RENNES are three points clear in Ligue 1 after three matches of the new season and nobody saw it coming. Except perhaps Thierry Henry.
Last October, at the beginning of his ill-fated stint as head coach at Monaco, Henry identified Julien Stéphan, then in charge of the Rennes reserve team, as the man he wanted to become his assistant at Stade Louis II. Stéphan, who had never coached at first-team level, was excited by the opportunity, but Rennes president Olivier Létang wanted a hefty sum to compensate for his departure and Monaco were not prepared to pay it. Obliged to swallow his disappointment, Stéphan returned to his day job. Unbeknown to him, another opportunity was waiting just around the corner.
In early December, Létang sacked Sabri Lamouchi as coach, following a return of four wins from Rennes’ opening 15 Ligue 1 games, and promoted Stéphan to take over. The 38-year-old made an immediate impact, leading Rennes to five successive wins and guiding them into the knockout phase of the Europa League for the first time in the Breton club’s history. Rennes’ league form levelled off in the second half of the season and they eventually finished 10th, but the last four months of the campaign would feature some of the most memorable moments the club’s fans had ever experienced.
Arsenal's 3-1 defeat to Rennes is their heaviest defeat in the #UEL / UEFA Cup since September 1982 (2-5 vs. Spartak Moscow).
More than 36 years ago. pic.twitter.com/a05XsqRFg5
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) March 7, 2019
After overcoming a dangerous Real Betis side 6-4 on aggregate in a pulsating Europa League tie, Rennes threatened to pull off a major upset in the round of 16 by beating Arsenal 3-1 in the first leg at an incandescent Roazhon Park. Hatem Ben Arfa, who was allowed to shine by Stéphan after being sidelined by Lamouchi, said the atmosphere had given him “shivers”. Arsenal clawed back the deficit in the return leg, winning 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium, but it remained Rennes’ greatest ever European campaign. And the best was still to come.
A superb 3-2 semi-final win at Lyon took Rennes into the Coupe de France final and they created a sensation at Stade de France by coming from 2-0 down to beat Paris Saint-Germain on penalties, ending a 48-year wait for major silverware. It was, said Stéphan, an “historic” achievement. “David has beaten Goliath,” said goalkeeper Tomáš Koubek.
As the son of Guy Stéphan, faithful lieutenant of France coach Didier Deschamps, Julien Stéphan has coaching in his blood. A willing but limited midfielder in his playing days, he came through the youth ranks at PSG before drifting through the lower leagues and retiring at the early age of 26. He worked as a youth coach at Dreux, Châteauroux and Lorient prior to joining Rennes in 2012, where he worked with a talented crop of players that included a young Ousmane Dembélé. He took charge of the reserves in 2015.
After a top season including April's historic @coupedefrance win , Rennes have extended the contract of manager Julien Stéphan to 2⃣0⃣2⃣2⃣!
@staderennais pic.twitter.com/34KHeHID1B
— Ligue1 English (@Ligue1_ENG) June 3, 2019
Renowned for his rigorousness, tactical flexibility and extensive use of video analysis, Stéphan is an avowed admirer of Pep Guardiola and Maurizio Sarri. He is also an expert man-manager and motivator, who regularly makes use of objects he finds at hand during team talks – a ball, a glass, a fistful of pencils – as metaphors to explain the qualities he wishes to see in his team. (The ball was used to represent Rennes’ ability to bounce back; the glass symbolised the fragility of the team’s momentum; the pencils were used as an illustration of strength in unity.)
“He’s young, but he’s very good tactically, in his analysis of matches and in his communication with players,” said former Rennes captain Benjamin André. “He gives us lots of confidence. He made us realise that we had the qualities to do something and got us back on track at a time when we were full of doubts.”
Inevitably, Rennes’ end-of-season heroics did not go unnoticed. No sooner had Stéphan assembled a winning team than it was dismantled before his eyes, with Koubek (Augsburg), André (Lille), Ben Arfa (free agent), centre-back Mexer (Bordeaux), left-back Ramy Bensebaini (Borussia Mönchengladbach) and winger Ismaïla Sarr (Watford) among those to leave the club over the course of the summer.
With Hamami Traoré and Mbaye Niang granted time off after the Africa Cup of Nations (in addition to Bensebaini and Sarr, who had not yet left the club), Stéphan had to field a scratch XI against PSG in the Trophée des Champions at the beginning of August. But his players, aligned in a new-look 3-5-2 formation, acquitted themselves well, taking an early lead in Shenzhen through Adrien Hunou before eventually going down 2-1.
Eduardo Camavinga’s performance against PSG…
Remember, this kid is only SIXTEEN!
— RouteOneFootball (@RouteOneTweets) August 19, 2019
Happily, Rennes would not have to wait long to claim revenge. Following an impressive 1-0 win away to Michel Der Zakarian’s redoubtable Montpellier side on the season’s opening weekend, Rennes secured a brilliant 2-1 victory over PSG in their first home game. Niang and Romain Del Castillo scored the goals, veteran centre-back Jérémy Morel – a close-season capture from Lyon – marshalled the defence and 16-year-old Angolan midfielder Eduardo Camavinga left recruiters across Europe drooling with a performance of scarcely believable maturity and class.
One of Rennes’ most important pieces of close-season business was securing the signature of Niang on a permanent basis following his spell on loan from Torino last season. The 24-year-old Senegal international scored again last weekend as Rennes won 2-0 at Strasbourg to make it three wins from three games for the first time since 1950.
“It’s true that we lost a lot of players, but we picked up some others and you have to give opportunities to those who stayed,” said Niang, whose strike against Strasbourg was Rennes’ 3,000th Ligue 1 goal. “I was never worried because I knew the coach and the staff had anticipated everything.”
Stéphan will cross the path of another former France and Arsenal great this weekend when his side entertains Patrick Vieira’s Nice on Sunday. Henry, no doubt, will be watching with interest. And so will the rest of Ligue 1.
