Jardim Appointed AS Monaco Manager

Leonardo Jardim has been appointed as the new manager of AS Monaco and the first thing that the club fans are expecting him to do is to prevent James Rodriguez from taking an away transfer.

Rodriguez was bought by Monaco last summer at a big transfer fee of 40 million Pounds and the Colombian justified his price tag by producing the goods regularly for the club.

He kept his good form going in the World Cup in Brazil too which put him on the radar of a number of clubs around the world.

It’s certain that Monaco would be receiving some lucrative bids for him in the next couple of weeks. It’s interesting to see how Jardim copes with all that and if he manages to make the talented playmaker stay in France or not.

Monaco had performed reasonably well in the top tier of French football last season and had ended up at the second position, but, despite that, the club board decided to replace the manager Caludio Ranieri with Jardim.

So, it’s clear that the owners want glory and Jardim has been brought in just for that.

Jardim was with Sporting CP last season and he did a good job there. But, the scenario in France will be different from that in Portugal. The standard of the game will be a little higher.

This is the first time that Jardim is going to manage a big club. In the last 10-12 years, he has been in charge of small clubs like Camacha, Braga etc. and he has mostly had one year tenures. But, at Monaco, he would like his stint to be much longer.

Jardim is one of those managers who never played the game themselves at a competitive level.