Stade Rennais – Brest: Albert Gronbaek, symbol of the failed summer transfer window
The first major recruit this summer, Albert Gronbaek joined the loft set up this week, and is already preparing to leave the club. The symbol of a failed summer transfer window.
Who could have predicted such a scenario? There are situations that can easily be envisaged, such as the departure of Henrik Meister, seen for 59 minutes this season, not once under Jorge Sampaoli, and loaned this week to Pisa in Serie B. The Danish striker was bought for an attractive price to skepticism (around 7 million euros), but this is not the case for his compatriot Albert Gronbaek.
Beginnings in the sun, ending in winter
On July 15, it was he who first embodied the revival of Stade Rennes. The first major reinforcement, arriving for around 15 million euros, in full swing with Bodo/Glimt and a good rating in Europe, Gronbaek quickly won over, at the heart of a summer preparation which included concerns about turnover, and poor physical fitness for a recovery.
Also within a team that was still thin on recruits, the attacking midfielder had brought a breath of freshness, confidence and daring. Something that felt good, at that time for Stade Rennes still headed by Olivier Cloarec as president, and Julien Stéphan at the head of the team. But it was Frederic Massara who was in post, and Gronbaek was his first recruitment at SRFC. The first stone of a shaky construction of a house which today threatens to collapse.
The start of the season offered hope with Gronbaek, good against Lyon, decisive against Montpellier, and becoming a Danish international thanks to his transfer to Brittany, where he seemed to have won over the supporters by multiplying the flocks in his name. Also a scorer with his selection for his second match, still in September (against Serbia), was the player already at his peak at that time? In front of the press, the staff already recalled the different temporality of the Dane, arriving from a championship that started much earlier. In January today, Gronbaek is at the end of the season, and this is the moment he would have chosen to jump ship.
-A level in free fall
After returning from a completely failed match at Troyes, during which he played 22 minutes without making any difference, he was placed in the 4-player loft created by Arnaud Pouille. But unlike Gauthier Gallon, Baptiste Santamaria and Glen Kamara, Albert Gronbaek would have previously expressed his desire to leave the SRFC.
“He told me of his decision to leave. He doesn't feel happy here, he prefers to find another club. It's a personal decision.”confided this Friday Jorge Sampaoli. However, the player has acclimatized well to the city. Would his football life have got the better of his desire to stay there? Since the arrival of Sampaoli, the Dane has lost his starting place, and his statistics since the start of the season have fallen quite steeply (still 2 goals and 1 assist in 18 appearances).
In the 3-4-3 set up, he never seemed to find his place, and six months almost to the day after his arrival, the time for a departure has already come for the 23-year-old player, under contract until 2029. He will certainly not be the last, but more than the others embodies the profound failure of the summer recruitment of Stade Rennes, which will now only play this season as the maintenance. A beautiful waste.
