After changing sports director, then president, Rennes ended up dismissing coach Julien Stephan on Thursday to try to stop the persistent slide of the team corrected (4-0) on Sunday by the promoted Auxerre and currently 13th in the League 1. Returning in November 2023 to a club that he had led to victory in the Coupe de France in 2019 and the Champions League, Stephan had been on borrowed time for several matches. With 11 points in 10 days, one length ahead of the red zone, the situation had become untenable for the technician.
Stephan was chosen by the club's owners, the Pinault family, to take over from Bruno Génésio who had thrown in the towel after a mediocre start to the 2023/2024 season (12 points in 12 days).
After a rebound which had brought the Bretons to the gates of European places, the results collapsed again, Rennes finishing the year without European qualification, a first in six years. The announcement of Stephan's extension, which followed this sudden decompression, had already raised eyebrows.
But in the summer, it was sports director Florian Maurice who paid for the missed season by leaving the club to bounce back in Nice at the beginning of June.
The arrival in his place of Frederic Massara with the prestigious pedigree (AC Milan, AS Roma) should make it possible to offer Stephan a tailor-made squad.
With 25 arrivals and departures, the Franco-Italian has not been idle, working hand in hand with the coach, the club was assured.
He hears externally
Unfortunately, the coach never seemed to find the right formula, starting in 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield, before switching to a very cautious 3-4-3 then, recently, a 4-3-3 which did not hardly convinced anymore.
If he was able, rightly, to invoke in his defense the necessary integration of recruits who arrived with varying levels of physical preparation, we still do not know what this very international recruitment is really worth, some elements of which do not play a role. almost never…
In the game, the offensive animation is almost non-existent, the technical level of players who are however gifted with the ball very insufficient and the relative defensive solidity, which seemed almost the only asset of Rennais, has just been shattered in Burgundy.
After having sacrificed the executive president Olivier Cloarec just before the last international break, at the beginning of October, to “instill a new dynamic” under the orders of the former Lens leader Arnaud Pouille, all that was left in Rennes was Stephan as a fuse.
But, proof that the unease is deep on the Piverdière side, the Bretons training center, Ouest-France revealed a few days ago that an external audit had been entrusted to Grégory Dupont who had notably been a physical trainer at the Real Madrid under Zinédine Zidane.
For 15 days, he must observe the work of the club's various performance units: physical preparation, medical staff, team management, dietetics, data analysis and monitoring, etc.
“It’s not on our own initiative, we, the staff,” Stephan clearly admitted, a sign, perhaps, of the distance already taken by the leaders who seemed to be preparing “afterward.”
But above all it is an indication of an awareness among the Rennais that they had perhaps rested on their laurels after several prosperous seasons.
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