Vassilis Spanoulis: The problem is that everything that’s happening in Monaco

Vassilis Spanoulis, head coach of AS Monaco, did not hide his frustration after the loss to Virtus Bologna.

“We played poorly. We didn’t defend, we didn’t execute properly on offense: we deserved to lose.”

He then addressed the broader situation around the club: “We have to react, but the problem is that everything that’s happening in Monaco, surely all the players are reading. Now everyone is on social media, everyone reads, and for me it’s not easy to always explain what’s going on,” he said. “There’s a situation here that has to be solved—whoever has to solve it. It’s not normal to have 12 players. There are teams with 17-18 players; we can’t practice with the same number of players they field.”

“I’ve never spoken until now, and I’m not speaking because we lost, but it’s not easy. I’m proud of my team and my players, but I can’t stay out of this situation. We have to find a solution—we can’t have other things weighing on our minds besides basketball. Because it’s obvious they do.”

Finally, he offered a concrete example: “My job isn’t to talk about this—my job is to prepare the team for games. But surely the players read everything. It’s not normal: we had Corey Joseph and nobody knows what happened—he left. We wanted to have at least 14 players, but we don’t even have 13, because Makoundou has been out for two months and can’t practice,” Spanoulis said.