The Olympique de Marseille manager was at the Commanderie on Wednesday morning. He extended his contract for one season, linking him to the club until the end of season 2008-09. Here are his first reaction and impressions just a few days out from the resumption of training.
OM finished second in Ligue 1 and was a finalist in the Coupe de France. This huge effort from Albert Emon’s team was rewarded with the confidence of the club directors and the OM manager this Wednesday extended his contract with the club by one year. “It’s very important for a manager to feel protected and supported by his club, it’s a sign of confidence,” admitted the OM manager, now linked to the club until June 2009. In having achieved the highest finish since 1998-99 and having employed uniformly attractive and attacking football, Albert Emon largely did what had been asked of him.
OM Sporting Director José Anigo was well pleased by the contract extension: “It proves that the President, and indeed the entire club, has confidence in him and that what he achieved over a long year was excellent. I’m very happy with this contract extension. It’ll keep him here at the club, along with certain players we have re-signed.”
José Anigo: “It’ll keep him here at the club, along with certain players we have re-signed”
Now turning to season 2007-08, Albert Emon knows that the next campaign will have to be as good as if not better than the one just finished. He explained certain aspects of his future task: “This season we will try to maintain the same principles but we’ll have to be tougher in terms of managing our matches, because there are no foregone conclusions. The Champions League should push us to be even tougher in our own league. We have to learn to impose ourselves on matches, and to do this for the whole match, without empty patches like we have had. We can improve our level of play, how we control matches; especially the end of matches. The high standards we had last season will have to be doubled this year in order to achieve our goals. We’re competitors and we’ll give it everything we’ve got.”
At a time when the full composition of the squad isn’t yet known, the OM manger is calm about the remaining recruitment. “I have full confidence in our recruitment plans. The names we have discusses among ourselves are high-quality players who have paid their dues in the French league. In all likelihood we’ll have an even stronger squad than last season.”
Five days from the resumption of duties, the holidays will have been short for the OM manager. “Yes, but we’ve made the most of them, because we finished the season on a high note, which made the holidays easier. We can always improve, and there is always work to do. But after doing a really good job, we could afford to relax.”
As of this Monday, the Olympiens will resume daily training at the Commanderie before leaving for a training camp at Cap Breton from June 28 to July 8 and then another at Divonne-les-Bains from July 23 to 29.
While the internationals won’t be back at the Commanderie until the beginning of July, Albert Emon talked about what training will be like when it resumes. “It always takes a little bit of time to adapt, and there will be some tests on Monday for the new players. For the rest, we’ll resume full training as of July 2 or 3. The whole squad will be ready to hit the road for the beginning of the season,” concluded the recently extended OM manager.
