MONACO (AP) — Monaco has made some massive changes in the hope of reversing its downward curve.
The club collapsed at the end of last season, losing five of its last seven games to finish sixth in the French league and miss out on European competition.
That wasn’t good enough for a club that finished third in 2021 and 2022 and has won the league eight times. Only Paris Saint-Germain (11), Saint-Etienne (10) and Marseille (9) have won the league more times than Monaco.
Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev has been the majority owner of Monaco since 2011. Rybolovlev has been sanctioned by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy but not by the United States or the European Union.
Monaco has been ruthless under Rybolovlev and decided to reshuffle its coaching staff and top management.
Belgian coach Philippe Clement was fired in June and replaced by Austrian coach Adi Hutter the following month. The club also appointed Thiago Scuro as director of football in July to replace Paul Mitchell, who stepped down. Last week, Carlos Avina was hired as technical director.
Monaco started its league campaign last week with a 4-2 win at Clermont and will host Strasbourg on Sunday.
“Finding Europe and ideally the Champions League is a very big goal, but everyone wants to achieve this within the club,” Hutter said.
Hutter helped Salzburg win the Austrian league and cup in 2015. He was then named “coach of the season” by the German soccer players’ union in 2019 and 2021 while coaching Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga. But Hutter also had a disappointing stint with Borussia Monchengladbach during the 2021-22 season.
Defense has been the main issue for Monaco lately. The team had the second most prolific attack in the league last season, but only the 14th best defense.
Monaco lost France center back Axel Disasi, who joined Chelsea this month, but signed Switzerland midfielder Denis Zakaria from Juventus, goalkeeper Philipp Kohn from Salzburg and Ghana defender Mohammed Salisu from Southampton.
“We know that the team had defensive problems last year, and we want to solve them,” Hutter said. “The arrivals of Philipp and Mohammed are steps in this direction. I want my team to press high up the field and play aggressively.”
Monaco is also looking for a striker because Germany forward Kevin Volland is set to join Union Berlin, while France international Wissam Ben Yedder and Switzerland striker Breel Embolo are in trouble for different reasons.
Ben Yedder has been charged with rape, attempted rape and sexual assault by French prosecutors for an alleged incident that happened in July. He has also been placed under judicial supervision. That did not prevent Ben Yedder from captaining Monaco and scoring twice against Clermont.
Embolo will be sidelined for months with a knee injury. He underwent surgery last week.
The French league club has internationals in every position but relies heavily on youngsters for backup. Promoting youth is part of the rebuild for Hutter.
“I like to look at the performance or the talent, but I don’t look at the age of the players,” Hutter said. “We have to find a balance between getting young players to play and achieving our goals. I like to play young people from the academy.”
Nine under-21 players who are currently in the first team come from the Monaco academy: Eliesse Ben Seghir, Maghnes Akliouche, Edan Diop, Felix Lemarechal, Soungoutou Magassa, Eliot Matazo, Chrislain Matsima, Yllan Okou and Yann Lienard.
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