The Full Monty

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The Full Monty



Girard announces retirement

After a successful season with Montpellier, Rene Girard made a shocking announcement that he would be retiring from his managerial post at Montpellier. Some think this may be because of the disagreements he and Laurent Nicollin had, some think it’s because of his troubles trying to balance family life and work life, but the reasons are only known to Rene himself.

Laurent Nicollin: “We are very disappointed with Rene and are very shocked by his decision to leave such a notorious club, but we have to look towards the future and so are looking for a new manager. We do wish Rene the best of luck in his life and are very grateful for his hard work.”
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The Full Monty



Kutuzov is hired

Earlier today, Laurent Nicollin held a press conference during which he announced the name of Rene’s successor.
“After several weeks of hard work by both myself and Louis, that we have come to a decision on who should take over as Montpellier’s new manager. It is with great pleasure to announce today that the position goes to Vlad Kutuzov.”

Season Expectations

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Media has predicted us to finish 8th despite Rene winning the League last year.

Personal Expectations

-Win the league.
-Win one of the cups at least.
-Reach Second Knockout Round of the Champions League.
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The Full Monty



Transfers

After careful consideration and evaluation, Kutuzov decided to bring in several new players and staff.
The first signing made by Kutuzov was of a 23-year old Belarusian midfielder from BATE by the name of Bressan for a free of £975K. Bressan is going to play a vital role in the centre of the field and become my number one Central Midfielder in the years to come.

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Kutuzov made two further signings within the next two weeks. This time he did splash some cash and bought very valuable players. These were Mbaye Niang, 16-year old French talented striker who joined Les Pailladins from Stade Malhebre Caen for a fee of £5.75M.

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A similar fee was paid for Kutuzov’s next signing of Aurelien Chedjou from Lille. Aurelien will become an important player in Montpellier’s back four.

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Kutuzov made 2 more signings before the end of the transfer window – Patricio Urrutia, 33-year old Defensive Midfielder from Liga de Quito for a free of £875K and Richard Samnick, 18-year old Defender from PSG for a small fee of £425K.

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Only two players left the club:

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The Full Monty



July and Pre-Season Friendlies

Well our pre-season friendlies are over and I am quite content with our performances, including wins against PSV and FC Twente, two of Holland’s very successful clubs. Giroud has been an assassin in front of the goal – 4 against ES Uzes Pont du Gard including a penalty miss with which he could have made it 5 and 3 against Vitesse.

View attachment 253491

It’s also very nice to see my wingers scoring – Ait Fana, Camara, Lacombe.

We complete the Month of July with our two first competitive games of football. First one is against Lyon in the French Champions Trophy.

Montpellier 4 - 2 Olympique Lyonnais (FCT)
Bedimo(pen), Giroud (2), Bocaly

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We were up 2-0 by half time and I thought we were cruising, but two quick goals by Gomis made me think twice, but we instantly replied with Olivier’s great shot into bottom right corner to take us 3-2. Garry Bocaly sealed our win on the 76th​ minute and Kutuzov got his first Trophy.

Stade Rennais FC 0 – 2 Montpellier (L1)
Giroud, Belhanda

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Our first Ligue 1 game against Stade Rennais FC, not the easiest of fixtures, but the boys handled it quite well and we were 1-0 up in the 11th​ minute. Stade Rennais FC only had one shot on target which clearly shows our dominance and we really should have won by a bigger margin, but we didn’t. Ait Fana got an injury and is out for a couple of weeks.

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The Full Monty



August

In August, we only had 4 games.

Montpellier 4 – 0 Girondins Bordeaux (L1)
Giroud (4)

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As the score line suggests, this game proved to be rather easy but I thought it could pose us some difficulty. Bordeaux aren’t the worst team in France so I just figured they didn’t turn up and allowed us to dominate them completely.

Toulouse FC 2 – 1 Montpellier (L1)
Camara

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Toulouse, on the other hand, proved to be difficult. The match was rather close with Toulouse going 2-0 up after 63 minutes. Camara did grab us a consolation goal in the 77th​ minute and I went overload in hope of snatching a point from this game but was unfortunate. Toulouse did deserve their win.

Stade de Reims 0 – 3 Montpellier (L1)
Urrutia, Giroud, Belhanda

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This game wasn’t too difficult, but the goals did come quite late – 60th​, 64th​ and 69th​ minute. The first half, we managed to create some chances but weren’t successful. Second half though didn’t disappoint.

