Second club to go before the ML2 class council, the AC Ajaccio did not shine during almost half of the season. With a 17th and penultimate place in the ranking, the Corsica-du-Sud club is having all the difficulty in the world to restart a virtuous cycle, after an already worrying end to last season.
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The end of an era
June 21, 2024 will have marked the epilogue of a cycle at AC Ajaccio, with the announcement of the departure of Olivier Pantaloni. Coach of the ACA for 13 years in total (and for almost a decade without interruption), the coach with two rises with the ACA only considered leaving the club for a much more ambitious project, and FC Lorient ticked all the boxes. Two weeks before the resumption of training and one year before the end of the technician’s contract, the club had to start looking for a successor, found ten days later in the person of Mathieu Chabert, announced more early in Martigues. In addition to the departure of Pantaloni, the group also said goodbye to some club executives at the end of the journey such as Riad Nouri and Cédric Avinel.
Laborious restart
It is an ACA to be relaunched which Chabert inherited. 15th in Ligue 2 at the end of the 2023-2024 season, the team had completely dropped out from the month of March, finishing five points from the red zone, after having been a candidate for the playoffs until the middle of the season. winter. To complicate the task, the financial means to strengthen the team are more than limited. Administratively demoted to National by the DNCG initially, the club was reinstated on appeal on July 11. However, the ACA is still walking on eggshells, like all French football then plunged into the audiovisual rights crisis. Chain reactions: due to lack of liquidity, AJ Auxerre, which is moving up to Ligue 1, cannot finalize the transfer of Tim Jabol-Folcarelli, even though the sale would have done a lot of good for the Corsican side’s finances. In any case, the squad is expanding with free players (Ayessa, Anziani, Santelli, Bamba, Kanté, Huard) many of whom will establish themselves as starters. Until the first international break, the course is correct. The ACA won its first three matches at home and earned a point in Laval (the only one taken away during the first 16 days). Mathieu Chabert’s team flirts with half the table, before being cruelly reminded of its limits.
Tough bad habits
Already problematic the previous season (20th away, 10 points), AC Ajaccio’s away performances weigh down the results. While even Martigues, a club in great difficulty, offered itself two victories away from its bases, the ACA is the only club this December 20 not to have celebrated the slightest success away from home. Certainly, the status of an island club and the logistical problems that result from it do not help… But SC Bastia is doing better. Another mitigating circumstance: great moments of refereeing frustration like in Caen (0-1) or even in Amiens (1-3), matches during which the Ours were paid only minimally for their efforts. At home, the ACA is no longer as impregnable (11th out of 18) and no longer compensates for his allergy to travel.
Another chronic ill of the ACA, a half-mast attack. With only 10 goals scored in 16 games, Chabert’s team remained silent on nine occasions. If Moussa Soumano (3 goals) showed some promise, overall remains insufficient. Here again, the legacy of last season (35 goals in 38 games) has not been paid off. Illustration of the Ajaccian slump which continues: the ACA is the Ligue 2 club which took the fewest points in the calendar year 2024 among those who spent the 12 months in the championship: 31 points in 35 matches, quite a year on a relegated pace. to make matters worse, Mathieu Chabert had more than his share of injuries and suspensions to deal with in a squad that was not bloated.
Beyond the field, no more sun
While some clubs are waiting for the winter transfer window to redress the situation, AC Ajaccio will not really be able to count on it. During its mid-season visit to the DNCG, the club was again demoted to N1 as a precautionary measure, with a ban on recruitment. Without a president since August and the departure of Daniele Bufano, the club is waiting to be sold by Alain Orsoni, a deal supposed to be completed by December 31. In addition to the public at the Michel-Moretti stadium, AC Ajaccio must reassure the financial policeman of the League. How to do this?
The team of the most used players (in 4-4-2):
Sollacaro – DG, Ayessa, Bamba, Youssouf – Everson Jr, Mangani, Jabol-Folcarelli, Anziani- Ibayi, Soumano
The banks: Quilichini (g) – BH Touré, Strata, Vidal, Huard, Kouassi, Santelli
Photo Anthony Bibard/FEP/Icon Sport
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