It seem Monaco FC might appoint Leonard Jardim head coach again.
Jardim was fired by Monaco just over a year since he was previously sent packing. To general surprise the 45-year-old was reappointed in January, just three months after he was sacked and replaced by Thierry Henry, who oversaw a disastrous tenure.
Jardim found himself again facing mounting scrutiny in his second spell after a humbling home defeat by Lille in the French League Cup in mid-December.
In their next match however Monaco thrashed the same opposition 5-1 in the league.
The Portuguese landed himself in the spotlight in September as Monaco picked up just three points from their opening six games despite a summer outlay of 135 million euros ($150 million).
Five wins in six helped douse the flames but the abject display against Lille stoked fresh concerns about the direction the club, currently in seventh in Ligue 1, was heading.
In happier days Jardim led Monaco to the French title and a Champions League semi-final in 2017, before the club’s Russian owners cashed in.
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They sold Kylian Mbappe to Paris Saint-Germain, Tiemoue Bakayoko to Chelsea, Bernardo Silva and Benjamin Mendy to Manchester City, Fabinho to Liverpool, Thomas Lemar to Atletico Madrid, Djibril Sidibe to Everton and Falcao to Galatasaray.
A sizable section of Manchester United fans believe the club drifts aimlessly, their board clueless and behind the times.
They question ownership, investment, transfer policies, tactics and managerial choices. When you look at other clubs, however, the Red Devils begin to look par for the course.
A similar wave of unrest and dissent exists at Barcelona. As the club issues bonds to manage debt, supporters want to know where all the money went, who’s making transfer policy and why the club no longer plays with the technical brilliance and control of years past. Recently, the club captain joined in the protest. Maybe you know his name.
Then there’s Monaco. When chairman Dmitry Rybolovlev isn’t tinkering with the club, he’s meddling in politics and speculating on art and real estate.
A Twitter search including his name contains more than enough intrigue and sensationalism to keep the tabloids in business until aliens invade.
France and the Monaco Royal Family arrested him for corruption. Two justice officials were removed from his case, one for accepting bribes, the other by Prince Albert himself for inexplicably refusing to extend the French prosecutor’s stay in the principality.
Rybolovlev sued Sotheby’s for allegedly conspiring with a dealer to overcharge him by $1 billion for artworks purchased. He made nearly four times his investment on a portrait of Christ painted by Da Vinci by selling it to Mohammed bin Salman for $450 million. The Saudi Crown Prince then allegedly misplaced it.
The Monaco chairman also finds himself mired in the political turmoil surrounding Donald Trump after purchasing a Florida property from the billionaire, before his presidency, for twice its market value. Both the painting and the land deal raised questions of money laundering but the Russian subsequently demolished the dilapidated mansion on the Florida property, divided the land into three plots and made approximately $20 million on their sales.
His connections to Trump didn’t end with one business transaction. During the 2016 Presidential election, Rybolovlev’s jet seemed to shadow Trump on the campaign trail. During his presidency, it was in Rome when US Attorney General William Barr made an unscheduled trip to the Eternal City on undisclosed business.
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