Will Sunday’s defeat in Orleans, after a lead of 32 points, be the final straw? JL Bourg rightly had high expectations for this 2021-2022 season. With the arrival of a new renowned coach, Laurent Legname, who had proven himself in Hyères-Toulon and Dijon, the Bressan club had to gain momentum. But the time to take stock came almost at the end of April. After missing the EuroCup play-offs, the secular youth should also miss Betclic ELITE.
The acknowledgment of the bitter failure has been made in Ain for weeks. So far that chairman Julien Desbottes already has plans to adjust the organization chart of his club. Seen regularly in the spans of Ekinox since leaving Zalgiris KaunasFrançois Lamy, former agent and then advisor to ASVEL chairman Tony Parker, will be advisor to Frédéric Sarre, the sports director, until his retirement in October 2023, before potentially taking up his post in the move we confirmed this Monday. François Lamy recognized it himself in the columns of Progress this Tuesday.
François Lamy in the spans of the Astroballe when he worked at ASVEL (photo: Sébastien Grasset)
A lying poker between JL Bourg and Laurent Legname
It remains to settle the thorny question of the future coach. The transplant with Laurent Legname fell through, but the Var technician still has two good years of contract. The separation seems inevitable between the two parties, except that an agreement has to be found. A lying poker game will talk to him about the future. For the Bressan club, the ideal would be for the former shooter elsewhere, such as in Spain, to offer a championship where he would dream of practicing his profession. But Laurent Legname’s camp will logically ensure that no concrete offer has been made to him, in order to get a good part of the expected salary back. Intense weeks of negotiations are announced, even as Julien Desbottes, whose word has been rare lately, confirms in Le Progrès that nothing has been settled at this stage. Undoubtedly there too, so as not to make a mistake in view of the forthcoming negotiations:
“We have to find a common path, which is not the case today. Obviously, but not so much to blow up the club. Can this path (that of Laurent Legname, editors note) still take us to a new level bring “That’s the question. I will have to keep my clarity when it comes to making the diagnosis.”
As for the possible replacement for Laurent Legname, there has been talk for weeks about Frédéric Fauthoux, TJ Parker’s current assistant coach at ASVEL. But Le Progrès denies this information in his article of the day.