Roux announces retirement

[gaijin]

http://www.uefa.com/footballcentral/news/Kind=2/newsId=307360.html

AJ Auxerre's veteran coach Guy Roux has announced his decision to retire, just one day after leading his side to their fourth French Cup title.

Distinguished career
One of the most highly-regarded figures in European football, the 66-year-old steps down after a long and distinguished career with Auxerre, the club he first took charge of as a player-manager in 1961. "I've decided to stop. I've been thinking about it for a few weeks now and over the past few years I've been looking for the right moment to call it a day," he said. "All the lights are green, the team has had a good season and the finances are stable."

Into Europe
Roux's eventual replacement will lead the Burgundy outfit into Europe next season after they beat CS Sedan-Ardennes 2-1 in the French Cup final yesterday, booking themselves a place in the UEFA Cup. It was Roux's fourth cup success following wins in 1993, 1996 and 2003, a feat that took him level in the record books with LOSC Lille Métropole legend André Cheuva. He also coached Auxerre to the Ligue 1 title in 1996, having masterminded the club's ascension from regional football when he took over.

European success
Likewise, the side prospered in Europe during his rein, enjoying 16 seasons of continental competition and reaching the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup in 1993, plus a quarter-final finish in the UEFA Champions League in 1997. Health problems plagued his later years in the post, however, and after an initial retirement during the 2000/01 campaign, he underwent a heart by-pass operation in 2001. "I'd hoped Guy would stay on for another year, but he's decided to anticipate the decision of his doctors and I respect his choice," said Auxerre president Jean-Claude Hamel.

Youth academy
Famed for his offbeat sense of humour and a keen eye for young talent, Roux also turned the club's youth academy into one of the most respected on the continent, producing players of the calibre of Djibril Cissé, Philippe Mexès, Jean-Alain Boumsong and Olivier Kapo in recent years. He said of retirement: "The first year is going to be terrible. But we'll be seeing if I can take on another role at the club. I'll carry on as a [television] consultant and I'll be stepping up my involvement in charity organisations, so I'll definitely be keeping myself busy."

[guignol]

for he's a jolly good fellow...

some retirement though! he's going to continue in some function at AJA, plus do commentary, commercials... he'll probably be busier than ever, as he was always a pretty low-key manager...

[astroboy]

Guy Roux's success with Auxerre can't be denied--but where do I sign the petition to keep him off television and in silent retirement? He is hands down the worst commentator on French TV (and that's saying a lot), as he delights in playing up his stereotypical "France profonde" roots. He says inane things that are supposed to sound deep because of their bon sens, but that are frequently borderline insulting.

I'm sure they're going to trot him out as a consultant for future national team games, and I'm cringing already.

[Pierre-Henri]

I thought he was eternal.

44 years as a coach for the same team. Is it a world record ?

However, I agree about his "qualities" as a commentator, typical of TF1 "France-d'en-bas" style.

Hé, Astroboy, have you ever seen the 13 h news on TF1 ? Should please you :D . All the clichés you can imagine about France in a few minutes. I always wondered where they find such "typical" french citizens. I should wear a beret more often, probably i could pass on screen :p .

[astroboy]

You know, I do watch TF1's news, usually the 20 heures--I'm a PPDA fan, and of course it amazes me that Claire Chazal doesn't seem to age...

But on the other hand I'm not in Europe that frequently, so the stereotypes aren't quite as offensive--if you only have to hear them every few months, it doesn't seem so bad. It seems quaint and almost affectionate!

When I'm watching the footie, however, I don't need the extra aggravation (on top of Jean Mimi and Thierry Roland, although I guess that's over) of Guy Roux. I don't think he's as stupid as he likes to come across. I think it's part of an act--maybe he sees it as a form of revenge against those sophisticated Parisians who don't give his provincial team enough respect. As in--now you have to listen to me, so I'm going to play the role of the peasant.

Anyway, happy trails to him...

