Q: What brings you here today? Is there a specific reason?
GG: No, there’s no specific reason. I told you last time that I wanted to be more present. I know you have lots of questions, and that I was going to be here through the good times and the bad. So, I’m here this morning to be at the.
Q: How was your evening on Tuesday at the Roses FC unveiling?
GG: It was a great evening, and I saw a lot of you. The whole soccer community was there, and the buzz was there. The unveiling was superb, and everything was done with great class. It was very well thought out, so it was a great celebration for soccer and especially for women’s soccer. So, bravo!
Q: Did you discuss the potential use of Saputo Stadium with them?
GG: Yes, I’ve been in discussion with them for some time now, and as you know, our fundamental mission is to help develop soccer, and we also started the women’s section of the Academy with BMO last year. It’s something we want to continue to support and yes, if we can have a few games in our stadium, of course we’d welcome it.
Q: Are you saying, with this new club coming in, a new pro club in town, is there a risk that you’ll lose some of the gains you’ve made in recent years?
GG: No, there’s so much room for soccer in the community. Even when we see, for example, when the national team comes to play here, there’s the men’s team here this week, but I’m talking about the women’s team, and the two games we’ve played, it’s really new people coming to the stadium. So, there’s a hunger for soccer, I’m convinced, or even the Leagues’ Cup, it’s not even the regulars necessarily who come to the stadium, it’s other communities too. I think there’s plenty of room for soccer in our city, in our community, in our province.
Q: On Tuesday, Annie Larouche told us that she didn’t see any competition between the city’s various clubs, and that she wanted to establish partnerships to help each other out. First of all, any links or conversations with her in the last month? What’s your vision of things in terms of sharing the community?
GG: Yes, we’ve talked too. I’ve been with the club for two and a half years, a little longer, and I’ve learned a lot, so I’ve passed on to her the good things and the not-so-good things I’ve done in that time. We have very open communication, whether it’s with the Canadiens, the Alouettes, the Alliance or Annie. It’s good for the sport, it’s good for development, and it’s good for well-being, and at the end of the day, that’s what we want. We want to experience great emotions, and it’s clear that every team can learn from each other.
Q: What’s the latest on Corey Wray at CF Montréal?
GG: His mandate is as a consultant, and it’s a structure that’s favorable to both parties, so his mandate continues. Believe me, we have a lot of work to do in terms of processes, and in terms of preparing for the upcoming transfer market and the decisions we’ll be making at the end of the year. His work continues.
Q: Does he have a head start on the sporting director’s job?
GG: I wouldn’t say that. In due time, I’ll get back to you about that.
Q: From your point of view, what explains the turnaround, and then the positive results of the last month? What have you seen that may not have been there in the first two-thirds of the season?
GG: I see a lot more confidence and cohesion, and also a lot of players who are playing at the level we expect of them. That’s literally what our coach has been asking for since the start of the year: consistency and stability, and we’re finally getting it. It’s good that the team has really woken up at the right time. The other thing we’re seeing is a starting eleven. As I said the last time I spoke to you, when you have a starting eleven you have stability, and that’s what we’ve seen, which has helped a lot. Let’s face it, the arrival of the new players has really brought a new dimension to our game. Whether we like it or not, this new spark took them a few games to really make their mark, but now we can see it very clearly, whether it’s Caden Clark, Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, or Tom Pearce with his lethal left foot. Even Dawid Bugaj, when he gets into games, he brings us a lot of consistency and stability. These players are predictable in a way, even if they’re not predictable for the opposition, they’re predictable to us. We expect certain things from them, and they’ve been delivering the goods and they’ve also helped other veterans who were around, like Josef Martinez. Now that we understand Martinez’s runs better and understand how you have to give him the ball, he can really become an absolutely lethal weapon in the league.
Q: You said that the players are playing at the level expected of them now, I suppose Josef Martinez is one of them this season?
GG: Yes, and even before that, you could sense his frustration. I remember in the game against Vancouver, for example, there was a great chance to score, and he didn’t. You could feel the frustration on his part, but when it clicked and worked on his side, the rest of the team gained confidence. We can talk about someone like George Campbell, who gets a lot of run-ups, but we know this player’s potential. From a physical point of view, but also from the point of view of passing the ball and breaking lines. Here we see the George Campbell and we see why we brought him here. I’ll give a few examples like that, but there’s Gabriele Corbo too, who shows a lot of consistency. I think in the last game, he didn’t miss many passes. It’s a good sign when players, whether they’re our stars or our supposed stars, versus support players who also deliver the goods.
Q: For Josef, does it make you want to activate his option? Do you think he would want to continue our partnership?
GG: We take it one year at a time. I’m not going to talk about contract options now. We’ll finish the season and after that, we’ll take stock.
Q: Last year, with Hernan Losada, we had the same almost context. The last game of the season, if you win, you’re in the playoffs. But last year, at the review, you said that even if we made the playoffs, we weren’t really satisfied with Losada’s style of play. Is it the same with Laurent Courtois?
GG: I’m not going to go into what’s going to happen after the season but I have 100% confidence in the coach. I’ll make that clear and I told him last time and the time before last too. I’ll say it again today, I have 100% confidence in him. I think the context is different from last year, and I’ll explain. First, last year, we were going to Columbus, and it was going to be difficult to get the points we needed to qualify. Last year, on the last stretch of the season, we were eighth and we were almost protecting our eighth place, whereas now, it wasn’t the last stretch at all, that’s not it. It’s we who had to go out and find wins and last year we weren’t able to find wins in the back straight, maybe one or two games if I remember Portland at home but otherwise, we had a lot of trouble winning. Now, it’s a completely different momentum, it’s a confidence that’s different in this team and even more important than that, we’re playing the game at home in front of our fans. We’re expecting a full house, so 17 out of 17 this year. It’s wonderful! I’d like to thank the fans, supporters and partners. We’re going to need the crowd to bring us that energy. I’m sure our supporters will be there to support us. So, the context for me is completely different.
