Free State Stars will today confirm Denis Lavagne as their new head coach on a three-year contract, and will hope the Frenchman has the same positive impact - if not better - as that of the man he is replacing after he was head-hunted by management to take over from Giovanni Solinas.
Solinas quit a few days after the curtain came down on the 2015/16 campaign last month, citing his desire to return home to Italy to be with his family for at least five months. This left the club no choice but to agree to mutually terminate his contract and begin drawing up a shortlist of possible candidates. Stars boss Rantsi Mokoena told The Star yesterday that Lavagne, a former coach of the reigning CAF Confederation Cup champions Etoile du Sahel, was a suitable replacement.
“He ticked all the boxes,” Mokoena revealed. “When we began this process we knew that we wanted a coach that has all the experience it would take to coach in the PSL and that it should be someone who understands the mentality of African players. We have interviewed a number of coaches, but when you look at Denis’ track record you cannot question his coaching ability. He is a top coach and has not only coached in top leagues and at top clubs like Etoile as well as the Cameroon national team. But he has also been at mid-table teams, something which proves he will understand being at a club like Free State Stars.”
Bradley Carnell will stay on to work alongside Lavagne, Mokoena said. Asked how the Bethlehem-based outfit plans to hold on to Lavagne if he gets off to a flyer in his first season in charge having failed to convince Solinas, who guided Ea Lla Koto to 12th place, to stay on, Mokoena said there were no guarantees.
“You can’t avoid those things. He has signed a three-year contract (Solinas had signed a one-and-a-half year deal) and we hope we can be able to see that out and even maybe go beyond. But at the same time we can’t avoid a situation like that of Kinnah Phiri, who we fired early last season. The new coach is keen to be here and he already knows a bit about the club and has more time to watch videos and settle in before the new season starts,” Mokoena explained.
Speaking not long after the ink on his new deal with Ea Lla Koto had dried up, Lavagne said he was elated to be moving to another prominent league in the continent following a number of years in Cameroon, Morocco and Tunisia. “It’s a good challenge for me to become the manager of this team, in a new league,” he said. “I hope to do well because there is not a huge difference between the South African league and the Tunisian or Moroccan league, where I have been previously. Maybe here there are several big-name teams instead of just three or four, but the quality is more or less the same.”
Stars boss Mokoena said the club would work with the coach to recruit new players during the transfer window.
Denis Lavagne fact file:
Age: 51
Place of birth: Beziers, France
Teams managed: Coton Sport (Cameroon, two stints), Difaa El Jadidi (Morocco), Cameroon national team in 2011-12 and Etoile du Sahel (Tunisia)
Current: Free State Stars, signed three year-deal yesterday. - The Star
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