MHSC: captain Téji Savanier is back on track before the trip to Marseille this Sunday

Téji Savanier retrouve son meilleur niveau depuis deux matches. Et c'est tout le collectif montpelliérain qui le ressent. Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

Face à l'urgence du classement de Montpellier, en visite ce dimanche 25 février à Marseille, le stratège a repris les choses et le jeu en mains.

On Sunday, they will not form a doublet in the land of pétanque. These two ball players will challenge each other in a head-to-head match from a distance. One on the Marseille bench: Jean-Louis Gasset. The other at the helm of Montpellier: Téji Savanier.

"Gasset, he's a bit like uncle", breathes the captain of Montpellier. "It goes beyond football. He knows many members of my family and often came to the Cité", continues the one who still lives in the heart of the enclave of the Cité Gély.

Their reunion will take place in the bowels of the Vélodrome. In this majestic and incandescent theater, where the two men will advance facing each other with the common codes inherited from the gypsy neighborhood.&quot ;Téji ? Oh my, the little one has a hand instead of a foot. He puts the ball where he wants", enthuses the interim coach of OM, who leaves the keys on the car when he gets off at Cité Gély.

Lower on the ground

From the top of the Mosson spans, where he often sat until December, Gasset refined his plans in advance to stifle the influence of the Montpellier leader. Better because "Téji", as Mosson calls him, once again lights up the game after a somewhat sluggish autumn.

Slump, easy target in number ten or time passing (32 years) ? All those nostalgic for the old-style leaders, vestiges of the France of Platini or Zidane, n' ;#39;didn't have much time to worry.

Since December, Michel Der Zakarian has changed everything. The defense and the role of Savanier, without us really knowing which one was the driving force of the other."During the final two matches, Téji was very good. At the same time, the team was better placed collectively and the players around him were more available", breath Der Zak.

🧡 Nos joueurs sont allés rendre visite aux enfants hospitalisés de l’Institut Saint-Pierre à Palavas-les-Flots 🏥

⚽️ Téji Savanier, Joris Chotard et Jordan Ferri

💙 @FSaint_Pierre
🧡 @FondsOrangeBleu #JouonsLaCollectif pic.twitter.com/xzXAdg6c8U

— MHSC (@MontpellierHSC) February 22, 2024

Savanier no longer plays in ten, but he still leads the way. More withdrawn, more free. With a change of wing, with an off-time hook, he opens spaces like the penultimate passes on the first goals in front of Lyon or Metz . These simple gestures, which captivate the ordinary, add to these five goals and five assists, reduced by so many wasted opportunities, notably by Akor Adams.

Over time, Savanier absorbs the blows, hears the murmur of reproaches, and advances in a season without a red card, so far from the previous one (three expulsions), plays more and more as he takes the penalties. With this sense of responsibility and a sobriety stripped of the arabesques of the Cité Gély.

Savanier doesn't want to waste time anymore

When the flames of relegation lick Mosson, and his childhood dream, the captain draws the words and launches a call for revolt. So, after Lyon, he spoke in the locker room but also in front of the media. "Téji says things as he feels them and at the moment he feels it", enlightens his young friend Joris Chotard. "Don'don'think he's changed his way of being captain. He is the one who sets the course to follow before each match." In isolation between players, between warm-up and kick-off.

👱‍♂️𝑻𝑹𝑨𝑰𝑵𝑰𝑵𝑮 ⚽️

⚡️J-4 🆚 #OMMHSC pic.twitter.com/6rtQME6ijP

— MHSC (@MontpellierHSC) February 21, 2024

After five seasons in Montpellier, and six in Ligue 1, Téji Savanier does not want to fall back to the floor below, nor to return to the days of struggles in Arles-Avignon (2011-15) or even Nîmes (2015-2019), nor move away from the light of Ligue 1. He does not want to waste the time he has left on a stage that is becoming increasingly difficult. #39;was long denied to him and which he reconquered by the force of pride and an intimate revenge.

Sunday, around midnight, in the corridors of the Vélodrome, "the little" and the "uncle" will arrange their reunion in the silence of their blue gaze. Before forming a doublet again, come summer, near Saint-Georges d'Orques or Cité Gély.

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