Saint-Étienne sporting co-ordinator surprised by club’s difficult start in Ligue 2 | OneFootball

AS Saint-Étienne sporting co-ordinator Loïc Perrin has said that he has been surprised by the club’s poor start to the season in Ligue 2, during an interview with Le Progrès.

Perrin has only been in the job for 10 months, but in that time, he has seen the historic club relegated to Ligue 2. Having been relegated, the expectation was that they would be one of the stronger sides in the division, however, they currently languish in 19th place, four points off 16th.

Asked if staying up was now the goal, Perrin replied, “That’s a fact, even if it isn’t necessarily what we expected.” He was then questioned as to whether there was a sense of shame at the club’s predicament. “Yes. There was already the relegation and that clearly isn’t where Saint-Étienne should be. But it isn’t by chance – if we’re there, it’s because we deserve it. We spoke about a two-year project. We knew it would be hard, but we didn’t imagine it would be this hard. When you change 10 starters, things have to click and that doesn’t happen in a day,” he replied.