Football Season Guide

Returning to professional football after spending 3 seasons in the Championnat National, Nancy Lorraine started the past campaign off quite positively, remaining in the top 10 until mid-October. Then, they normally faced a set-back and fell on the wrong half of the table, only making the bottom 3 between the end of November and the beginning of December, following a 4-game losing run. Afterwards, even though they kept flirting with the bottom zone almost to the end, they managed to steer away from troubles and finished 14th, 5 points above the playout post. While they had a rather poor attack, they scored 35 goals only, Nancy Lorraine also held the 3rd-worst defence of the league, with 52 goals conceded. At the end of the campaign, charismatic coach Pablo Correa, after obtaining Nancy’s return to the elite, decided that it was time to quit, thus setting an end to a 16-season-long relationship with the club. His place at the helm was eventually taken by seasoned Oswald Tanchot, a safe bet in this category. Living on a limited budget, Nancy had to reduce their expences and so a few fo their most experienced players left, while a bunch of youngsters made the route to Lorraine. In terms of departures, the midfield is the area which was hit the most this summer since starting Bouriaud and Carlier were let go together with back-ups Suljic and Camara. A few midfielders arrived in Bouaoune, Kébé, Coulibaly and Fofana, with the latter being the only one ready for a start, while hoping that Gelin fully recovers from injury and is back to action soon enough. Elsewhere, they lost 3 left-backs, Bourgault, Maouassa and Experience – and a right-back, Bamba - with the sole Ndembe arriving as a free agent. A few strikers left in Orakpo, Ouotro and Sissoko, together with Evans: none of them will be missed but they were not properly replaced either with only Housni coming from Paris Saint Germain youth system.