Montpellier is in crisis. Beaten for the eighth time in a row in Bayonne this Saturday (34-19), the MHR is sinking further and further to the bottom of the Top 14 ranking. A situation which worries its president, Mohed Altrad, who recently appointed Bernard Laporte as sporting director and Patrice Collazo as manager. But the businessman is still confident about the maintenance of his club, as he stressed in an interview with The Team.
“We remain optimistic,” he says. Obviously, it’s not easy. The atmosphere is heavy with defeats. We have a lot of fog in our heads. The European Challenge next weekend (in Newcastle) will perhaps give us a boost. »
The new staff, made up of Bernard Laporte and Patrice Collazo but also Vincent Etcheto and Christian Labit, should also help recreate positive momentum. In any case, this is what Mohed Altrad hopes, who does not hesitate to point to the Englishman Richard Cockerill as being one of those responsible for the current fiasco. “I’m not going to go into detail about what happened with Cockerill but it was completely messed up,” explains the president of the MHR. I saw him on TV when he coached Toulon and I thought he was doing pretty well. I didn’t know the man. It was Philippe Saint-André who advised him and recruited him. But it’s also my fault. Maybe I should have asked for an interview before hiring Cockerill. »
Convicted at first instance for corruption and influence peddling alongside Bernard Laporte, Mohed Altrad surprised many people by appointing the former coach of the XV of France as sporting director. “He was the only one who was available and he wanted to do something in this club,” assures Altrad.
Before adding: “On a technical level, did I respect the law by recruiting Bernard Laporte? I think so in relation to the Labor Code. He has the right to work. He was convicted, he appealed so his criminal record is clean. I have the right to hire him. Concerning the Penal Code, it’s exactly the same thing. The third point is morality, what you might call gender mixing. Morality is the science of good and evil. You can consider something good or bad and I the opposite. »
Once again associated, the two men still have 17 games to redress the situation of the Montpellier club which, with only seven small points, is already nine points behind Lyon, which occupies 12th place, synonymous with remaining in the Top 14.
