Pierre Sage Responds to Disloyalty Accusations After Leaving Lens for Crystal Palace

Pierre Sage granted a lengthy interview to L’Équipe to dispel what he considers a distorted image of his departure from RC Lens, which occurred in early June following an exceptional season: second place in Ligue 1 and the club’s first Coupe de France title.

The 47-year-old manager, now leading Crystal Palace, fully stands by his choice but contests the way it was portrayed. “People suggested I had warned them at the last minute, when I had actually brought forward the planned reflection period by almost a week,” he clarifies, deeming the label of disloyal manager “unfair.”

On the financial front, Sage dismisses the hypothesis that money guided his decision. “If I had really been the mercenary people wanted me to be, I would have gone to Saudi Arabia and made ten times as much,” he says, also mentioning offers from Turkey, all “significantly higher” than Palace’s. He also recalls that when signing with Lens, he had already agreed to halve his salary compared to what he was earning at the end of his Lyon contract.

His motivation, according to him, lies elsewhere: fulfilling a late-career dream. “My professional life in football is playing out between ages 45 and 60. I’m perhaps not on the same timeline as others,” he explains. And he adds with a touch of wit: “When people tell me ‘You won’t play the Champions League,’ I reply: ‘No, but I’ll play the Champions League every weekend in the Premier League.’” He also emphasizes that the transfer fee — 3 million euros, plus 2 million in potential bonuses — will allow Lens to finance his successor’s salary.

Sage acknowledges that Lens’s contract extension proposal “came late” and that the club sought to retain him. He nonetheless insists on the achievements: “We set out on a three-year project and, in one year, we accomplished what we perhaps shouldn’t have done in three years.”

To the Sang et Or supporters, he sends a direct message: “What I would like is for us never to conjugate the verb ‘to love’ in the past tense between us. There are things that really stung me. But there were also many thank-you messages, and people who wrote to me saying they understood.”