“W.Everywhere I have gone, the goal is to win titles,” says Thilo Kehrer. After having won titles at PSG and West Ham, he now wants to do the same in Monaco. Success was expected when he arrived at PSG in 2018, but it was less predictable at West Ham. “For so many years, West Ham were titleless. And for so many years, the club was so far from even thinking about a title,” says the Germany international.
That changed last year. Kehrer was a central figure in the team that won the Europa Conference League. Having started the matches leading up to the final, Kehrer, who had previous experience in European finals, starting for PSG against Bayern Munich in the Champions League in 2020, dropped to the bench against Fiorentina in Prague.
However, he played an important role in the match, coming on with 30 minutes remaining and helping the team win 2-1. “It was a big disappointment not to start in the final, but I managed to change my emotion from frustration and disappointment to something positive. Although there was disappointment before the game, the joy at the end was even greater. We won a great title and wrote history for the club. “When you look at West Ham today, it is not the same club, or it is, but it is seen in a completely different light.”
However, Kehrer's demotion was a sign of things to come. Due to a combination of “little injury problems” and being overlooked by David Moyes, he was limited to just 19 minutes of play. first division football before January. After starting 32 games last season, it was a “difficult period” for Kehrer. “The team was in place and there was a clear starting eleven that was putting in good performances. You have to recognize that as a player. “When a manager takes a team out and gets good results in five or six games, which is not easy in the Premier League, it is not easy to get into the team.”
It was not Kehrer's first “difficult period.” Before joining West Ham in 2022, PSG had placed him in the “loft”, where unwanted players are banished, ostracized and discarded. The goal of this practice, which is the subject of a legal challenge by the UNFP, France's players' union, is to isolate players from their teammates while the club tries to organize an exit.
Player well-being is not even an afterthought in this process; It's just completely neglected. “Financially, gaming is growing and becoming more of a business,” he says. “It is not a situation you like to live in. As a player, you always want to be loved, respected and valued. “When that's not the case and you're in a loft, you're not necessarily in a good place.”
Despite the sad ending, Kehrer remembers the trophies he won at PSG: three League 1 titles, two French Cup titles and a League Cup, with pride. “The experiences I had at PSG helped me enormously in terms of personal development and as a professional player. I will take those experiences with me. It was also a reason to come to Monaco. Knowing the league and the playing styles gave me more information about how the games are experienced on the field. “That made me want to go back to Ligue 1.”
Thanks to his French-speaking mother, Kehrer had no problems adapting to a locker room where French, English and German are the main languages. “Language skills help a lot,” he says. “Actually, it's one of the reasons why I decided to come here and one of the reasons why Monaco “He recruited me,” he says. As Monaco's young team chased a Champions League spot, the club also wanted a player with Kehrer's experience. “When you're a little bit older than most of the dressing room and when you've played in different clubs and in different competitions with world-class players, you've experienced things that others in the dressing room haven't experienced,” says the 27-year-old.
Having played in teams that won titles, he sees areas of improvement that others don't and has pointed out a lack of “gutsiness” in the latter stages of games as a weakness that needs to be improved. “When I say cleverness, it's not about trying to win in the prettiest, most spectacular or cleanest way every time. This is seen in all the big teams: if the game is close and the team has a goal advantage, they do not always think about scoring the second, especially in the final minutes of the game. It's about being a little mischievous, committing fouls in the right areas of the field, preventing the opponent from having possession, attacking, having dangerous set pieces and creating chances.”
Kehrer also influences the field. Having started just three games for West Ham before his departure in January, he has now started 12 times for Monaco. “I am very happy to have moved in winter and to have discovered a style of football that corresponds to my qualities,” he says. “At West Ham, there were many phases of the game in which we had to defend in a low block and it was about tempting the teams and attacking on the counter, or with set pieces, or more individual actions. Defending in a low block is not necessarily what corresponds to my qualities because I have physical qualities, such as speed, and also technical skills with the ball, which I had less possibilities to demonstrate due to the style of play.”
Having returned to the center of defense at Monaco, Kehrer has rediscovered his form and is impressing his new manager. “His results are improving,” Adi Hütter said last week. “He can play more than one position. He is a good communicator. And it's good for me that he also speaks German. “We are very happy with their performances.”
There is a lot at stake for Kehrer and his club in the final seven games of the season. “The goal is to qualify for the Champions League,” says Kehrer. Monaco are third in the table (enough for a place in the Champions League group stage) and three points clear of fourth-placed Lille. However, he believes that in the long term the club I should aim higher. “With the potential we have, we should have big goals and aim for titles.”
His own future remains uncertain. Monaco have the option of making his contract permanent at the end of the campaign and are open to staying, but talks are on hold until later in the season. “Staying is something I am open to. Otherwise, he wouldn't have come here like this. Even without the Champions League, it's a great place to play,” says Kehrer, who is “trying to do everything possible” to earn a call-up to the Germany national team now that Euro 2024 is fast approaching. A season that started so miserably could still have a silver lining.
