Stade Rennais

Ones for the future

Shazback — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:03:30 +0000

Rennes is one of the hotbeds of French football youth formation, and has been considered by the French Football Federation and the Ligue de Football Professionelle as the best youth setup for the last 3 years. So here’s a lowdown on the kids’ seasons so far :

Yohann Lasimant, Yacine Brahimi, Yann Mvila and Damien “Not Anthony” Le Tallec are just a few of Rennes’ hot prospects…

Rennes 2 are doing well in CFA (4th tier) Group A, and are still running in the Gambardella Cup (U-18 French Cup). But Rennes’ youth policy has also lead Rennes to face teams in other competitions.

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Departure imminent!

Shazback — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:39:15 +0000

Well, it’s a well-known story in the modern game : a good player comes through the ranks of a mid-table side, playing well, and before he’s managed to lift the team that fed him to greater success, he’s already leaving for greener pastures. Rennes isn’t an exception to this rule, and with the best youth structure in France (according to the French League), Rennes is particularly prone to this kind of separation. As the transfer season gets closer, newspapers across the Channel, the Alps and the Pyrenees are looking more and more insistently at potential transfer targets. And suddenly, they realised that Rennes wasn’t too bad, and perhaps had a player or two that might be heading towards a bigger pay check.

Mbia, Mensah and Didot or : How I learnt to stop worrying and love the transfer market.

At first I didn’t want to listen to them. But now they’re just there so much I’m starting to think that they must have some kind of truth. After all, as the French say : there isn’t smoke without a fire. So, here’s a quick recap on potential leavers and newcomers over the summer months at Rennes.

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Liveblog Rennes-PSG

Shazback — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:18:44 +0000

Hi, welcome to my first liveblog!

Well, being late (as usual), I’m not prepared, so it’ll be a bit hectic.

No major surprises in Rennes line-up :

Luzi
Fanni, Hansson, Mensah, Traoré
Leroy, Mbia, Lemoine, Thomert
Pagis
Briand

And Le Guen hasn’t rang any changes on Paris’ side :

Landreau
Ceara, Yepes, Camara, Sakho
Souza, Clément, Chantôme, Armand
Diané, Pauléta

In fact, I just noticed that Rothen isn’t playing! That’s a surprise!

Well, on to the game!

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Silly, silly, silly month is over.

Shazback — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:19:01 +0000

Whilst the EPL has splashed £150M (that’s £7,5M per club, and since Man U and Arsenal didn’t spend a penny, £8,3M per club for the other 18) during January 2008, French clubs were more conservative. With a grand total of 27 buys (real buys, not loans), the french mercato wasn’t the most exciting one ever, even though various controversies (Fred and Lyon’s attempted divorce, Gouffran’s love-hate relationship between Caen and PSG, and… And that’s about it, I think…), meaning that the main action was Lyon’s swoop for Ederson (even though he has been loaned back to Nice for the rest of the season), Lyon’s signing of Argentine “Maradona #3,428″ a.k.a. Carlos “Chelito” Delgado from Cruz Azul, and Lyon’s prolonged transfer tractations with Juventus to get Boumsong back ~~on the French NT~~ in Ligue 1. Oh, and Lyon’s strange idea that selling Belhadj to Lens was a wise move. Did I mention that Lyon were by far the most active team in the transfer market? Rennes’ transfer policy was pretty straightforward : get rid of Emerson and Edman, and bring in a defender to cover up for Edman’s departure.

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Our boys in Africa

Shazback — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:53:38 +0000

Tomorrow Cameroon take on Sudan in what should be a straightforward affair for Sammy Eto’o and his friends. That’ll be the last of the group stages for Rennes’ players. So, who are Rennes’ players getting on in the African Cup of Nations 2008 in Ghana?

Mensah’s Ghana and M’Bia’s Cameroon are amongst the favourites to get to the final…
Perhaps Rennes will have a winner and a finalist!

Ghana : John Mensah, Defender, Capitain, 25 (29-11-1982)

John Mensah is an integral part of the Ghanaian side that has cruised to the quater-finals of their ACN almost effortlessly. Ghana will continue their road to Accra with a game in the quater-finals against Nigeria, second in group B behind Ivory Coast. So far, Mensah has been almost perfect, as captain of the home side that have won all their games so far (albeit not always convincingly), and as a central part of the best defence of the tournament (well, tied best with Nigeria and Ivory Coast).

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Funny things about Rennes-Marseille

Shazback — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:57:54 +0000

Whilst I was watching Rennes-Marseille, I was surprised by the large amount of trivia that the commentators were talking about. So I decided to have a little look of my own on what was strange in this game that happened only one day short of a year after the last Rennes-Marseille in Ligue 1, also for the 20th match of the season…

From brothers to injuries, through Guy and the ANC… Rennes vs. Marseille was full of useless trivia.

