In a transcription provided by L’Equipe, the Stade Rennais manager, Julien Stéphan, spoke to the press before the final game of the year away at Clermont Foot to address the situation facing the club coming into the new year.
The objective for Rennes at the start of the season was to compete for the European positions, but poor performances have seen Les Rouge et Noirs sleepwalk into a relegation fight.
Only three points ahead of Olympique Lyonnais in the playoff relegation spot and twelve points behind their regional rivals, Stade Brestois, sat in fifth, it has been a terrible first half of the season for Rennes.
A change of manager from Bruno Génésio to Stéphan in late November has done little to shift the trajectory of the club. The new manager bounce of two wins in Stéphan’s first two games was swiftly followed by three losses before a draw to Toulouse (0-0) over the weekend.
The only positive for the club has been their successful progression past the Europa League group stages and into the knockout rounds, where they will play AC Milan.
‘The situation is not good, not bright, we must not deny it.’ – Julien Stéphan
Stéphan seemed excited by the possibility of playing Milan, ‘It’s a top team, a top club, and very prestigious, and to be faced with this type of opponent is a great opportunity.’ Whether that opportunity would be a catalyst for changing their situation in Ligue 1, the manager was more circumspect, ‘the season will not end in mid-February.’
He continued, ‘the decisive matches will be in March-April-May, that’s where everything will play out. That it could contribute to a very strong mobilisation is possible. The danger is what happens were it to stop, so we shouldn’t bet everything on that, but it could be an element.’
What precisely Rennes would need to mobilise towards was made clear by the manager: ‘There are lots of things that need to be addressed. The situation is not good, not bright, we must not deny it […] the diagnosis is clear and we have to face the reality, which is that we are fighting with teams like Toulouse and Clermont.’
With that statement, Stéphan admitted that the stark ‘reality’ for Rennes was that they have found themselves in a relegation battle among fellow strugglers, such as their opponent for tomorrow, bottom-placed Clermont.
