Auxerre – Stade Rennais: A downgrade faster than a fall in the standings
The day after a slap from a promoted player, it is still difficult to understand how in one year Stade Rennes went from the road towards Europe to that leading to anonymity.
At the start of the week, Grégory Dupont heads towards La Piverdière to begin the second week of his internal audit, and if the uncertainty is enormous around Stade Rennes this morning, we have no doubt that the expert will find inspiration to write its conclusions. At the end of a horrible weekend for Rennes and its surroundings, SRFC delivered a shameful performance to Auxerre, promoted against whom it had not lost since 2010.
Taking the time machine still hurts: Rennes had not fallen by four goals or more in the league since November 6, 2016. The opponent was called Paris Saint-Germain, the Rennes coach Christian Gourcuff. Adrien Rabiot was still playing at PSG alongside future Rennais Hatem Ben Arfa, while the opener was scored with an own goal from Gelson Fernandes, starting in an eleven made up of Paul-Georges Ntep, Joris Gnagnon and Giovani Sio.
We have to go back eight years to see Rennes take such a beating, against an opponent of another caliber, but it is in one year that the SRFC suffered a more dizzying downgrade than its gradual fall in the rankings. This morning, Stade Rennais is 13th in a Ligue 1 with 18 teams, two points behind 17th, and 7 points behind the red lantern. He is also only 3 points from 7th place, and 5 points from 5th place. An accounting situation which would almost put things into perspective if we had not seen the scandalous performance of Rouge et Noir humiliated on the pitch of a promoted team.
The hammer blow changing the euphoria of a potential 1-2 to the apathy of a real thing 0-3 “should not be an excuse” according to Amine Gouiri, and hurt the team “mentally” according to Julien Stéphan. But this new nail stuck in Rennes' coffin is anecdotal and should not even be mentioned post-match as the Bretons were apathetic during the first 45 minutes, reminiscent of their performance in Brest. This time, the opponent was logically rewarded, and ultimately punished Rennes with a heavy addition from another time.
Will the consequences be serious? This morning, doubt looms over the future of Julien Stéphan whose situation has become untenable. “It’s not my place to answer that. I have courage and the desire to work, the desire to make things progress. Afterwards, it’s not my responsibility”replied yesterday the coach who had resigned at the end of his first mandate.
Coming before the press, Frederic Massara evaded questions on the subject, maintaining another doubt concerning his real decision-making power on the subject. “The team at the moment is not up to what we expected” the discreet sports director still asked to draw attention to another doubt, that of the level of the team he has built.
All of this raises questions that Grégory Dupont's audit will probably not answer. A certainty or rather a reality as the first anniversary of Bruno Genesio's departure approaches: this Stade Rennais no longer has anything to do with that of a year ago for which the Europe objective was not negotiable. “Today we cannot afford the luxury of thinking about something which, unfortunately the field has told us, does not belong to us at this moment”confessed Massara. “We play like a team fighting for relegation”lamented Gouiri. In the ranking, the top remains possible even if the bottom extends its arms to the SRFC. Concerning the very real downgrading, however, there is no room for doubt.
