Stade Rennais – Toulouse: who is Sébastien Tambouret, temporary worker appointed by the club?
While awaiting a decision regarding the next coach, Stade Rennes has appointed Sébastien Tambouret interim to lead the training of the professional team. Which could lead to the first match in Ligue 1 led by the coach who arrived in the summer of 2023 at SRFC.
Even if you rack your brain, it would have been difficult to envisage such a scenario some time ago. At the end of a bad streak for several months, Julien Stéphan was dismissed by Stade Rennais this Thursday, three days before the reception of Toulouse for the 11th day of Ligue 1. Doubts had long included the coach against whom the club initiated a procedure, and an audit was carried out by Arnaud Pouille. Grégory Dupont was to carry out an inventory of the sporting sector of the Breton club over 15 days, a sort of way of legitimizing future decisions, one might think.
But few could have imagined that Rennes would take a 4-0 away to promoted Auxerre last Sunday, which precipitated things at Stade Rennes. Julien Stéphan's future has darkened like the fog that has hung over Rennes for several days. It was hard to imagine the coach continuing, but we imagined even less that he would lead the sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, before being dismissed on Thursday. While waiting to find his successor, Jorge Sampaoli and Habib Beye embodying the two plans envisaged, it is Sébastien Tambouret who is appointed to ensure the training of the professional team, “waiting for the upcoming decision”indicates the club.
A first experience in Ligue 1?
The question now is how long this decision will last. Certainly no further than the end of the international break, but perhaps not before the reception in Toulouse on Sunday, 5 p.m. The prospect of seeing Sébastien Tambouret sit on the bench at Roazhon Park in three days is therefore real, for what would be his first match managed at this level, but also his first experience in Ligue 1, the former Boulogne player- sur-mer, Beauvais or Angers having played in Ligue 2 at their best.
As a coach, trainer Tambouret worked in Sedan, Auxerre, Metz and Marseille with the U19s, which he took for his first year in Rennes in 2023-2024, in place of Laurent Viaud. Further up, he also managed the AJA reserves, and was coach of the first team at Sedan (then in N2), then assistant to Nicolas Rabuel at Valenciennes in 2022-2023, in Ligue 2.
“When you set foot in the structure, you understand why there is this success”he told us a few months ago, then involved in the Gambardella Cup with the SRFC U19s. “Training is an integral part of the club project. Everything is aligned, from top to bottom. We are here for an entity more than for personal cases. » The technician has since taken the reins of the N3, following the departure of Pierre-Emmanuel Bourdeau to Red Star.
After a good start to the championship, his team suffered two consecutive defeats (4 wins, 3 losses in total), and Tambouret was thrust into the spotlight following the dismissal of Julien Stéphan. Under contract until the end of the season with Rennes, he is perhaps preparing to experience a defining moment in his career, assisted in this mission by his assistant Pierre-Alexandre Lelièvre, but also by Denis Arnaud, director of training. Will all three men be on the bench on Sunday? The appointment of a new coach in the meantime could mean no, but this Thursday afternoon, the possibility exists. While waiting for this unprecedented team-up, it is alone that Sébastien Tambouret is expected to face the press tomorrow, for the traditional pre-match conference. “I know what I like, where I feel good and what I want to do with my next ten seasons, it’s educational,” he confided in August 2023 on the club website. This week, he will be the coach of a Ligue 1 team.
Photo credit: Stade Rennais FC
