The quality of the only training ground of the Ligue 2 team Stade Lavallois leaves something to be desired. The lawn of the plain of Gandonnières is in poor condition. Stade Lavallois coach Olivier Frapolli spoke about this at a press conference.
“We have a training ground which is becoming a problem. A big problem because we haven’t even entered winter yet and we have to constantly adapt. We adapt the duration of our sessions and the quality of the sessions suffers. We inevitably have muscle pain in the back and others that appear. So there, it is really a big subject”.
This Thursday, in training, some players were spared. They were regenerating according to the Tango coach.
“It’s a real problem and it worries me”
Olivier Frapolli returns to the charge: “I have been here for four years. It’s the only ground we have at our disposal, because the other grounds are impassable. This is a field that needs to be completely redone. There weren’t excessive weather conditions though, it’s obviously wet. But that worries me because we are at the beginning of November and the ground is already dead. So, we can’t imagine spending the next three or four months on synthetic. It is not an option. So I don’t know at all, we’re kind of at an impasse. And what bothers me is that it forces us to adapt to work and that’s a bit painful. The work will not be done in 48 hours. There is a lot of work to be done there. And while this field will be under construction, we need a field to train. Today we don’t have it. One of the big issues with the site is that you have a lot of grass pitches, but as soon as you get into the fall they are impassable. So for me, it’s a real real problem and it worries me. I’m worried about how we’re going to spend the whole winter training in decent conditions for the level we’re at? But we don’t have a short-term solution, unfortunately. This could be a big problem.”
The grounds of Les Gandonnières belong to Laval Agglomeration and are maintained by the gardeners of the city of Laval.