Jean-Louis Gasset evokes ‘mission impossible’ as Montpellier stare into the abyss | OneFootball

At the halfway point of the season, Montpellier HSC are rock-bottom of the Ligue 1 table, as they have been for almost the entirety of the campaign. With just two wins in their first 17 matches, they have collected a mere nine points and are currently seven points away from safety.

A 3-1 defeat to fellow strugglers SCO Angers, at home no less, over the weekend has cast an understandably despondent mood over the club, who won the Ligue 1 title just over a decade ago. That triumph now feels like a distant memory for those at La Paillade, who are facing the prospect of relegation to Ligue 2.

Gasset doesn’t regret taking Montpellier job

Jean-Louis Gasset replaced Michel Der Zakarian earlier this season in order to try and save the club. It is an appointment that is yet to have the desired effect with the slide continuing. Gasset, however, does not regret coming out of retirement to take the job.

“If I had been in front of the TV today after having refused the job in October, I would have told myself: ‘You’ve chickened out’. I prefer to suffer by being with them than to suffer by being on the outside,” said Gasset after the defeat to Angers.

Monaco up next

And suffering La Paillade are. Gasset did not shirk away from that fact. “You have to face the reality: it was difficult; now it is mission impossible. At the half-way point of the season, we have lost against Le Havre (second from bottom in Ligue 1), Saint-Étienne (who occupy the relegation play-off spot), and now at home against Angers… we will need a small miracle,” said the Montpellier manager. It doesn’t get any easier with AS Monaco up next.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle