“We ran four cabins with my crew. We know, and I told the players, that life in the locker room is essential. If it’s working well, we can stop waiting, otherwise failure is guaranteed,” he warned during his extrapolation. The 57-year-old, who succeeded Jean-Marc Forlan, who was sacked on October 10 after the AJA was reinstated in the First Division last spring, inherited the eight-game unwinnable team (six defeats, two draws) which points to 18th place with nine points, as Strasbourg, 16th and first in not to relegate.
“When you go up from level two, it’s because the season has been exceptional thanks to a very responsive squad. You get to level 1 and you lose three out of four matches. If you don’t have a little perspective, it’s difficult,” explains Pélissier, who also climbed in L1 to To his credit, with Lorient in 2020 and Amiens in 2017 but also with Luzenac in the National (2009) and then in Ligue 2 (2014), he was refused entry on administrative grounds.
“We must not be caught up in victory, nor must we turn into disaster after defeat,” he made sure to remember. “The fans are important. The whole unity of the club is important. We see what happened in Bordeaux and Saint-Etienne last season.” It’s not certain that there has been a unit in recent months at AJA, which snatched its entry into the playoffs against ASSE at the end of May, and who has poorly prepared for its return to L1 after ten years of purgatory.
“Current Means”
Recruitment in particular was at the center of the tensions between Jean-Marc Forlan and the management of the Equines Club. Can the AJA catch up on the January transfer window? “To see how the team can improve, communication will be very important with the management. But after analyzing the forces that are there. We have three matches and we will quickly see with the club if we can do something. But I am not stacking the players. In my style, I prefer a tight group of sixteen to eight. Ten sealed L1 players, plus the squad’s youth, explained the new AJA coach.
Against Ajaccio (19, 8 points), Auxerre must take points against a direct opponent in the race to keep it. “Here we are the first to get points with our means at the moment. First of all we have to be realistic. It’s a starting point, we don’t have a lot of time. I got there, but the players have been there since the start of the season. We shouldn’t look far. At the moment, I have never spoken to them about anything other than this match against Ajaccio,” announced Pelissier, who was free after training for three seasons (2019-2022). ) FC Lorient, who contributed to the return to the elite (2020) and then maintenance two years in a row (2021, 2022).
“There is no way Forlan or Pelissier. The players adapt, they are used to changing coaches,” said the former Lorient player approaching his new assignment “without fears but with a lot of determination”.
