´It was expensive for an internship´ – Bastia hit out at Makelele comment

Bastia have hit back at former boss Claude Makelele after he likened his spell in charge of the club to an internship.

Ex-Real Madrid and Chelsea midfielder Makelele was appointed as head coach by the Corsican club ahead of the 2014-15 Ligue 1 season.

However, after just 13 matches at the helm, he was sacked, before a short spell as technical director of Monaco came to an end on Monday.

On Tuesday, Makelele claimed his time in charge of Bastia was like being in training, telling L’Equipe: “Frankly, in Bastia, I was almost in an internship. It allowed me to get my coaching badges.”

The club have responded with a stinging criticism of the 43-year-old, accusing him of a “deep lack of professionalism”.

A Bastia statement read: “The statement made this morning in L’Equipe by Claude Makelele, in which he said that the five months spent at the head of our professional team between June and October 2014 were ‘like an internship’ are unacceptable and show a deep lack of professionalism.

“Because we trusted him as a coach, and because of the weakness of his results and the cost of his dismissal, our club believes it was quite expensive for an internship.

“That being said, after this sad experience, he went to have a quite meteoric spell as part of the Monaco staff, so Bastia would advise Claude to end being an intern, and finally, with humility and respect, get a true and durable job as main coach of a high-level team.”