[gaijin]

Guy Roux is so tyically French. He makes the steroetype live on....:D

He shall be sadly missed in the world of football.

[fishbiproduct]

Guy Roux is so tyically French. He makes the steroetype live on....:D



Ah bon? Lequel?

http://www.islandentertainmentsonline.com/acatalog/french%20man.jpg

:p

[sl7vk]

If the French stereotype is being a bonifide hard ass.... then we'll take it. The guy is one tough son of a bitch if you ask me...
http://onlyfootball.maxifoot.com/images/guy%20roux%20p.JPG

[SportBoy333]

Sorry folks but I could care less what happens to Auxerre now that he is gone. If they become a mid table or bottom table team or even if they go down to the 2nd division in a few years it wouldnt bother me one bit. Small town, small fanbase, who really needs them in Ligue 1. When Guy Roux left a few years ago they were terrible and fading fast and he had to come back to save them. I know people are gonna say they will not suffer because they still have their youth academy but I am still not convinced.

[guignol]

If the French stereotype is being a bonifide hard ass.... then we'll take it. The guy is one tough son of a bitch if you ask me...
http://onlyfootball.maxifoot.com/images/guy%20roux%20p.JPGawwww... in recent years he's become a real **********cat. and his comments in the press about aulas and OL are like love letters...

[guignol]

This Guy deserves a statue

from
Sunday June 12, 2005
The Observer

In 1961, the farthing ceased to be legal tender, Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister, Charles de Gaulle ran France and John F Kennedy was inaugurated President of the US. Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, West Side Story won the Oscar for best film, Ernest Hemingway killed himself and the Berlin Wall was erected. The world had yet to hear of the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. And there was something afoot in the sleepy Burgundy town of Auxerre.

Something that would, eventually, put the town and its football team on the map. A 22-year-old named Guy Roux sent off an application for the vacant head coach's job at l'Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise. Roux, born in Alsace but brought up six miles from Auxerre, where he played as a teenager(not impressively, by all accounts), was the youngest candidate, fresh back from a month as an observer at Crystal Palace.
In his letter, he said he was prepared to 'do whatever is needed for the club, even chop the wood'. The Auxerre president, Jean-Claude Hamel, then one of the directors, remembers Roux telling them he would 'always balance the books and never waste a penny'. Roux also asked for the smallest salary of the handful of applicants - 600 francs a month, according to Hamel - and his sense of good housekeeping rather than any proven coaching skills swung the balance. Roux got the job.

Auxerre was then a town of fewer than 40,000 inhabitants (it's not much bigger now) and its amateur club was bumbling along in the Burgundy regional league. If there is an equivalent in the English game now, it might be Worksop Town - about the same level, about the same size. And if Worksop win the Premiership-FA Cup double by 2050 and play in the Champions League, you'll have an idea of what Guy Roux has achieved.

He started as player-coach, but was soon proving himself to be much more. Roux persuaded local farmers to donate their goats' dung for Auxerre's playing fields, had players' wives make bibs for training and in the evenings would run the club's switchboard himself, as he was the only one still around.

Eric Cantona, Basile Boli and Djibril Cissé are among those to have emerged from Auxerre's famous (to outsiders) or infamous (to players) youth academy. Stars such as Enzo Scifo and Laurent Blanc had their careers put back on track through stints at the club and fans have feasted on a regular diet of European football, including runs to the semi-finals of the Uefa Cup and the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Roux, famous for dreadful bobble hats and ill-fitting tracksuits, has overseen it all. He picked the team for every one of those 44 years, apart from a spell of national service in the early 1960s and a stint as general manager in 2000, an ill-advised move from which he eagerly returned to the bench less than 12 months later. In all, Roux led Auxerre through about 2,000 games, including a European record of 890 top-flight league matches. Jacques Santini, has been handed the task of replacing Roux, but Auxerre without Guy Roux is like Paris without the Eiffel Tower. It just won't be the same.

