality.
And what better way for Saint-Etienne to alter their self-perception than with a win in the last-ever Rhône derby at the Stade Gerland, only days after a big European night in the Geoffroy-Guichard? They can’t write this one off.
Years of Lyonnais dominance has whipped Saint-Etienne back into in their place like a Victorian school teacher with an errant child. But Sainté have the chance to turn the tables this weekend. Winning the big games is what turns boys into men. It’s what Lyon have done for years.
You can read more of Chris McMullan’s work via his twitter account.
Nice article. St-E would be in the CL had it not been for a very disappointing late-season defeat at Bastia last April.
Beric looks like the piece that has been missing since Aubameyang left and will hopefully help us make the jump to 3rd this season. It’s a very weak-looking L1 this season in which everyone seems to have given up even trying to compete with PSG, so a podium place is there for the taking.