Last of Ligue 2 after 16 days, the FC Martigues only has nine points. After the May holiday, the return to professional football and reality was brutal. Banned from recruitment this winter, the Provençal club will need a miracle (or even several) to get through it.
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A workforce remaining at level N1
The National promoted to Ligue 2 predecessors of Martigues, such as Concarneau for example, will not deny it: the step between the two divisions is high, especially for clubs without recent passage to Ligue 2. Martigues had not known the second level since the 2001-2002 season, with in the meantime a long stint in National 2. In more than two decades, the demands of the professional world, in terms of infrastructure, workforce and financial means, have flights. Difficult for president Pierre Wantiez, inducted only on July 1, to upgrade the club in such a short time. On the lookout for good moves, the FCM loaned a few players including Ayoub Amraoui (Nice) rather convincingly, repatriated regulars from the championship (Moussiti-Oko, Shamal, Falette, Siby) and signed players from National or in- below. Coherent on paper for a team of this size, the whole will not perform and the departures of an architect of the rise such as Amine Hemia is cruelly felt offensively (8 goals in 16 matches). Others stayed (Orinel, Tlili) but we saw their playing time drastically reduced. The goalkeeper of the previous three seasons, Jérémy Aymes, will slam the door on him in the middle of November.
The (late) transplant with Thierry Laurey does not take
Aymes' departure seems symptomatic of a gloomy atmosphere within the club, which deteriorated with each result until hitting rock bottom in November. The alchemy between the coach, Thierry Laurey and his group will never have been found. The FCM initially targeted Mathieu Chabert (Ajaccio) before hiring the former Paris FC coach on July 2, the day before training resumed. Apart from a surprising success in Annecy (4-2) during the 2nd day, the FCM attack was almost silent the rest of the time. However, the blood & gold cannot afford to discover themselves any more, as evidenced by the terrible triptych of defeats in September: 0-3 in Pau, 0-4 against Grenoble, 0-6 in Metz.
Unconvinced by the tactical options and brittle management, the players will call a crisis meeting at the beginning of November. From these explanations will come neither a sporting rebound nor an improvement in human relationships. Thierry Laurey will be suspended after another setback at Troyes (0-4) during the most recent day of Ligue 2. “Something was broken” explained Pierre Wantiez. To date, nothing has been repaired. Adrift, the FCM has just experienced a humiliating exit in the Coupe de France against Bourgoin-Jallieu (N3, 1-4).
A team without a home
Of the nine points taken by Martigues, to date, only one has been taken “at home”. Lacking a standard enclosure, the FCM had to swap at the start of the season the boiling atmosphere of Francis-Turcan for the neighboring Vélodrome stadium (Marseille), a 67,000-seat arena to which the team will never get used to, empty, oversized and which will prove far too expensive to rent for the club's finances.
Along the way, the FCM had to move… to the Jean-Laville stadium in Gueugnon. Already in difficulty, Martigues added long hours of bus travel to play its home matches 468 kilometers from the Etang de Berre. Not a single point taken, nor a single goal scored since the forced move.
The corpses come out of the closet
This mishap linked to the stadium must be seen in a financial context which raises questions for the FCM… Even for its president. “The accounts which were communicated in June 2024 are quite significantly different from the actual accounts as of June 30, 2024”, explained Pierre Wantiez last month. Debts dating back several seasons are lying around the club. Even before the rise of the club and the change of management, the former leaders (Columbus Morfaw, Alain Nersessian) had started to pass the buck.
The DNCG (National Directorate of Management Control) is not giving any gifts: demotion as a precaution, control of the payroll and above all a ban on recruitment which will not allow upgrading a workforce which seems to be in great need.
JPP and Francis-Turcan at the end of the tunnel?
However, reasons for hope exist, even if they are meager. The return to the Francis-Turcan stadium is scheduled for January 2025 and should change everything in terms of atmosphere. New year, new coach. To date, Jean-Pierre Papin holds the rope to take over from interim Ibrahim Rachidi. If the former scorer of the French team has not coached at this level for around fifteen years, in Châteauroux, he remains on a positive experience with the reserve of Olympique de Marseille (N3) which he transformed from a candidate for retention into a top-of-the-table team in a few months.
The team of most used players (in 4-5-1) :
Aymes (puis Marillat) – Saintini, Morante Falette, Amraoui – Solvet, Robin, Siby, Bamba, O. Mendy – Ouotro
On the bench: Etile (g) – Ipiele, Zouaoui, Tlili, Djaha, Mousti-Oko, Belloumou
Photo Sylvain Thomas/FEP/Icon Sport
