News from St Etienne

[bob l'eponge]

Yo,
I spent last month visiting relatives in Italy and returned just in time to catch the Verts on telly fighting hard to manage a painful draw at Paris SG. Well, I have to say things look rather grim down here in Forez (Forez being to St Etienne what Lothian is to Edinburgh). Here we are now with only 2 points and a pretty average side, to say the least, led by a gifted kid as Le Tallec, the man in charge in the midfield is only 19 years old. With the exception of former Bordeaux rising star Feindhouno, the newcomers would probably feel more at home playing first division sides rather than Monaco or Lyons. A couple of players appear overweight, more are appallingly slow on the field and I'm sorry to say, it's September, not mid April and they all should simply be screaming fit or they should be playing with the reserve team. Even more annoying, they've all got that sheepish look on their faces when they're leaving the ground... It's like they're saying "we did our best... Sorry." For Zidane's sake, this is the St Etienne shirt you're wearing, show us some nerve... People down here tend to take it with a good dose of stoicism: well, they're bad but there are worst teams in the league. Give them a bit of luck, they'll snatch a few points and will stay up after all... So right now, basically, we're hoping for a lucky break. Oh dear...
It's not all bad of course, the team seems to be able to play reasonably well for about twenty minutes but there's always something going wrong at one point. Hosting Strasbourg on August 21, the Verts scored their first goal of the season before a crowd of 29,000 and controlled the game for more than 80 minutes before allowing a silly goal. At Paris the Verts scored first and could have won the game but the home team were granted a rather generous penalty kick at the worst moment. (OK, so if we start complaining about the ref' four games into the season, we're doomed.) After a couple of rather drab performances, striker Piquionne finally woke up in Paris and scored twice. Just hope he does it again soon.
Next game is against Nantes, on September 11. Obviously I'll be there, possibly wondering why the heck did I bother. But it's been this way for ages, you know.

[scaredyhibby]

Keep the fath "bob" things can only get better but surely a draw in Paris should be considered a good result for St. Ettienne! By the way read an article recently on Jaques Santini (Spurs boss) and didn't realise he had a fine career with "le verts" .
All the best mate .

[NI Hibby]

Thanks for the update Bob - you have our sympathies and 'good luck' wishes!

By the way, there is talk that Hibs might play Northern Ireland team Glenavon in a friendly later this season. If you are thinking about going (direct flight now flies from Paris CDG to Belfast!, or you could get the car ferry to Rosslare) you could consider yourself a guest of NI Hibs Supporters' Club.

NIH

[bob l'eponge]

Thanks, N.I. Hibby, I'd love to be there, I think Northern Ireland is quite a nice place actually (no irony whatsoever) but I ain't sure I'll be able to escape work commitments. When do you think the game would take place?
Last night 0-0 against Nantes. Pouring rain, terrible game, not a single scoring chance in sight for the Verts. Some of our players looked burnt after only 10 minutes. Nantes hit the goalpost and were far better, but they only really played a few short periods of 3-4 minutes and waited for the Verts to attack the rest of the time. I guess they were doing interval training or something. Meanwhile Lyons won away and the Vert tifoseria are sick of humble pie and earnestly wonder if we will win a game this season.
At the end, not much booing, just 31,000 disgusted faces leaving the stadium humming "gloomy gloomy shite shite shite". Twas like leaving the dentist's chair and knowing you had to come back the week after.
And it doesn't even come free on the local NHS.

[NI Hibby]

It's a familiar story, Bob, but as the Londoners say - swings and roundabouts!

Not sure when the Hibs game in NI will be played but I do reckon that it will go ahead. There'll be plenty of buzz about it once the date is announced as the Bounce will probably organise once of their famous tours.

By the way, have you ever heard of investors from Britiain or Ireland buying a flat or house in the tourist areas of France using a 'leaseback' scheme. (This is a French government-sponsored scheme which means you buy without sales tax and the property is managed for you to a guaranteed profit for nine years).

I have a good friend at work who is thinking of buying a place like this with her retirement pay-off and has taken loads of advice but can't find the catch!

Also, my nephew (to my sister in Paris and brother-in-law from Saint Malo) was born a couple of months ago and has the very non-Irish surname of Oger! It will be even funnier as, like his dad, he'll probably end up speaking with a French/N.Ireland accent when he speaks English!

Anyway, the invitiation to NI is open if you can swing it.

Allez les verts!

NIH