At a press conference this Friday, Jocelyn Gourvennec wanted to make an update after his altercation with Hatem Ben Arfa. The LOSC coach seemed moved and assured that he had “never seen that” during his career.
Jocelyn Gourvennec had things to say. In a press conference this Friday for the 31st day of Ligue 1 and a trip to Angers on Sunday (3pm), the LOSC coach recalled the incident that happened last Saturday with Hatem Ben Arfa during the game against Bordeaux (0-0). ).
“I had a lot of affection for this player”
The attacking midfielder attacked his coach after the game, pointing to his lack of ambition. “We are playing too low here. We are not playing as a team claiming a place in the European Cup. It is not Guingamp here,” Ben Arfa told Gourvennec, according to information from RMC Sport.
“We had an incident after Bordeaux, a player behaved inappropriately right after the game. It was difficult to understand and for me perhaps even more so because I had a lot of affection for this player,” said Gourvennec this Friday. The president has a rule, we don’t touch the club, the team or the coach. From my position as a coach, it’s obvious and impossible to let go of anything that could change the unity of the team, of the group, of the locker room.”
Since the altercation between the two men, Hatem Ben Arfa has stopped training with the group. “From there, the club has started an ongoing procedure. The chairman and the directors have intervened, the player has been released from training this week and the club will communicate once the procedure has progressed. This is the legal department that will sort this out, warned the technician from Lille. Nobody and nothing is above LOSC but given the current procedure I can’t express myself further or answer questions.”
‘I’ve been in football for 34 years and I’ve never seen this’
Hatem Ben Arfa, who arrived last January, took part in 9 encounters with the Mastiffs, for a decisive pass. So it’s hard to imagine seeing him again this season under Jocelyn Gourvennec’s command. “There can be problems in all professions, but if you’re in a body where there can be twisted blows, things that aren’t very noticeable or acceptable… It’s not because you’re in a twisted environment that we need to be twisted , Jocelyn Gourvenec pointed to his player’s attitude. Everyone does what they want, applies the ethics they want. I’ve always invested myself in a certain ethics since my coaching career.”
On the LOSC bench replacing Christophe Galtier this season, Jocelyn Gourvennec is currently battling his team for European places, seventh after 30 days. Lille is four points behind Nice, fifth.
According to our information, part of Lille Hatem’s dressing room no longer wants to see Ben Arfa in the club due to disagreements and his inappropriate comments towards Jocelyn Gourvennec. “Some things we do well, others less so, we win matches or not, we play somehow, that’s another thing, but ethics is important to me. It’s been 34 years since I’ve been in the world of football and I had never seen, lamented Gourvennec. I have no teaching to teach, but I know what I want, what I don’t want, and I’m making progress.”
