Appointed coach of Gries-Souffel to take over from Stéphane Éberlin, Julien Espinosa shows his ambitions to keep the club in Pro B, thanks to his previous experiences. “There were ambitions displayed when the Alliance was created. It’s not everywhere that you find clubs that go towards a global, collective interest”. Backed by several experiences with the Antibes Sharks (two promotions to the first division) and with Elan Chalon (resulted in relegation), Julien Espinosa wants to restart the machine, bringing a mentality made up of effort, a sense of detail and of a “defensive responsibility and a sharing of the ball essential in the development of the attack of this team”.
“Telling ourselves that we are going to put in place our statutes, our know-how, our identity, I found that very ambitious. It is not everywhere that we have these clubs there which have this capacity to see beyond beyond their personal interest. The discussions I had with Thomas Lotz (general manager of the club, editor’s note) reassured me, motivated me to come and lend a hand”.
While the ASA is stuck in the red zone, its first match will already be crucial on Friday with the reception of Rouen, bottom of the championship. With a record of 6 wins and 13 losses, the Alsatians have two losses more than their direct competitors in maintenance. However, the club’s rescue mission for the first post-merger season has begun and Julien Espinosa believes in the qualities of its workforce. There is no inevitability. We can once again become a team that takes pleasure in playing, in winning, in being a team of competitors who trust each other. The players will not give up, we talked to each other, we will manage to find the solutions. We have men who have experience in postures, myself, I played with Antibes in a Jeep ELITE”.
