DECRYPTION: A year of upheavals at Stade Rennes
In a sporting situation that is far from ideal, Stade Rennais is undergoing a new autumn reshuffle, with the decision to land Olivier Cloarec. A new episode in a year full of upheavals, for a club definitively marking its change of cycle.
Genesio, the starting point
It has not yet been quite a year since Stade Rennes began its shift, today on a new road. If there was a point of origin for the change experienced by the Breton club, it would be November 19, 2023, the departure day of Bruno Genesio. The coach, then in post since March 2021, the date of departure initiated by his predecessor Julien Stéphan, concluded his Rennes adventure to the great displeasure of shareholder François Pinault, very attached to the Lyon technician. With Genesio, Stade Rennes will undoubtedly have experienced the most beautiful game ever developed at Roazhon Park, but also great times in the European Cup, punctuated by two disappointments however.
The weekend of November 19 reminds us of what everyone sometimes forgets: at Stade Rennes, the decision always comes down to the shareholder. While Olivier Cloarec and Florian Maurice, respectively executive president and technical director, still stunned by the sudden departure of Genesio, looked for his successor, he was found and installed directly by the shareholder. Artisan of the greatest success of the club’s recent era with the victory in the French Cup and the first qualification for the Champions League in Rennes’ history, Julien Stéphan returns to Stade Rennes.
A disrupted sports organization chart
The months pass, and hope is reborn when the delay at the start of the season is almost made up, to the point that Julien Stéphan is extended until 2026 even before the end of the season, on March 25. The timing raises questions, while the desire to provide “serenity” is put forward by management. For the first time, Cloarec, Maurice and Stéphan appear together in front of the press. The SRFC seems to be on good track, and relaunched with positive momentum.
Unfortunately, Rennes is going through a very bad phase to conclude the 2023-2024 season, and for the first time in 6 years, the SRFC is not European. What had been anticipated since November given the context came to fruition: On June 6, 2024, Florian Maurice left Stade Rennes to join Nice. A significant departure for President Olivier Cloarec, who then lost a pair with whom the relationship was fluid, and a member of the strong triumvirate formed with Genesio in the recent heyday of the SRFC.
Maurice is not the only one to join the Aiglons since the historic director of recruitment at the training center, Philippe Barraud, also leaves Stade Rennes in May. He joins a long list of recent departures from the Academy (Aurélien Montaroup, Jérôme Hiaumet, Fabrice Do Marcolino), the latest of which being that of Pierre-Emmanuel Bourdeau, historic educator of the club. Movement is also taking place within the staff, Philippe Bizeul having left the club in November 2023, physical trainer Grégory Gaillard, in post for several years, is leaving the SRFC in June.
A transformed workforce
The succession to the sports management was ensured in advance, and the replacement works in the shadows before his official appointment on June 10: the Italian Frederic Massara becomes the sports director of Stade Rennes. Coming from François-Henri Pinault’s network, he embodies a new shift in the way the red and black club does things. With another way of working, a past in Serie A notably within big teams like AC Milan and AS Roma, Massara is in charge of purchasing this summer, consulting Julien Stéphan on this area. Cloarec is solely responsible for sales and generates nearly 150 million euros at the end of a historic transfer window.
Because to approach a season without Europe, Stade Rennes sees 18 players leave the club and 12 new ones arrive. Never has such an upheaval been carried out, and the Breton club is losing important players: Martin Terrier, Désiré Doué, Enzo Le Fée, and especially Benjamin Bourigeaud. Logical and expected for some, more surprising for others, these large numbers of departures call into question the support of the locker room last season. Also a sign of change, the workforce is becoming increasingly international, and marks the end of a cycle also embodied by changes within the board of directors.
A new board of directors, and a new president
At the end of May, after seven years at the head of the board of directors, Jacques Delanoë was replaced by Alban Gréget, deputy general director of the Artémis group, the holding company of the Pinault family which owns Stade Rennes. This appointment bears the joint name of François and François-Henri Pinault, while the arrival of Massara a few days later seems to bear more on that of François-Henri alone.
This change of presidency, also a symbol of a new era, is accompanied by three entries to the board: those of François Pinault’s grandsons, Louis Roger-Boutbien and Pierre Tronson, but also Olivier Cloarec. These changes are important, and mark the Pinault family’s desire for commitment and transmission for Stade Rennais, embodied by the construction of the new training center, finalized, or the project of the new stadium, still in progress. stop him.
But after a turbulent summer and six days of the championship during which Rennes did not convince in its new playing system without many recruits lined up, an electric shock has just been sent with the decision to land Olivier Cloarec, executive president since May 2022 A surprise for everyone, at the club and outside, and once again questioning timing, a week after Cloarec and François-Henri Pinault were seen together on the lawn at the Parc des Princes, and on the eve of. one last match before the international break.
Olivier Cloarec will not be at Roazhon Park on Saturday, and will leave his position this Friday, while Arnaud Pouille should succeed him. Before an important match, at the moment when doubt sets in regarding the sporting course taken and the quality of the squad, it is a shock within the club, and a reminder of what everyone sometimes forgets : at Stade Rennes, the decision always comes down to the shareholder.
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