Football Season Guide

Le Havre are targeting a sustained promotion push in what will be their ninth consecutive season in the second tier but French football's oldest club have undergone something of an overhaul to their squad over the close season. After finishing an underwhelming 8th in the last campaign, the Normandy outfit have nevertheless kept faith in coach Oswald Tanchot and they must hope he can work successfully with a new-look group of players. Long renowned for their ability to produce exciting youngsters, it was an academy product who was their star man last season in left-back Ferland Mendy. However, he has been sold to Ligue 1 giants Olympique Lyonnais for an initial fee reported to be around €5 million. In addition, centre-back and skipper Steven Fortes has joined Toulouse and goalkeeper Fabien Farnolle has left for Turkey. That means the defence, which was the best in the division last season, has been broken up. Mali goalkeeper Oumar Sissoko, Burkina Faso left-back Yacouba Coulibaly and Baba Traore of Auxerre have all come in to reinforce that area. Meanwhile, Central African Republic international Amos Youga will add a new dimension to a midfield which has kept, crucially, the trio of Alexandre Bonnet, Jean-Pascal Fontaine and the creator Zinedine Ferhat. It was in attack that the HAC struggled last season but Mathieu Duhamel and Ghislain Gimbert have gone so fresh faces have arrived in Bevic Moussiti-Oko, a Congolese forward who was playing in the third tier, and Lyon prospect Jean-Philippe Mateta, signed on loan. "We will use what happened last season to try to do better. We have learnt from our errors so we will try not to repeat them," said the goalkeeper Yohann Thuram. "Among the players, everyone has the same thing in mind: getting back among the elite and playing in Ligue 1. But it is going to be a long season. Lots of teams have promotion as their ambition, and when you look at the way it has finished the last two seasons, it is always very tight."