While the Marine et Blanc travel to Lille on Saturday for the 30th day of Ligue 1, Yacine Adli's teammates are entering a new stage in their rescue operation.
The club with the scapular is going through one of the worst seasons in its history and is heading straight for a descent into Ligue 2. And last Saturday, the Benoît Costil affair brought to light the multiple errors made by the management as well as the divisions prevailing within the club.
To discover
Calendar and results Ligue 1
League 1 standings
The ghosts of the 2020-2021 season
Arrived last summer, Gérard Lopez bought a historic club in the French championship, which had just saved its skin among the elite during the penultimate day of Ligue 1. The former president Frédéric Longuépée had then left a ship adrift, as Pierre Farges, former community manager of the club, recalls "
Gerard Lopez arrived in a situation that was not obvious, since King Street, the former owner of the Girondins de Bordeaux had announced his intention to withdraw in April.
The club was potentially relegated to Ligue 2, it was even for 10 days.
Despite a delicate situation, the former president of LOSC arrived with confidence and an enticing but perhaps too ambitious project.
“
Very quickly, we got a message promising us a Top 6 with European qualification in the short term.
It was Gerard Lopez the saviour.
The communication was a little too cheerful”,
analyzes Pierre Farges
.
As soon as he took office, the Portuguese businessman wanted to break away from Frédéric Longuépée by upsetting the functioning of the 2009 French champions.
A 360° turn
Nicolas Pietrelli, founder of the Webgirondins media, regrets that Gerard Lopez and the management “
did not rely a little more on what had worked the previous year on the sporting level
”.
"
There was a backbone to lean on, young players who we asked to save the club: Lacoux, Mara, Bakwa, Traoré and Sissokho were put aside as soon as the new sports management arrived
", he continues.
If the youngsters have indeed been little used this season, other players present last year such as Costil, Koscileny, Adli or even Hwang started the championship in the shoes of holders.
The trading policy initiated by Gérard Lopez and his technical director Admar Lopes effectively led to an in-depth review of a workforce that was arriving at the end of the cycle.
Despite the arrival of a dozen recruits signed on two transfer windows, the results remain very unsatisfactory as explained by Vincent Romain, journalist
Sud Ouest.
"
The transfer window of last summer, overall, is rather negative.
The biggest failure is Fransergio, the club bet 5 million euros on him and he has never been level since.
The position of the side was one of the priorities and the three who were recruited, Pembélé, Mensah and Mangas are not at the expected level either",
explains the journalist before continuing: "The
real criticism that we can make of Admar Lopez, it is not so much to have recruited a lot, but rather to have recruited players who are not more efficient than those of last year.
If the winter recruits are a little more satisfactory, with the exception of Marcelo, the 360° turn turns out to be a failure.
For now anyway.
David Guion, qualified but outdated coach
The question of coaches also raises questions.
Upon his arrival, Gérard Lopez bet on the coach of Switzerland, Vladimir Petkovic, who did not speak French and did not know Ligue 1. First failure.
The 58-year-old was fired last February and replaced by David Guion.
While Claudio Ranieri and Jesse Marsch were in discussion with management, it was the former Reims coach, already contacted when the club took over, who won the day.
For Vincent Romain, this choice was privileged for several reasons, such as the fact that he is a technician with a long-term vision and who above all followed Ligue 1 and the Girondins a lot during his period of inactivity.
David Guion had also come to terms with the idea of losing several incumbents in the offseason to stick to sports policy.
If he recognizes that the results are not yet at the rendezvous, the journalist from
Sud Ouest
nevertheless explains that David Guion is appreciated by the locker room, in particular for his relational and listening skills.
Unfortunately, the new tactician hasn't won a single match since he put down his suitcases and seems to be at a loss for solutions.
After the defeat against Montpellier (0-2 on March 20) and the incidents between players and supporters, David Guion was on the verge of tears at a press conference.
The change at the head of the team has therefore not had the desired effect and the club's situation continues to deteriorate.
Employees more worried than ever
While the threat of a descent hangs over the FCGB, this tension is felt even in the ranks of employees, at the base of the club, as evidenced by Pierre Farges: “
The descent worries.
In the event of a descent, it is approximately 50% of the employees who will find themselves unemployed.
Perhaps even more in Bordeaux than elsewhere, the dismissal of many employees would be a very difficult blow for a reputed family club:
"What has always been the strength of the Girondins is to be a club family.
With, sometimes, dysfunctional sides as in any family.
There was this really very simple side which has long been the strength of the FCGB, with dedicated employees, who give much more than they should to the club without expecting anything in return.
According to the former community manager, the atmosphere would have changed greatly following the two successive takeovers of the club, with employees feeling less and less considered and for some of them at the end of their tether.
An uncertain future in the event of a descent
If the Marine et Blanc were to descend, the club could experience difficult days in Ligue 2. Nicolas Pietrelli indeed recalls that David Guion “
rely on a lot of loaned players who will not be there next year.
And the young shoots from the training center were not sufficiently integrated into the project.
The founder of
Webgirondins
is however in favor of the Girondin training: “
I would like an identity project where you train the players, you supervise them with experienced players so that they flourish and that the club holds its rank.
But today we can't project ourselves
”.
With a view to setting up a trading policy, Gérard Lopes nevertheless seems to take training into account: "
The group had clearly been coming to the end of its cycle for several seasons, and it was necessary to put some fresh oxygen in, so they recruited a lot.
But a priori, if they can train better, they will do it
”.
As Ligue 2 is fast approaching, the sporting future of the Aquitaine club is very vague, like the future of Gérard Lopez.
Even though the businessman recently declared that he would remain in charge of the club, even in the event of a descent.