Rennes: fear in the village – Ligue 1 – J18 – Rennes-Brest (1-2)

It's not far from 10:30 p.m. this Saturday evening when the last sausage pancake stands finish packing up on the road to Lorient. The street that transforms into a small village on match days at Roazhon Park is quiet, but not yet completely deserted. There are still stragglers in the various bars facing the Breton enclosure, places that have become institutions when you are a supporter of Stade Rennes. At Marco, we do not hide from us that the poor health of the Breton club has an influence on the attendance of the establishment inevitably linked to the SRFC, at least on match evenings. Just two years ago, the sidewalk in front of the store was packed, even two hours after the final whistle, and the Rennes drunks sometimes launched into a clapping improvised with Benjamin Bourigeaud and Flavien Tait, perched with their families in the Lorient stand. Another era.

It was not the temperature hovering around zero degrees that scared away the lovers of the Red and Black, but undoubtedly the new defeat of their protégés who are not really this season. A little further away, at the Roazhon Pub, the outdoor tavern is less lively than the inside, where nearly a hundred disillusioned supporters warm up with pints, between a Céline Dion hit and In Emilie's eyes by Joe Dassin. One of them even left the stadium during the break, preferring to get warm to follow the rest of the match. It's a third half like any other, basically: moments of tension, songs from drunk guys and endless debates about Jorge Sampaoli's team composition. And this refrain, more frightening than catchy: « We're going to go to Ligue 2, do you think? »

“So many years sabotaged in a few months…”

The continuation of an evening whose theme the thousands of Brest supporters did not understand: depression, protest and anger. In their field, the Ty Zefs preferred to add color, life and celebration, contrasting with the heavy atmosphere reigning in the other stands. In Mordelles, the lower part of which is reserved for the Roazhon Celtic Kop, the Rennes ultras, the first banner displayed when the players arrived for warm-up set the tone: « You are worth nothing, not even our support. » The defeat at Troyes in the Coupe de France in midweek was too much for the Rennes team, who then took advantage of the first 20 minutes to make their mark. « club audit » (in response to that ordered by President Arnaud Pouille in November) in silence.

: « A poorly managed club, a poorly thought-out workforce, too limited players: so this is the new SRFC? », « So many years sabotaged in a few months, who should we thank for that? », « We spend millions and we still don't have the slightest emotion », « Going from a European club to an elimination against the Trojan ogre », « Can you still look at yourself in the mirror? Because we can't see you anymore! », « Now that we've said everything, and regardless of your contempt, we're going to sing for this club through which we live ». Lack of potency: Hugo Magnetti opened the scoring five minutes later, stopping the Rennes encouragement until the last quarter of an hour when the public sometimes tried to push a team which could have gone from 0-2 to 2-2 . However, Rennes lost, Brest won, and the contrast was even more striking when several hooded supporters threatened to invade the pitch, provoking the intervention of the CRS, while the Finisterians celebrated their success in perfect harmony with their supporters.

Waiting for the sacred union

A fourth defeat in a row for Rennes, but above all the eleventh of the season in the league after eighteen days. It has not happened in more than 40 years, according to Opta statisticians. At the time, the SRFC had twelve losses at the same stage, and had ended up relegated to the red lantern costume, during the 1983-1984 financial year. It wasn't quite the same club. Not at all, even. Stade Rennes had given its supporters reasons to be happy in recent years, between successive European qualifications and good play, but it collapsed much faster than it was built, despite the millions lined up for the transfer window (around 114 since this summer, and it is a priori not over). « I am very concerned, but I believe that the team's evolution has been good in the game, even if we are not advancing in the standingsslipped Sampaoli, who has not changed much and averages 0.86 points per match in L1. We are fighting against opposing elements. […] It's hard to understand why we didn't win. »

Seko Fofana, more comfortable once repositioned in the middle, is the only player to appear in the mixed zone. His speech sounded like that of a potential leader: « I am someone who likes this type of event, I am convinced that we will turn things around. When you are in difficulty like that, you have to accept reality and the work. » The end of a trying week in Rennes, where President Pouille came out of the woods requesting an interview with West France to signal the end of « Club Med » and record the creation of a loft denounced as illegal by the UNFP. It was perhaps a week to say things to each other, as footballers like to say, before proclaiming the famous sacred union.

You often need someone in charge in these moments of decay: Bruno Genesio, Florian Maurice, Warmed Omari, Julien Stéphan, Steve Mandanda, Olivier Cloarec, Frederic Massara, and even Olivier Sorin, the goalkeeper coach, all have been through the machine. responsibilities of supporters. It's rarely the fault of just one man and, here, it's an entire club that got lost along the way, by not making decisions at the right times, or making the wrong ones at the wrong times. , exactly. These are also the mistakes of the Pinault family, always silent and whose two grandsons who joined the board of directors in the spring, who are said to be passionate, were present at Roazhon Park this Saturday evening. They have not experienced Ligue 2 in Rennes, like a whole generation who does not want to taste it and who hopes that the road to Lorient will very quickly become a happy village again.

When Raymond Domenech confuses Sampaoli and De Zerbi