EXCLUSIVE | Mark Hateley: “Monaco have taken their eye off the ball and got complacent.”

Retired AS Monaco striker Mark Hateley once again sat down with Get French Football News to discuss his former side’s current slide down the table. 

9th in the league and in danger of going out of the Champions League. Can I get your thoughts on Monaco’s season so far, and why do you think it’s gone wrong?

Inconsistency jumps to mind. I think Monaco have been there and thereabouts for as long as I can remember. They’ve always been in and around that top three. They’ve probably taken their eye off the ball and got a little bit complacent. I think that’s the problem. Once you get into that routine of thinking we’re there or thereabouts and start taking the foot off the gas with recruitment, we’ll get by with this. They’ve fallen into that sort of category. 

If you want to be fighting for Championships against a team like Paris Saint-Germain and, back in the day, a phenomenal outfit in Olympique de Marseille. We know that [PSG] can build a team quickly and can get the right people in, and people want to go and play there. Monaco have to be on the ball all the time, and so I think that’s the answer [to what’s gone wrong]: complacency. 

Do you think it’s a case of the players having to create their own pressure at Monaco, considering low attendance will always be a factor?

Yeah. Self-motivation is what we’re talking about here. Without a shadow of a doubt, that was a problem back in the day, even when I was playing. Summertime was good because we were bringing in the tourists, with the boats pulling in. Monaco will always rely on passing trade. That’s the catch they’re in. When you’re recruiting players, you’ve got to have a look at their background. I think for motivational-type things. Playing away from home. All that stuff that goes into buying a good player. 

I’ll speak from experience, and switch it around to my time at Rangers. We had 52,000 fans come each week. And we had some great players that came in and completely died. I’m talking international players. These were players who couldn’t cope with that side of it. And so there is the other side, where you have to be self-motivating to a small crowd. You have to have that mentality, and the ability to raise your game and yourself amongst teammates, and build that camaraderie until it’s solid. 

Monaco isn’t as easy as you think. You can’t just throw some money at some players and bring them in. [Mentality] is where it’s won or lost before you even get on the pitch with some players.

What were your thoughts on Monaco’s Champions League exit to PSG?

PSG have not been that relentless machine that crushes absolutely everybody. This year it’s been on and off, on and off. That’s what’s opened the door for other teams to come and have a nibble at, which I think is a good thing for Ligue 1. The excitement of having somebody else involved in a championship race attracts more attention to your league, and with that attention, it brings more income, sponsorships, and all that sort of stuff. Poor management and poor recruitment has probably helped reinject a little bit of energy into French football. 

Thinking back to when you joined Monaco, can you talk us through what attracted you to the club?

It was a different type of football for me, and I was always on that journey of wanting to be a European nine and not a British nine. I always had that British nine in me of running and fighting; my dad’s background was an old-fashioned centre-forward. I wanted to be like him, but with some add-ons. Watching the 1970 World Cup in Mexico and looking at the strikers when I was a kid, was inspirational for me. I wanted to be that sort of player who could run around and hold the ball, and create chances, but also create chances for myself. 

So, getting back to the question, why did I go to Monaco from Milan? I think it helped Silvio Berlusconi, who wanted me away from Italian football because of the fanbase that was supporting me, the ultras at Milan. So out of sight, out of mind. Could I have gone to another Italian club? There were three or four that wanted me, but I think once you’ve played for Milan, that’s the only team you want to play for in Italy. That door opened up for me to play in another country, another type of football, and to work with a manager, Arsene Wenger, whom I knew very little of, but was a revolutionary type of manager. 

The first day I was in training in Monaco with Arsene. I said to him, ‘How do you want me to play?’ And he sort of looked at me and said, ‘I can’t teach you that. All I can do is make you fitter. All I want you to do is play as you did at Milan for the last three years.’ Boom, that was it. That was my team talk with Wenger. And the rest is history. We went on to the cup final and won the league. It was a great time that first year, and then probably overloaded with games, the World Cup, continuous playing, and then I picked up that bad injury that kept me out for a couple of years. 

After a difficult time in Milan, it seems like it was quite a brave decision to step into another unfamiliar country. Was stepping into the unknown something that you liked and wanted to embrace? 

Fearless [laughs]. That’s my game. That’s always been my game. Own whatever you try to do in anything, and I say that to young players now. You need to own what you’re doing, whether it’s right or wrong. Sometimes you have to break the rules of how they want you to play because you have to think for yourself. Young players have all this data, data, data, and think, ‘I’ve got to come in, I’ve got to hit this there, and hit that there.’ Instead of ‘I’m going to do this because I think this is right,’ and then if it is right, and you score a goal, from your own head or your own imagination, I think that’s a good thing for young players to be able to do. Owning and taking responsibility. That’s what makes leaders. I think the modern game is introducing a lot of followers and not enough leaders. 

Mark Hateley was speaking to GFFN exclusively on behalf of British Gambler.

GFFN | Nick Hartland