The time has come for SM Caen to get back to work. After a good month of break, players and staff returned to training on Monday, July 1st to prepare for the 2024-2025 Ligue 2 season that begins on August 17th. Nicolas Seube and Romain Thomas share their feelings at the start of a summer preparation filled with uncertainty.
“I’m not worried-concerned, but I’m worried in the sense that it’s going to take time for things to get back in order.“. On the first day of the resumption of training on the grounds of the Venoix sports field, Nicolas Seube displays his usual smile, happy to begin his first real season as the number 1 coach of a professional club, six months after his inauguration in place of Jean-Marc Furlan.
If he knows where he wants to go, the principles of play that he wants to put in place, the Malherbe technician is still far from knowing how, and with whom he will try to achieve it.Today is Koh Lantahe jokes. There are a lot of unknowns, no one can talk or understand what will happen because the transfer markets are closed. Plus there is the Euro so I expect something long”.
That said, Nicolas Seube remains calm.We have players, we have a team. Today, if we start the championship, I can field an ultra-competitive team“. Indeed, on the pitch on this first day of resuming training, we find Alexandre Mendy, top scorer in Ligue 2 last season, Andreas Hountondji, 5th top scorer, and the backbone of the team that had an excellent second half of the 2023-2024 season. Missing from the call were internationals Ali Abdi, Brahim Traoré, Noé Lebreton (who will return at the end of the week), and Tidiam Gomis (who will participate in the Euro U19).
When Nicolas Seube was still a player, less than ten years ago, the squad was often almost complete by the end of June. The situation has changed in recent seasons, even more so this year, due to the renegotiations of TV rights.
While we already know that Ligue 2 will be broadcast in its entirety on BeIn Sport, uncertainty still reigns for Ligue 1. The locomotive of French football, the one that generates the majority of the revenues of the professional clubs in the first two divisions, does not yet have a broadcaster, a month and a half before the resumption of the championship.
On the first day of training for the 2024-2025 season, SM Caen was able to count on the return of players loaned last year (Najim, Ntim and Vandermersch), and last year’s key players like Henry.
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© France Télévisions
As it stands, this is blocking the transfer market, which is sluggish at the moment. The situation is problematic for all clubs, but it is probably more so for SM Caen, which absolutely must sell this summer to pay off its debts and hope to recruit.I hope there will be few losses and few arrivals, but right now, I don’t know. We’re not going to worry too much. Right now, we’re on D1, so it’s easy (sic)“, Nicolas Seube puts into perspective.
As the coach told us this morning, we have to prepare well individually. As long as we wear the Malherbe jersey, we are fully behind the club.
Romain Thomas, defender and captain of SM Caen
While the takeover of the club by Pierre-Antoine Capton is still not completely completed, it is difficult for the players to plan ahead. Romain Thomas, captain of the blue and reds for two seasons, hopes to experience a season with more serenity than the last two.We weren’t far off last year, I hope there will be something to go for this year, with perhaps also less movement during the season.“, comments the man who recalls having signed for SM Caen to bring the club back to Ligue 1.
Between now and the start of the championship, against Paris FC in d’Ornano, the Malherbistes have almost a month and a half to prepare. They will face Nantes (July 12 in Fougères), Annecy (July 20 in Por-Valais, Switzerland), Le Mans (July 24 in Flers), Le Havre (July 27 in Deauville), Guingamp (August 3 in Vire and finally Red Star (August 10 at the Ornano stadium) during this summer preparation which promises to be very lively outside the green rectangle.
