Ligue 1 Uber Eats winners in 2017 and then relegation candidates two years later, AS Monaco now seem to have found stability, thanks to the foundations laid last year by the arrivals of coach Niko Kovac and sporting director Paul Mitchell.

"The foundations we are building are for the long term. We want the club to become as stable as possible," AS Monaco Vice-President Oleg Petrov declared. "We are making sure that we are structured in every branch so that we do not take any more steps backwards and can survive difficulties like the ones we have endured recently."

The Russian this year received the keys to the club's new, state-of-the-art performance centre while at the same time closing the door on the policy of excessive player trading, which had seen Monaco with more than 70 professionals under contract at one point.

Streamline

Since his arrival, Mitchell's mission has been to reduce that number, while strengthening the squad. With one month to go before the end of the transfer window, Monaco has 48 players under contract, of which a dozen, very young, are assigned to the reserve team. Another ten are destined to leave, including some with big salaries - remnants of the past such as Keita Baldé, Pele and Antonio Barreca, who no longer train at La Turbie, and Henry Onyekuru, who has just joined Olympiakos.

On the other hand, with the club's policy being to hang onto talented players, Monaco will now sell them only sparingly, especially since Mitchell believes that "the current situation of the transfer market is unprecedented, uncertain and difficult for many clubs".

Promising signs

However, club president and majority shareholder Dmitri Rybolovlev is in good shape. Without revealing any figures, Petrov maintains that the head honcho "supported the club and was very important" during the pandemic and the broadcasters' crisis. This support has not left the Palace unmoved. Even though Rybolovlev is still mired in legal affairs in the Principality and their relationship has not always been at its best, Prince Albert has followed a few meetings with the oligarch last season. A strong sign from the sovereign.

Albert likes to see his club perform, and that has certainly been the case so far in 2021. Kovac's side had an excellent second half of the season, finishing third in the league and making it to the the Coupe de France final (losing to PSG) with a dynamic system (4-2-3-1 in the defence, 3-5-2 in the attack) and high pressure, that were thoroughly convincing.

Strengthening the team

"The club is already strong," continued Petrov. "Every year we aim for Europe, with the desire to make it to the Champions League as often as possible."

To do so this season, Monaco will have to eliminate Sparta Prague, and then endure the perils of another qualifying round. But the preparation has been long and intense, and the friendly matches promising. Kovac has praised the quality of the work done by a young squad that was bolstered by the returns from the Euro of Wissam Ben Yedder and Kevin Volland.

"The current squad is consistent and very strong athletically," said Mitchell. "The desire is to create a maximum of competition for every position in order to produce the highest quality."

Potential

The targeted recruitments of goalkeeper Alexander Nübel and left-back Ismail Jakobs - two young Germans with great potential - are clearly in aid of this plan, as is the confidence being shown in young talents such as Sofiane Diop, Eliot Matazo, Enzo Millot and Chrislain Matsima.

So it would appear that while there is still hunger for results in Monaco, it has been tempered with a dash of patience...