Loic Remy: Las Palmas coach Paco Jemez treated me 'like a piece of s***' after arriving one minute late for team dinner

Remy is the leading scorer for the club this season with five league goals but has not featured since 20 December and has been excluded from every squad since Jemez took charge

Richard Martin
Friday 19 January 2018 06:46 EST
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Loic Remy has been pushed to the margins by Paco Jemez
Loic Remy has been pushed to the margins by Paco Jemez (AFP/Getty Images)

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The former Chelsea striker Loic Remy has said the Las Palmas coach Paco Jemez treated him “like a piece of s***” in removing him from the struggling La Liga side’s squad for arriving one minute late to a team dinner.

Remy is the leading scorer for the bottom club this season with five league goals, but has not featured since 20 December and has been excluded from every matchday squad since Jemez took charge on 27 December.

Remy, who was banished by Jemez alongside Moroccan forward Oussama Tannane, is currently in France and said he would not return to Las Palmas. “The coach treated me like a piece of s*** when all this happened,” Remy said in an interview with newspaper La Provincia published on Friday.

“I never expected to be in France now, I expected to be playing and scoring goals for my team and trying to get them out of this bad situation,” added Remy, who also played for Newcastle United and Queens Park Rangers among other clubs and is a former France international.

Las Palmas did not respond to requests to comment.

Jemez, who has coached Rayo Vallecano and Granada in the Spanish top flight and joined Las Palmas from Mexican side Cruz Azul, is the team’s third coach this season after Manolo Marquez resigned in September and Pako Ayestaran was sacked in November.

Remy said the coach’s decision to exclude him from the squad was an unjustified punishment for a minor disciplinary issue.

“Tannane and I were in the hotel and we arrived late to the dinner, one minute late. We have no excuse because as professionals we need to be on time but it’s also no excuse for a coach to kick two players out like this,” he said.

“The coach spoke to the president and he came to speak to us but he (Jemez) didn’t have enough balls to stand up to me and tell me why he didn’t want me.”

Jemez made headlines three seasons ago for declaring Zinedine Zidane should not have been allowed to take charge of Real Madrid’s reserve team as he had not completed his coaching licence.

In his first news conference with Las Palmas, Jemez pledged to rid the team of disciplinary problems but he has lost his first two league games in charge, with his side being thrashed 6-0 by Girona last Saturday.

Reuters

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