ESTAC Troyes 1 - 2 Montpellier (L1)
Bressan, Giroud

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We were 1-0 after just 2 minutes but Troyes equalised in the 24th​ and Giroud didn’t grab the winner until late in second half. Troyes proved a difficult test, the game was pretty balanced.

Player of the Month

Olivier Giroud

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Thanks, pal. September should be up tomorrow. Spain - Croatia tonight :)
 
The Full Monty



September

Champions League Draw wasn’t nice to us, handing us a rather difficult group with Arsenal, Valencia and Galatasary. Hopefully, we can get a result against Valencia and qualify in second place. Also, managed to snap up Craig Gordon on a free transfer as a back-up keeper for Jourdren.

Montpellier 3 – 2 OM (L1)
Giroud (2), Camara, Giroud m/pen

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OM proved to be a pain just as I thought. They managed to come back twice through Ayew and Malouda, but Camara helped us to get the 3 points. Their 2 shots on target = 2 goals. Giroud has been terrible with penalties, missing his second one this season.

Montpellier 2 – 2 Valencia (CL)
Giroud, Urrutia

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First Champions League game against Valencia at home. Didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped, I was aiming to win this and the boys tried just that, but Valencia got lucky and came back from 2 – 0 down late on in the game. Again as the game before, their 2 shots on target = 2 goals.

PSG 1 – 7 Montpellier (L1)
Belhanda (2), Ait Fana, Niang (2), Camara (2)

View attachment 253670

Wow! After the draw against Valencia, the guys really pulled all the stops during this game with us winning by 6 goals. The stats show that the game was pretty even and we just took our chances. 7 our CCC’s, compared to their 0. Ait Fana injured once again and out for over 5 weeks.


Montpellier 5 – 0 Evian TG FC
Belhanda, Bressan, Giroud (2), Estrada

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We were the dominant force in this game and I wasn’t expecting anything less. 4-0 up by half time, only scoring 1 after the break was disappointing but I can’t complain. Marveaux and Belhanda both injured during this match. Marveaux out for 3-4 weeks and Belhanda out for several months with a broken ankle.


Arsenal 3 – 3 Montpellier (CL)
Utaka, Niang, Urrutia

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Second Champions League game against the best team in the group. The game was full of chances from the word go but the game was rather even and I’m disappointed that we weren’t able to hold on to our lead.

Player of the Month

Mbaye Niang

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The Full Monty



October

October was a great month for us with a 100% win record in all competitions.

We started the month of with an easy game away at SC Bastia.

SC Bastia 0 – 4 Montpellier (L1)
Giroud (3), Urrutia

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The game was dominated by us and the score line suggests that. Giroud scored his penalty which was nice as he missed his previous attempts. Henri Bedimo got injured and is out for 2 months.

FC Lorient 1 – 2 Montpellier (L1)
Giroud, Bocaly

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We were down 1-0 just after 20 minutes and the half time team talk helped greatly as after the break we were able to come back and win it. Bressan got injured in the first few minutes of the game and will be out for 8 days.

Galatasaray 0 – 1 Montpellier (CL)
Koita

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The “easy” team of our Champions League group, but we get dominated here, there and everywhere. I’m surprised we were able to scrape a 1-0 win, but that’s just how FM is and in the previous Champions League games we were unlucky, in this one – we were the lucky ones.

Montpellier 2 – 0 AS Nancy Lorraine (L1)
Urrutia, OG

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The game was won comfortably and we should have scored more. Probably, with 17 shots on target, can’t see how we didn’t score more. I am tending to get quite a few yellow cards, so I think I might have to alter tackling on the tactics I use.

Montpellier 2 – 0 Valenciennes FC (CDL Round 4)
Niang (2)

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Didn’t play Giroud this game which allowed Niang to come through and shine, which he certainly did. The game wasn’t an easy one as they managed to have over 10 shots even though only 2 were on target, they still posed a threat, but I’m pleased that we managed to win it.

Montpellier 1 – 0 Stade Brestois 29 (L1)
Bocaly

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We finish our perfect month with a 1-0 win. We were disappointing in the final third with my right back scoring the only goal. 19 shots and only 6 on target, but what can you do. We did win, however, and so get the 3 points.

Player of the Month

Geoffrey Jourdren

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