Créteil, last of National and relegated to National 2, ends its sad season this Friday in Avranches. A trip that many players were still considering boycotting this Thursday. Internally, it’s total chaos. General manager Rui Pataca called some players for an interview earlier this week to discuss this season and next. But many will not go there either.
Very discussed, Rui Pataca, who crystallizes many grievances around him (staff, players, supporters, agents…), lost the confidence of the group. During the big explanation with the supporters last Friday after the match against Cholet (4-4), he did not come to their stands unlike the staff and the players. A few weeks ago, he would have had an altercation with a supporter.
Despite this descent and the change of direction, Rui Pataca will keep his position. It would seem that its retention was negotiated during the transfer of power between President Armand Lopes and his future successor, Bassam Al Homsi. According to several sources, the latter also wanted to renew coach Manu Da Costa. Arrived in March 2021, the ex-coach of Quevilly and Lyon-Duchère has never hidden his attachment to Créteil. Twice this season, he had proposed his resignation before changing his mind, for his players and out of respect for his president Armand Lopes.
But according to our information, Manu Da Costa, who ended the season with a very reduced staff (a physical trainer and an assistant who was previously a recruiter), decided to leave Créteil, worn out by the functioning of the club which according to him is not going well. change despite the arrival of a new president. With Rui Pataca, who had control over the recruitment carried out according to Da Costa in a “low-cost” way, apart from players like Araujo or Mandanda whom the coach had brought in through his network, his relations were complicated.
The complicated relationship between Da Costa, Pataca and Esteves torpedoed the season
The situation was further tense with the return to the club in November of Helder Esteves in a vaguely defined role of sports coordinator which he had never occupied before. The former Lusitanos striker came out of two coaching experiences in Annecy and Thonon-Evian. But it was he who made the January recruitment, without always notifying Da Costa, with regard to at least three players. One morning, the Créteil coach discovered that Victor Glaentzlin (Le Mans) had signed. Injured (pubalgia), he only played two games…
Despite its certain standing, Créteil has also had a very amateur operation this season, especially at the medical level. Best player of the first part of the season (5 goals in 10 games), Cheick Fantamady Diarra suffered a misdiagnosis. Initially, it was to be a simple sprain and he finally had knee surgery. He hasn’t played since December. One example among many.
Relations between Da Costa and Esteves thus became non-existent over the months. According to internal sources, Esteves (who does not have the diploma to train in National) was already preparing his future passage on the bench by promising certain things to players. This very tense operation between Da Costa, Esteves and Rui Pataca will therefore have torpedoed the Créteil season. In this deplorable atmosphere, the players found it difficult to navigate even if some, very disappointing on the field, cannot be exonerated from their responsibilities in the Cristolian sinking.
President Armand Lopes (79), who arrived in 2002, who works emotionally, also did not want to disown certain influential relatives within the club, nor Rui Pataca and Esteves, who had written history. of the club as a player. Three years after its rise, Créteil will therefore find the National 2 in a field of ruin. Manu Da Costa, who is coming out of two difficult experiences at Lyon-Duchère and therefore Créteil, will try to bounce back and above all to find serenity, far from the Cristolian powder keg.
