AS Monaco celebrate their centenary when they face Montpellier HSC at the Stade Louis II on Saturday. Ahead of that historic occasion, Get French Football News sat down with the Principality club’s CEO, Thiago Scuro, to discuss Les Monégasques’ past, present, and future.
AS Monaco played their first ever match on 20th September 1924 – an anniversary that will be celebrated during the match against Montpellier HSC at the Stade Louis II on Sautrday. What do the club have planned?
It will be a special night. It will be a moment to celebrate some good moments and some important people from our history. We have planned a lot of attractions both before and after the match for people that will be in the stadium, including hosting some iconic players from our history, and coaches that have made history over these past 100 years. [There will be] a special jersey on the pitch in order to show our respect for our past. There is a lot to come! We are very excited to host this game on Saturday. We will have Arsène Wenger, one of AS Monaco’s former managers and who became a legend. There will also be players like (Marco) Simone, (Eric) Abidal, (Delio) Onnis, (Claude) Puel, and (Jean-Luc) Ettori. There will be around 40 former AS Monaco players from different moments in our history. There will also be an exposition of the trophies in the stadium during the match, all of the iconic jerseys, and other animations both before and after the match to surprise our fans.
In what is such a special season for the Principality club, how important is it to get off to such a great start?
This is the most important thing. We are working a lot on not distracting ourselves from the football project. Everything around [the club]: the excitement, the celebrations, it is important to the Principality and to our fans but we need to keep focused on our job on the pitch. Our players are showing themselves to be very strong, mentally especially. We have started the season in a very strong way as we have been pushing since the pre-season. But also having the chance to show themselves on a very good level in a top match against Barcelona in the Champions League at home. We have to keep this consistency on the pitch, which is the key to triggering everything else around. We are very proud of our coaching staff and our players so far for the way they are managing the ambitions on the pitch.
The latest win in Ligue 1, against Le Havre AC, means that Adi Hütter now has the best win percentage of any Monaco manager in the 21st century. Your first managerial appointment has been a successful one…
Of course [we are happy]. Adi really fits well with the way we work, the way we are in terms of an organisation. He has a clear playing idea and he is very simple in the way that he shares this with the players. Has also very positive leadership skills with the staff and the players and I am pretty sure that my feeling is the same as his and it is that we are step by step creating a good environment. It is not just about the coach or one or two players, it is about a lot of people working around Adi, providing the players the conditions. We are happy with the team of people we have here and strong compliments to our coach Adi, who is building a strong history here at AS Monaco.
How important was that win against Barcelona to show this young squad that they can compete at this level?
For sure. Firstly, it is a great three points, which is very important in the new Champions League format. To qualify to the pay-offs, which is our first objective in this competition, we know how important it is to collect as many points as possible. But it also shows our players, for some of whom it was their first CL level match, it shows them that we can, we can play on this level and we can build as a team. We must think as a team; there is no individual above the team spirit, the team goal, and I think we can use everything from that game in a positive way. We deserved to win the game, in my opinion. This is the most important thing – if we continue to perform well, the possibility of winning the coming games is higher and higher.
Monaco have historically had some great runs in the Champions League. Is this cohort capable of doing something similar?
Clearly the potential is here. There are a lot of young players, a lot of talented players. A squad not only of XI but a squad capable of progressing. Maybe too early. The first stage is to try and qualify for the playoffs then it will depend on the kind of opponent in the play-off, and the kind of path that we have. If we can keep managing the good numbers that we have had, on the availability of players, what ill be the impact of so many FIFA breaks before December? There is a long way to go in the season and so we have to keep focused on managing details daily to make ourselves strong. But we truly believe in the potential of this group.
Prior to the match against Barcelona, Adi Hütter talked about “presenting” Monaco’s young talents to the world. How important is competing in the Champions League for this facet of the strategy?
It is important because it is totally connected to our strategy. We discussed a lot about this in the transfer market, where we signed four players, three of them around 20 years old. Sometimes this goes against fans’ expectations but we believe in this way. That’s the way we have the opportunity to see an 18-year-old striker scoring against Barcelona at the Stade Louis II. This is the history of the club. This is the way we believe we should keep working. So having so many young players on the pitch playing a game of this level for sure will be a big, big step to allow them to become higher-level players in the future and this is the strategy that we have to keep loyal to our playing principles and also our long-term strategy.
Can we talk about a Monaco title challenge this season?
For me, it is too early [to talk about the title]. At this stage last year, we were leading the league. We weren’t in third. In the end, PSG finished nine points in front of us. In my view, we should keep focused on the daily job, game by game, and if we manage to be in a similar position in April, with the same points gap, then maybe we can discuss what can we do in the last four or five games in order to compete for the second position again or even for the title, but at this stage, it is too soon to discuss this possibility. PSG continue to be a strong club in the league, as they have been in previous years. The PSG project is not related to one player, it is related to a system that has been investing strongly for over 10 years to be on the level that they are. They also have a good coach, good people working there, good squad, and also this season, we have Marseille showing themselves in a very good level. We can see the results of very high investment from the summer, both on and off the pitch. This is good for the league. We expect the league to be more competitive, more attractive and we also expect to keep ourselves in the top three.
How important is it that a club can mount a challenge on PSG’s recent dominance in Ligue 1?
For me, the league has a lot of potential to be developed and worked on. I have spoken about this from about the third month that I arrived here. The match is very attractive in Ligue 1, it is nice to watch, and very dynamic. A lot of clubs play attacking football. You have a lot of interesting profiles and talented players. For me, the fact that PSG have won so many leagues in recent years is not an excuse for the league to be less attractive. Bundesliga have had the same. It happens everywhere. In the Bundesliga, Bayern won the title 11 years in a row, last year was the first year that the sequence was broken. No-one ever spoke about the Bundesliga being less attractive because of this. So, we are fully supporting the league in working more on the international promotion of the league and the matches. We are connected to this strategy. There is a new cycle starting at the LFP and we hope that we can progress French football as a product. I personally believe that there is a lot that we can do.
We are already seeing the importance of squad rotation in Ligue 1. Do you think this could be a decisive element in deciding the title?
Again, the speech of trusting in the squad is also reflected in Adi’s decisions. He has not had any hesitation to rotate key players, as he did on Sunday (against Le Havre), with young players on the pitch with the responsibility of playing at a high level. Our playing style is connected to our physicality so having the obligation to play two-and-a-half days after a 21:00 match on Thursday, to be on the pitch at 15:00 on Sunday, if you don’t rotate, it is basically impossible to give energy and the physicality, which are our principles. That is why it is important to have a squad that we believe in and it allows the coach to make the rotations as he did last week.
Whilst there will be tributes to the past on Saturday, the club’s future is uncertain with Dmitry Rybolovlev in talks about a potential sale. Can you provide any update on this situation?
The process is ongoing, nothing concrete has been announced or has happened. What I want to highlight is the transparency and support of our president throughout the whole process. The president was part of the summer strategy, decisions, and investment. He is very connected to us and I speak to him basically every week about key decisions that we must take together here at the club. The president, Adi, and I had a conversation last week in terms of what we are doing for the season. This is what we need at this stage – clarity and support from the president. This will make AS Monaco stronger and this is our main focus.