'Guy Roux made Auxerre what it is today almost single-handed. He lived and breathed for the club,' Boli says. 'He's a character, a monument of French football. They should put up a statue in his honour. In fact, I'm sure they will.'

Roux is renowned for keeping a beady eye on what his players are up to off the field. When he learned that the teenage Boli had a penchant for climbing over the academy walls at night and whizzing around town on his moped, Roux took action. The next time Boli jumped the wall his moped was chained to some railings. Roux held the key, and added insult to injury by deducting the lock from Boli's then miserly wages. News of the incident got out. 'I received more than 600 letters from Africa,' Roux recalls. 'They began a "Free Basile's Moped" campaign.'

Roux has been seen dragging players out of local night spots by their collars and been spotted at 7am with his hands on car bonnets outside players' homes to see if engines were still warm. With the bright lights of Paris just over an hour away by motorway, Roux recruited the toll-booth operators to his cause. Whenever one of his players had a night out in the capital, Roux knew about it.

Over the years, Roux became one of the best-known figures in French sport, his management style and way with words placing him, somewhere between Brian Clough and Sir Alex Ferguson. His blend of anecdotes and expertise helped him become a star analyst for television and radio. Roux's puppet, resembling a country bumpkin, is a regular on the satirical television show Les Guignols, (France's Spitting Image) and he's been happy to cultivate the image of the paysan who's smarter than he lets on.

Roux wields much power in Burgundy and beyond, and it is best to have him on your side if you want to be mayor of Auxerre. Not only does he display Christmas cards from Jacques Chirac on his office wall, he also makes it clear he's pals with former Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, with whom he did his military service. And one of former President François Mitterrand's aides last week said that while many cabinet ministers had trouble getting through to their leader, Mitterrand would always take Roux's calls tout de suite.

While in recent days much praise has been heaped upon Roux and his achievements, there have also been a few sighs of relief that he has finally called it a day. For years, France's Canal Plus, broadcaster of live Ligue 1 games, has been allowed to interview players at half-time and even on the subs' bench during games at every other club but Auxerre.

Roux ran Auxerre tyrannically at times. I covered the Auxerre-Lens match last season and was amazed at how scared of Roux many of the backroom staff and volunteers were. During the second half, one such volunteer told me to move from the touchline because 'otherwise Guy will have my guts for garters'. The man was in his fifties and almost quivering with fear. I stayed put and ended up rowing with Roux, who was then wilfully unhelpful during the post-match interviews. As Michel Platini famously said: 'Roux looks out for number one.'

He also looks after his players, though, even if he is a disciplinarian. 'To be a manager you need two things: to be an example; and to love,' he once said. 'If one of your players shows up at nine in the morning, you need to be there at 8.30 and preferably not drunk. And you have to love your players. If you don't love them, they'll feel it and, believe me, you will too.'

Roux upset some players and staff with the timing of his decision to quit the Auxerre bench. By announcing his move live on TV the morning after the cup final win over Sedan, Roux got to hog all the limelight at the afternoon victory parade back in Auxerre. 'We were supposed to be celebrating our cup success, but we ended up playing bit parts in the manager's farewell parade,' said captain Yann Lachuer.

It's hard to begrudge him his grand farewell, though.

Roux, awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1999, will not disappear from the scene. Unable to break the umbilical chord, he will remain at Auxerre in a backroom management role still to be defined. He has promised to have his office away from the stadium to avoid stealing Santini's thunder. And after his traditional early-June break in Corsica, watch out for that bobble hat in and around Liverpool. Djibril Cissé has asked him to be best man at his forthcoming wedding.

[fishbiproduct]

This Guy deserves a statue

from
Sunday June 12, 2005
The Observer

etc.


That's a great article, guignol.
Thank's a lot for the post.

[gaijin]

A statue should just be him in a bobble hat stood perched on a little fold-up seat.

:)