Vahid Halilhodžić will oversee his first game in the Nantes dugout since his return with Les Canaris on Sunday against Gary O’Neil’s RC Strasbourg. The 73-year-old head coach has agreed to replace Ahmed Kantari until the end of the Ligue 1 season to save his former club from the Ligue 2 drop. Nantes are in a desperate situation’s since Kantari’s appointment. They are 17th with a two-point deficit on Auxerre.
In a video footage filmed by supporters at Nantes’ La Jonelière training ground, Halilhodžić delivered an impromptu rousing speech. “It’s your club, it’s our club. I came here to try, maybe, to save ourselves from a catastrophic situation. It will be difficult.“
Halilhodžić, who scored more than a hundred goals for Nantes in the 1980’s, has asked the club’s fans to… not cheer the players. “They don’t deserve it. You feel let down, as we all… If they’re worthy of it, cheer them. And if they’re rubbish and show no fight, boo them, yell at them. That’s how it works.”
Halilhodzic’s speech seems to have worked a treat as the Nantes fans who listened to it applauded him.
