Football Season Guide

Grenoble had a successful season by their standards last time out as they comfortably avoided any relegation difficulty and even flirted with the possibility of promotion for a little more than half the season, reaching as high as third in the league prior to the World Cup. Vincent Hognon’s team were typically unspectacular. They were well organised defensively and rarely conceded more than once in a game, even at the end of the season, when they slumped miserable to lost six of their last eight games as they struggled with an injury crisis. This will need to be their strength again this term. Grenoble have had a facelift this summer, with nine players who were all regularly involved in the matchday squads leaving the club. Although many of these were replacement players, starters like Matthias Phaeton, Franck Bambock and Axel Ngando have all departed. Phaeton’s move is particularly interesting given he was in the forward line. Surprisingly, last season’s top scorer Jordan Tell will reportedly be sacked for participating in the Gold Cup with Guadeloupe. It is a bold call given he was their most efficient scorer last season. The attack will be where Grenoble can make gains this season. Bamba Sanyang will be expected to improve after a poor second half to last season, and much will rest on him, while new additions Virgiliu Postolachi and Lenny Joseph will be expected to be more efficient than GF38’s forwards last season. They will have to be: Hognon’s conservative approach will likely throw up few scoring chances. Defensively, Grenoble look solid enough through the middle of the park, both in the rearguard and in midfield, which is still lacking creativity, but there is a concerning lack of depth at full-back, despite the arrival of Mattheo Xantippe from Amiens. Preseason results have been positive, but the opposition have not been strong, and questions remain over Grenoble’s scoring power, even if they remain defensively strong.