Pascal Dupraz, the man of maintenance missions to save the Greens

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A colorful character comes to the bedside of the Greens. Charismatic coach passed by Evian Thonon Gaillard (2012-2015), Toulouse (2016-2018) and Caen (2019-2021), Pascal Dupraz was appointed at the head of AS Saint-Etienne on Tuesday, December 14. He is committed until the end of the season. The mission is simple for the replacement of Claude Puel, ousted: to save the last Stéphanois in Ligue 1 with twelve meager units. An arduous task, but the 59-year-old manager has built a reputation as a specialist in maintenance missions.

In Evian, two maintenance torn off despite a low budget

Originally, Dupraz wasn’t really destined to embrace a high-level coaching career. Sporting director of Evian Thonon Gaillard, he took the reins of the first team, then in the elite, in September 2012. From his first season, he maintained the ETG in Ligue 1 and reached the final of the Coupe de France, lost against Bordeaux. But it is especially in 2013-2014 that Dupraz asserts his character in the eyes of France football.

Evian flirts all season long with the red zone, and faces Sochaux, 18th, on the last day for a real final. Exchanges of spades with Hervé Renard, the Sochaux trainer, made the press titles happy before the meeting. Despite a dynamic in favor of the Sochaliens, the technician from Haut-Savoyard succeeds and ETG wins (0-3) at Bonal. Pascal Dupraz is jubilant and pulls off a new posture. A small feat for a club founded in 2007 with a low budget.

The adventure ended in 2015. With a workforce once again limited and a defense that was too porous, Evian fell into Ligue 2. The technician was dismissed from his post at the end of the season.

“It wasn’t yesterday, it won’t be tomorrow, it’s now”: in Toulouse, the crazy recovery

He was probably the only one who believed it. When Dupraz is called by Toulouse, on March 1, 2016, the Violets are ten points behind on the 17th to ten days from the end. “From our first match, he showed us a video of Floria Gueï’s recovery during a 4x400m relay in athletics “, remembers Etienne Didot, then player of Téfécé in the columns of West France. The method works: the Haut-Garonnais club wins four times in nine outings, as much as over the entire season. The delay made up, Toulouse offers itself an epic last match in Angers. Then maybe…

Filmed by Canal + cameras, the pre-game chat goes around social networks. We discover a Dupraz in guru mode, showing several videos of encouragement from the players’ relatives: “I am not the only one to love you (…). There, for sure, what we see is indisputable, it is people who love you.” The miracle finally took place: at the end of an incredible scenario, Toulouse overthrew Angers (2-3) and snatched its support.

After a quieter 2016-2017 season (13th), Dupraz left the Pink City in 2018. He then suffered from heart problems, had sluggish results and was no longer in line with his management. “Looking back, I should have left after those 10 games”, he conceded a few months later to RMC Sport.

Six years after his last exploit, is he ready to take over the Greens?

Since these spectacular rescues, water has flowed under the bridges. Dupraz then trained Caen, in Ligue 2, for a year. With very relative success: in a year and a half, he has not made Malherbe take off from the middle of the table. His latest experiences do not encourage much optimism, but his profile of “firefighter on duty” can help to re-mobilize a collective adrift.

You still have to be able to get anything out of a limited workforce. Lack of liquidity, ASSE is unlikely to be very active on the winter transfer market. With 12 points in 18 games, Saint-Etienne is not yet dropped and has three units behind Metz, antepenultimate. But the dynamics (four defeats in a row, including a scathing 0-5 against Rennes), the lack of control of the rare executives (like Denis Bouanga expelled in Reims on Saturday) and the backstage turmoil let fear the worst. At least the challenge promises to be exciting.


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