‘The approach is daring’ – Sébastien Pocognoli outlines decision to join AS Monaco | OneFootball

“I know it is all moving very quickly,” says Sébastien Pocognoli, who, after one season, one league title, and one Champions League qualification in first-team management, joined AS Monaco over the weekend. In a press conference attended by Get French Football News, the Belgian explained his decision to join the Principality club.

“Everything happened quickly,” revealed Pocognoli, who said that he quickly travelled to the Principality in order to “accelerate the acclimatisation process”.

“I gained a lot of time,” added the former Union Saint-Gilloise manager, who will be in the Monaco dugout for the first time against SCO Angers on Saturday and must then quickly turn his focus towards a UEFA Champions League encounter against Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday.

He took training with his new players for the first time on Tuesday afternoon, prior to his presentation, and he liked what he saw, even if there was a total of 14 absences, due to a combination of the international break and injuries.

“The first session went well. They were coming back from a few days off, and with a new manager, so there was a lot of intensity, a desire to show things, naturally. I had to calm them down a bit because you can’t go too far, but there was a good dynamic and good intensity,” said Pocognoli.

He then went on to detail his decision to join Les Monégasques, just months after winning the Belgian title with USG and leading them into the Champions League for the first time in their history.

“The sporting project attracted me. The approach is daring […] it gives me a lot of confidence that a big club in France can be interested in a young coach from Belgium,” said the former Brighton and Hove Albion defender.

On his departure from USG, he added, “At the start, there is disappointment because was a great marriage in three episodes (firstly as a player, then as a youth coach and then as their manager). I thought it was the right moment to leave; it was a well-thought-out choice,” said the new Monaco manager. Time will tell if it was the right one.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle – reporting from Monaco