Q: You put a bit of pressure on the staff in your last Champions League outing, do you feel that your words hit the target and helped calm things down on board?
GG: I just want to be clear, I put pressure, not just on the staff, but on the players. When I spoke here in front of you, there were some, let’s say, outlets that were written that it was just the staff. No, I said the players and the staff had to find solutions. And yes, the staff did find solutions, because you can see it in the players’ choices in training, the intensity, the tactical side, it’s something. It’s not just that the staff weren’t working on tactics, but it takes a certain amount of time, and now we can see that all the players are on the same wavelength, and the results have been there.
Q: Things weren’t going so well with Josef, but now they’re going really well. At what point did the interim sporting director or the president need to interfere and make sure everything was settled with the coach and the player?
GG: I spoke to him, I’m not going to hide that from you, as I speak to several players during the year. I spoke to Josef at the beginning of the year about my expectations of him as camp president and why we were bringing him in at the time, and my expectations haven’t changed. It’s just a question of reiterating expectations. He’s a great professional who’s among the greatest players in the history of the league and you see when he’s in a good sequence and has a good frame of mind, he can really take us to another level.
Q: Let me take you back to the start of the season, when there was enormous enthusiasm from the fans, and satisfaction with the team’s management, which perhaps deteriorated a little in the middle of the season. Do you feel that right now, it’s back to the same place, or do you feel that fans are satisfied with what they’ve seen from the team in the last month, and then they’re enthusiastic about the end of the season?
GG: Yes, I can clearly feel the enthusiasm, let’s be honest. When we last spoke, it was certainly a more difficult time for the club, not so long ago. Clearly, from the point of view of season ticket sales, we’ve seen some people show their frustration, including our members, and some have left us. Now, over the past month, several of them have come back and bought back their season tickets. I see this as very encouraging, but it’s all part of the emotion. A fan wants to see effort, quality, and he wants to feel an emotion, he wants to feel that a team is there and is putting in the effort, and we’ve shown that we’re capable of doing that. I also said last time that this team is capable of great performances, whether against Miami, Cincinnati, San Luis or Orlando. We’re capable, but it’s about finding that consistency and here, finally, we’ve found it. And yes, a fan wants to experience great emotion, wants victories, and we want to give them the best possible show. The last game of the season I remind you is at 6 p.m., so just to be clear, get there early. I’ve been told to plug that in, I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not. Arrive early at 4:30 p.m. to let New York know that it’s not going to be easy for them, that it’s going to be tough, and I’m convinced that it’s going to push the team to victory.
Q: How would you describe Laurent Courtois’ work this season? We started the season well, then had a big dip, and now things are going well these days, how would you describe his work?
GG: I’d rather do it at the end-of-year review, really, to assess the work as a whole. As I said, and I’ve said in the past too, he’s a young coach who has to learn, and we have to coach him too, but I’ll make the overall assessment at the end of the season.
Q: About Victor Wanyama, is it his initiative not to travel with the team? Or is it the coach who doesn’t let him travel? Are you involved in this? What’s the process for him to travel with the team?
GG: First and foremost, it’s the coach’s decision. It’s a mutual decision between the coach and Victor. Victor’s a great player, so that’s really a technical decision.
Q: Maybe you can send out a message to try and block this, but there are going to be millions available next year. Can fans dream, perhaps, of having that money invested in a star who can animate the game offensively? Who can control the team? There are a few French-speaking names from France who want to come to MLS, and there are people looking at us. We’ve had Drogba, we’ve had Piatti before who came from abroad, is that still possible?
GG: Once again, we’re going to evaluate the entire squad. Yes, you mentioned that millions will be available, but we’re going to do it in a very judicious, intelligent way that will help our sporting project. That’s how we’ll make decisions.
Q: You talked a little bit about marketing earlier, obviously, the last game of the season is very important from a sporting point of view, but I imagine from a marketing point of view too, to maybe have a wild-card game at home if things ever get positioned, maybe even a little bit further ahead before Messi’s visit to Saputo Stadium, how much of a marketing point is that at the end of the season?
GG: We’re concentrating on one match at a time, so it’s really the match on October 19 that we’re 100% focused on. We’re going to see a packed house with a good performance that can get us the first game, so the eight versus nine we’re hoping for at home. From a commercial and marketing point of view, we’re ready to push the button, but from an organizational and technical point of view, we see no further ahead than the match.
Q: October 19 is four days after October 15, the day of your first championship. Are you planning anything at the stadium to celebrate?
GG: Yes, we’re going to celebrate, and we’ve invited all the former players. It was October 15, 1994, and I went to that game at Stade Claude-Robillard. I was in CEGEP at the time, so it was a long time ago, but it made a big impression on me personally, as a young soccer player. I also met up with a number of my former team-mates who were part of that cohort, so I hope they’ll be able to inspire current players.
Q: You said you were going to count on Corey Wray for the next few transfermarkets, is there a medium- to long-term vision with him? Are we sure he’ll be back in 2025?
GG: No, there’s nothing for sure. When I say I’m counting on Corey Wray and the team right now to do some work for the next few transfermarkets, maybe I misspoke earlier, but the work has to start now. We can’t wait until December-January to have a good vision. What kind of player profile are we looking for? Which specific player do we want to start recruiting, viewing and analyzing? It’s already started, so it’s more along those lines.
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