Giorgio Contini has arrived in Bern and talks to blue Sport about his mission as YB coach. Meanwhile, Christoph Spycher explains why it would have been risky to continue with Joël Magnin as head coach.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Young Boys are starting the second half of the season with Giorgio Contini as their new head coach.
- At the start of training on Saturday, the new coach talks to blue Sport about his decision to quit as assistant coach with the Nati and says: "YB is a great opportunity for me."
- YB boss Christoph Spycher is convinced that Contini is the right man for the Bernese club. He explains why it would have been risky to keep interim coach Joël Magnin on as coach.
After the successful European Championship in the summer, Giorgio Contini extended his contract with the SFA as assistant coach to Murat Yakin in the Swiss national team by two years. Five months later, he is gone. He was drawn back to club football and Contini became the new head coach at Young Boys.
"I needed time to make up my mind. But it was always on my mind to become head coach again," said Contini at the start of training for the Bernese club on Saturday. "Now it's YB, which is also a great opportunity for me."
Bern are only in 9th place after the first half of the season and have yet to pick up a single point in the Champions League after six games. With Contini, things are now set to pick up again. "The team gave me a good reception. I shared my values with the players and explained the ambitions with which we want to start working together," said the 50-year-old.
Despite the weak first half of the season, YB must not write off the title defense just yet. The gap to leaders Lugano is just eight points. But the new coach doesn't want to think that far ahead just yet. "It's now primarily about getting to know each other and getting us back to where we want to be. First of all, to finish in the top six," says Contini. However, this goal could also be revised upwards over the course of the season.
Magnin as head coach would have been a risk
"We don't want to talk about the title on the first day of training," says YB co-owner Christoph Spycher on blue Sport. "The journey is the goal. And then we want to make it into the top six at some point. We definitely want to achieve that." Spycher is convinced that Contini is the right man for the Bernese side. "He has a well-stocked rucksack. His experience as an assistant coach in the national team was also important for him," he says, explaining the coaching decision.
And why was it not an option to continue with interim coach Joël Magnin, who has already stabilized Young Boys for the second time? "A club is also about perspective. If you put a coach in the shop window as a head coach candidate, so to speak, there is a big risk that the person will have to leave the club at some point if things don't turn out well," explains Spycher.
Magnin is an important man for the club, the YB boss continues. That is why his return to the youth ranks also appears to be a precautionary measure. Spycher: "Joël Magnin has done outstanding work in various areas in the youth academy in recent years. We attach great importance to the medium-term perspective and want Joël to stay with us for as long as possible."
For Magnin, this is also completely fine. "We communicated this from the outset and also defined in a meeting that we didn't want to jeopardize the medium to long-term collaboration," says the YB boss. "Accordingly, the decision was made by mutual agreement."
