Football Season Guide

Ambitious Le Havre AC closed the past season on the 6th standing, 9 points away from second-placed Racing Club de Lens, who eventually achieved promotion to the Ligue 1. Led by charismatic coach Paul Le Guen, 3 times winner of the French title at the helm of Olympique Lyonnais, could actually hold some regrets for the way things ended as they had to face a dip of form in a crucial time in the season when Kadewere, the top scorer of the Ligue 2, had to miss out through injury between January and February. The summer transfer campaign saw Le Havre losing several of the protagonists of the past season. In particular, Kadewere, who had scored 20 goals and served 4 assists in 24 games played, departed for Olympique Lyonnais and will be highly missed. Moreover, regular right-back Bese, holding midfielder Gueye and right midfielder Ebimbe also left for pastures new. No players were signed so far in order to replace the former top scorer as Thiare, sometimes his deputy and sometimes his partner up-front in the past campaign and capable of 8 goals and 2 assists in 26 games, will be given the full responsibility of the attack. 18-year-old Dzabana, who scored 2 in the past season, should gain more playing opportunities all along the campaign. As for the other new arrivals, Mbemba could represent an alternative as a holding midfielder after a season at Reims during which he never played, while Cornette and promising Alioui could be given playing time as wingers, right and left respectively. Last but not least, Gibaud should be adding some experience to a relatively young defence, which nevertheless conceded only 25 goals in the past season - the fourth best in Ligue 2.