Roger Ricort stepped up to the microphones at the start of the press conference held two days before the Brest v Nice match, “to offer our full support to Yéhvann Diouf”.

“We’ve decided to build a very united squad this year, and I feel there’s still a bit of a witch-hunt against him in the press and on social media,” the sporting director began. “He’s a wonderful person, a lad who’s very committed to the club. If he were to be booed when he comes out to warm up at our ground, we’d be shooting ourselves in the foot. We won’t have a very good season if we don’t have a composed goalkeeper between the posts.”

“Of the nine goals he’s conceded, there are seven he couldn’t have done anything about,” Ricort pointed out. “We saw goalkeepers again last night (Tuesday in the Champions League, ed.) conceding some rather silly goals. We need to put last year behind us. We’re all in the same boat. (…) I’m also thinking of Hicham, Sofiane… We need to start afresh, so to speak. We’re still a bit fragile and we need to get through this phase calmly so that all the players feel comfortable on the pitch, particularly at the Allianz Riviera.”

Pantaloni: “We mustn’t undermine ourselves by putting unnecessary pressure on the players’ shoulders”

Olivier Pantaloni then echoed his colleague's sentiments: “Yéhvann is a goalkeeper with a wealth of talent. We mustn’t judge him based on last season. What’s done is done. Today, we’re trying to build a united, supportive team. We need all our strength and, as Roger says, we don’t need to shoot ourselves in the foot or undermine ourselves by putting unnecessary pressure on the players’ shoulders.”

The coach went on to emphasise that he “has complete confidence in him, and I think all the players do too. Everyone knows his qualities; we saw them against Lille, we saw them against Strasbourg. There’s no reason why, just because of one ball he didn’t control properly, he should be the subject of so much... not hatred, but let’s say criticism.”

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