Brotherly love :

Bruno Cheyrou started for Rennes, playing against his younger brother Benoît Cheyrou. Whilst Bruno was infamously dubbed the “New Zidane” by Houllier upon signing with Liverpool in 2002, Benoît has kept a lower profile, playing only in France so far.

They used to be heroes :

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How do you say “We don’t need you” in swedish?

Shazback — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:21:43 +0000

Rennes’ Swedish link is something that almost became a tradition. What I mean by “almost” is that after two great players : Källström (now playing for Lyon)and Isaksson (now at Manchester City), there were two not quite so great players that joined : Hansson and Edman.

Now, two good players might seem a bit of a weak foundation for a “tradition”. After all, pretty much any club that has been in their division’s top flight regularly since the 1980s or 1970s has probably seen at least 4 or 5 countries supply two or three good or great players… But Rennes isn’t a team that’s very attractive. Sure, we had a few foreigners, but when Pinault bought Rennes in 1998 he went wild, buying anything that could kick a ball straight. After a series of flops, by 2003 a new club policy had been designed : youth. Since then, Rennes have relied on their youth system to push out good players year in and year out. So buying players is still there, but they’re intended to “help” the team rather than “be” the team…

Along with this change of policy, Rennes also made a few good transfers thanks to a cell that began to rely on “how well the player plays football” rather than “how much money is he worth” or “where does he play”… So we brought in a few players around 2002-2003 that included Cech (now of Chelsea fame) and Frei (now at Dortmund)… And finally, we had a team that was working! Instead of internal stardom struggles and such, we rose slowly but surely from lower-half finishes (if not almost relegation battles) to mid-table finishes and then Europe!

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Sour grapes still make wine

Shazback — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:51:55 +0000

After a 3-0 win against Martigues in the Coupe de France, it was back to Ligue 1 and business as Marseille came to Brittany. In fact, it was exactly 364 days since Marseille had won 2-0 for the 20th match of Ligue 1 2006/07 at Rennes, with goals from Cissé (58′) and Maoulida (90′+2′), after M’Bia had received a very harsh red card (41′) from Mr Poulat. But with both sides in the lower half of the table, victory was imperative for both sides this Sunday, however.

Friends became foes : Pagis and Givet fight it out in the air.

Both sides started out with line-ups that wouldn’t have been expected a little over a month ago… Marseille, 10th, were starting both winter signings, Akalé and Krupoviesa, and young N’Diaye was starting in a very diminished defensive line that’s lacking quite a few players out with knocks. Other than that, no real surprises, with Cissé, Nasri, Valbuena, Cana, Givet and Mandanda in the side. Rennes had a less strange line-up, with Echiejile filling in at left-back, Cheyrou starting as a central defender and Lemoine in central midfield as the only rare occurences.

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These are rock hard times.

Shazback — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 20:42:04 +0000

There’s no denying it, I loved Dréossi. He seemed to be a good manager, with an eye for talent young and old, an ability to develop rough gems into great players, and a great catalyst for group spirit. Well, All that can only keep you in the job for so long when you’ve only got 1 point in 8 games…

Ligue 1 #13 - 03-Nov-07 Home vs. Monaco 0-1
UEFA Cup Group D #2 - 08-Nov-07 Home vs. SK Brann 1-1 (Cheyrou 88′)
Ligue 1 #14 - 11-Nov-07 Away vs. Bordeaux 0-3
Ligue 1 #15 - 24-Nov-07 Home vs. Lyon 0-2
UEFA Cup Group D #3 - 29-Nov-07 Away vs. Hamburg 0-3
Ligue 1 #16 - 02-Dec-07 Away vs. Valenciennes 0-3
Ligue 1 #17 - 08-Dec-07 Away vs. Strasbourg 0-3
Ligue 1 #18 - 15-Dec-07 Home vs. Caen 1-2 (Pagis 88′)

So, with Christmas bearing down on us, Pinault and Saint-Sernin have decided that it’s time to ring the bells of change and have appointed Guy Lacombe as head coach, Dréossi returning to the sporting direction position he occupied prior to becoming “general manager” last season.

Can Lacombe reverse the bad trend?

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Ich bin keine Hamburger

Shazback — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:19:47 +0000

Hamburger SV might have one of the funniest names in professional football, but their squad is no laughing matter. Sitting on the last step of the Bundesliga podium, Huub Steven’s squad are hoping for a second win that would put them top of Group D, and probably qualify them for the next round of the UEFA Cup. On the other hand, Rennes are in bad form, with only one point in five games (4 defeats and 1 draw since the 28th of October). Pierre Dréossi will have to turn the tables on luck and win despite 7 injured players just to stay in the running for qualification.

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