TWO DAYS after Catalans Dragons announced that Joel Tomkins had left the club, owner Bernard Guasch revealed to the local L’Indépendant newspaper that the club’s football manager, Alex Chan was on leave from the club.
Chan previously played for the Dragons in their debut season 20 years ago with his two sons Tiaki and Joe both playing for the Catalans in recent years before moving on to Wigan and Melbourne respectively, with Tiaki playing for the Dragons on loan as recently as last month.
However, the former New Zealand international has been away from the club for the past three weeks.
Speaking openly to L’Indépendant, Guasch said: “Alex has a lot going on in his life at the moment.
“I’ve known Alex since 2006 when he came to the club and when he came from Melbourne. He has a decision to make about his future but I’m letting him take his time.
“We know that he’s given so much to this club that today we can afford to let him have a few weeks to think things over and, above all, recover his health and then he’ll make his decision.”
Guasch continued: “Our loyal doctor, Philippe Roques is taking good care of him. It is a difficult period, we’ve lost our coach, we’ve had our football manager missing for three weeks so everything happens one thing after the other, but that’s just how it is.
“You know trouble comes in waves; I didn’t really believe in that before.
“What I’m asking from the group is to come back together and to stick together a bit more, particularly around the staff. We have a big staff and now it is up to the staff to play their roles.”
It would appear that the owner’s words worked for the Dragons as they came from behind twice to defeat Warrington 38-22 on Saturday.