Olivier Létang thus put an end to the prerogatives of his coach, Sabri Lamouchi, on the night of Sunday to Monday, after the defeat against Strasbourg (1-4), by laying him off. Story of another day of crisis.
The chopper fell at 9:30 am on Monday morning. In a brief statement, the Stade Rennais announced the dismissal of Sabri Lamouchi. "Stade Rennais having decided to lay off its coach Sabri Lamouchi, Julien Stéphan, coach of the reserve team, will be in charge of the professional team. "
It was a Monday, so, as a nod to this gloomy Monday, October 16, 2017, starting point of the fall of the duo René Ruello - Christian Gourcuff. A threatening sky was about to pour out all its darkness at the time of the day's session, scheduled for noon.
This time, on the other hand, there is no tension in La Piverdière, that which annihilates all notion of rationality, rather a strange feeling of fatality. "It's the life of a football club" , confided an employee, as if this break between the coach and its president and consequently with the club, was simply unavoidable.
Sabri Lamouchi had been weakened for a long time already. The defeat against Strasbourg on Sunday (1-4), a real rout, was the end point of a 390-day course divided into two parts and which began in Alsace.
In the first, the former French international was brilliant: he guided the Rouge et Noir to fifth place last year, after having perfectly managed a group he had not chosen and which he managed to draw. quintessence. With him, the European destiny that had denied Britons for seven years was accomplished. For this, he will remain a key coach in the history of the club.
The worst departure in ten years
The second part of his story with the Red and Black was darker. It began with the deterioration of its relations with its president Olivier Létang, continued by communication errors, questionable choices and discussed and was concluded yesterday by a layoff due to a very difficult balance sheet. insufficient after fifteen days: the Stade Rennais is fourteenth with seventeen points taken, the worst start of the club over the last ten years.
While Sabri Lamouchi had a coffee at Piccadilly, Place de la Mairie, and made a quick passage through the Piverdière, Stade Rennais was already immersed in the banality of his daily life.
Under the flood, the horizon cleared for Julien Stéphan, whose interim could be prolonged, at the time of leading the session without the holders of the previous day (except Del Castillo, replaced at the break) but with Ben Arfa, Niang , Zeffane or Gélin.
With them, new heads. Young players who regularly complete the group the day after matches. And then Mathieu Le Scornet, usually in charge of pre-training and U15 coach. Rescaped of the day, Grégory Gaillard (physical trainer) and Olivier Sorin (coach of the guards) completed the quartet of which had disappeared Jean-Marc Kuentz (deputy of Lamouchi) and Jean-Paul Ancian (physical trainer), both arrived with the former coach of Côte d'Ivoire.A time mentioned by the communication department of the club, a press conference with Olivier Létang finally did not take place and should intervene on Tuesday, on the eve of a major trip to Lyon ( Wednesday, 7 pm).