Lille – Stade Rennais: Pouille-Massara-Sampaoli, new trio, year zero
All three at the club for less than 6 months, Arnaud Pouille, Frederic Massara and Jorge Sampaoli are starting a new cycle for Stade Rennes, in very bad shape after 11 days.
Exactly 230 days passed between March 27 and November 12, between the appearances in front of the press of the three trios who represented Stade Rennes this year. On March 27, president Olivier Cloarec and technical director Florian Maurice came to formalize the extension until 2026 of coach Julien Stéphan, who arrived five months before.
On November 12, President Arnaud Pouille, presented on October 10, and Frederic Massara, presented on July 9, came to formalize the arrival of Jorge Sampaoli, until 2026. The world of football moves very quickly, and for Rennes it is Now it’s time to move up a gear.
Arnaud Pouille, first decisions
With 11 points in 11 days, it is an understatement to say that Stade Rennes is far from expectations, even though the European Cup objective was announced at the start of the season. After replacing Olivier Cloarec in a few days, Arnaud Pouille quickly carried out an inventory, and commissioned an audit led by Grégory Dupont in two weeks, the conclusions of which were recently released.
The latter did not have time to finalize his work before a first decision was made: the replacement of Julien Stéphan by Jorge Sampaoli, a file led by Pouille and Frederic Massara. The assistants Denis Zanko and Bouziane Benaraibi also followed, while a new element (Abel Pimenta) will strengthen the staff, particularly with regard to set pieces. The performance unit seems to have been one of the highlights of the audit, and other choices could follow regarding the staff in place.
For Pouille, these first decisions were accompanied by the discovery of a new environment, and many heads in each sector, the prerogative of any new president, especially in a new region. After this first milestone, sporting results are now expected.
Frederic Massara, first storm
Seeing a sports director arrive in the middle of summer is not common, and this is perhaps why five months after his arrival, Frederic Massara could soon find himself at the heart of questions. Until now, the focus has mainly been on Julien Stéphan, but the meetings are progressing and the quality of the elements recruited by the Italian raises questions.
Will the 12 players who have arrived express themselves better under Jorge Sampaoli? To what extent will it be necessary to act in the winter transfer window, after an unprecedented summer transfer window (18 departures, or 30 movements in total)? Massara will this time have another task, to take care of the exits (Olivier Cloarec's mission this summer, nearly €140M raised) and not only the entries.
Anyone who attends the majority of training sessions these days will be able to count on Enrico Paresce, head of recruitment seen at La Piverdière last week. An opportunity to avoid a first storm which does not seem very far away, and will depend on Rennes' place in the standings at Christmas.
Jorge Sampaoli, premier galop
He maintained the mystery for around twenty minutes and before his first match with Rennes, it is difficult to say how the Argentinian will play against Lille. For his first two weeks of training, he was only able to rely on half of his squad, the other half having gone to the selection. At the training center, the atmosphere seems to have calmed down somewhat, and the start of the training session open to the press showed this.
After two failures in Seville then Flamengo, Sampaoli returned to Ligue 1, where his Marseille had hit the mark. The marriage with Rennes still surprises, two weeks after his arrival, but intrigues as much as another question: does he really have all the material available to implement a game idea, a “culture” which he wants to make for its players a “religion”? This is perhaps the main question at the moment, in the middle of an ocean of questions and expectations surrounding this Stade Rennes of which we never stop wondering when it will finally launch its season. For his new trio, here comes year zero.
