In two months, everything changed in Charleroi. In the middle of a nightmarish season, everything was swept away. On the bench, only three survivors remain in the technical staff: Rudi Cossey, Frank Defays and Cédric Berthelin. Nobody would have imagined at the start of the year that Felice Mazzù would no longer be on the bench but we felt the ax getting closer when Sandro Salamone, the video analyst and his right-hand man, was sacked in mid-February.
“I have digested the fact that Charleroi has turned the page,” confides the main person concerned. I have a different affect from Felice in relation to the club. It was an employer for whom I gave everything but I am not a Carolo in the sense that I was not born there and it is not my region of heart, unlike Felice.”
At a time when Sporting can definitively validate its continuation in the event of a victory at Eupen this Friday, Sandro Salamone has decided to answer frankly the cash questions, on his dismissal and the difficult vintage of the Zebras, which allow us to better understand the situation .
1. You were sacked because you took up too much space in the staff
”Obviously yes and I didn’t necessarily understand it but it doesn’t matter. I did as much as possible so that Felice could focus on the football aspect rather than dispersing himself into managing small conflicts in the locker room. When I arrived in November 2022, I was asked to provide support to the coach and that is what I did. In the end, the reason for my dismissal is not very important because the consequence remains the same.”
How do you learn your C4?
”I found out by telephone on Monday early in the afternoon after the match against Anderlecht. I expected that if the coach was out, I would be out too but I didn’t think I would be the only one fired. Especially since in my area of expertise, offensive set-pieces, we were one of the best teams in the championship.” (Editor’s note: at the time of Salamone’s dismissal, Charleroi had scored 36% of its goals from set pieces to be the most prolific team in the championship in this area).
Following this decision, did Mazzù feel weakened?
”When he heard the news, he was not well. At the following press conference, he made it clear that he had to respect his employer’s decision but that he did not agree. Privately, he supported me. There is no better human being than him. I told him that he had to focus on maintaining the club and that he should not spend energy when he had already lost enough to resolve the internal problems.
Was your dismissal a way for management to warn Mazzù that he was next on the list given your proximity?
”It crossed my mind. When you’re made redundant, you think about a lot of things. In that moment, Felice loses someone he trusts. He already had a lot of work and we had to continue it with one less man.”
2. Felice Mazzù would also have saved the club in playdowns
”Yes, we would have saved the club in the playdowns. I hear that Charleroi is developing extraordinary football. I admit that I haven’t watched their meetings because I prefer to recharge my batteries for the moment, but the current results are performances that we could have done. We also beat Eupen at home and we won against RWDM at home. It’s a great performance for De Mil to beat Kortrijk there in the Felice time but the results are not extraordinarily different.”
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De Mil’s results are not extraordinarily different.
In Ghent, didn’t the players simply let go of the coach?
”On the other hand, I was in front of my TV that day. It must be 0-3 for Charleroi before Ghent opened the score. During those first 20 minutes, no one said that the group was no longer behind him.”
What atmosphere was there in the staff?
“Felice has extraordinary technical, tactical and human qualities. We formed a close-knit team with Frank, Rudi, Cédric and James (Dickinson, the physical trainer). The entire staff was also behind Felice. I am convinced that we would have succeeded.”
3. With another summer transfer window, Charleroi would not be there
”It’s too easy to invoke the transfer window. If we do that, we target those who arrived. However, Dabbagh, Dragsnes or Rogelj have qualities. I rather point to the imbalance of the core. This was the real problem in addition to having lost most of the players who brought depth like Tchatchoua or Bayo”.
When do you think the season will be complicated?
“We saw straight away that we lacked depth and that the core was not up to the task of reaching the top 6, the initial objective. And the injuries to Mbenza, the only one in the squad who could provide this depth, did not help. We also lacked rigor in our 16 meters and in the opponent’s 16 meters.”
Why didn’t you ask for a striker this winter?
”It is not enough to ask for a 9 or a quality full-back when you have 7 central defenders for 3 places and you have 5 forward attackers. The first thing that should have been accomplished is for management to go see the players on whom they no longer counted and give them real explanations.”
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Management should have gone to see the players on whom they no longer counted and given them real explanations.
Has this abundance of good created frustrations in the group?
”It’s difficult to give a valid explanation to someone who starts on Saturday and who finds himself in the stands the following week because there are not enough Belgians on the match sheet. When the players didn’t understand this logic, we lost credit.”
2024-04-26 07:06:00
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