DECRYPTION: Loft, transfer window, rants… Can Stade Rennes reverse the trend?
In the middle of January, Stade Rennes decided to make a strong decision, exposed through an equally strong statement. But can this really change anything?
17 days, 17 points, and now only the championship remains to be played. This is the harsh reality of Stade Rennes which in the space of a year changed its president-sports director-coach triptych and disrupted half of its workforce last summer. These choices are largely called into question today following the departure of Henrik Meister and the placement in the loft of Albert Gronbaek and Glen Kamara. Three recruits from Frederic Massara, also today called into question.
But if the summer transfer window is objectively a big miss, the management, after the shameful elimination in Troyes on Wednesday, spoke twice, and a strong decision. First episode in the mixed zone Wednesday evening: Massara charges the players. “In the attitude, on the pitch, that’s not what Stade Rennes is. We all need to realize this, and right away. Starting with the players. And I think now they're going to start to realize that.”. An omen followed by a second episode, Thursday.
Words and deeds
Until now absent from the media, President Arnaud Pouille spoke in Ouest-France to also shake the coconut tree. “If the players have not understood that there is a state of emergency, they must understand it quickly. This means being on time, respecting club obligations. There are rights, but also quite a few duties. We need to quickly reconnect the wires and stop believing that it’s Club Med! »annoys the manager who recalls that “in all contracts, which are rather well done here, there is an ethics bonus associated with their salaries, and ethics is linked to respect for the club and the jersey.”
The focus is muscular, and does not stop there. It was translated into action, with the sidelining of four players: Kamara, Gronbaek, Gallon and Santamaria. “Beyond the result, there are things that can be seen with the naked eye. You just have to look at the (defensive) returns of the players sometimes. Or when the ball is in the middle of three players, you should definitely not take it and leave it with your friends… They are still indicative of a certain distance from what Stade Rennais should be.”
A loft set up, and immediately denounced by the UNFP, the professional players' union, demanding its closure by pointing out regulatory points which would not be respected, and once again offering a bad buzz to the SRFC this season.
love or fear
Here is Stade Rennes mid-championship, at an important turning point in its recent history. Almost six years after winning the French Cup, the Breton club has come down several levels to no longer represent a European competitor, but a club which could well maintain its position until the end of the season.
This is probably what pushed management to make a questionable and contested decision, a sort of fist banging on the table. Nearly 24 hours after Diogo Meschine prioritized the love to be given to his players to get them back on track, management chose the whiplash. But can this team respond? Does she have the capabilities?
“The transfer window already starts from within: which players can you count on? They exist. Promising or quality players have not turned into completely bad players, I don't believe that for a second. Afterwards, yes, there are corrections to be made”argues Arnaud Pouille in Ouest-France. But do the 13-14 players regularly used by Jorge Sampaoli all have the level that is attributed to them? And if so, can they, three days after humiliation and the exclusion of some of their own, sublimate themselves through fear?
Fixed ideas
Since his arrival, Jorge Sampaoli has constantly repeated that he did not have the players capable of making the difference, which he reiterated again on Friday. “The individuals within this collective do not make any differences. We are working on the transfer window, but what I would like is for these players who can be decisive, like Blas or Gouiri, to rediscover the joy of playing. We cannot depend only on Kalimuendo.”
But how can we expect players like Blas and Gouiri to make a difference, while repeating that this squad is devoid of players of this type? Isn't this a vicious circle that has set in? “A new cycle will begin tomorrow with Stade Rennes. Tomorrow the reconstruction of the club must begin. It's a big challenge. I hope that the players will overcome their fatigue, their fear, because tomorrow they have the obligation to play a great match”enthused the coach.
Does he really believe in this new start, two weeks before the end of a transfer window of all expectations? It's only mid-January, but Rennes has never seemed so close to a very bad episode in its history. Faced with Brest experiencing the best period of theirs, the face shown by the Rennes players will be particularly scrutinized.
