Football Season Guide

It seems wrong that a club the size of Lens is once again preparing for a campaign in Ligue 2 but the northern outfit, French champions in 1998, are doing just that. Indeed, Lens are heading into their third straight season in the second tier, and their sixth in seven years. They agonisingly missed out on promotion on the final day of last season and, while the fans will again turn out in huge numbers at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis and coach Alain Casanova remains in place, there have been changes. Behind the scenes there is a new director general in Arnaud Pouille, and the playing staff has seen comings and goings, even if stars of last season like the English-born midfielder John Bostock and the winger Abdellah Zoubir are still there whilst talented young defender Jean-Kevin Duverne has not taken up an offer to join local rivals Lille in Ligue 1. Leading the line to the exit door were the versatile defender Kenny Lala and the midfielder Benjamin Bourigeaud, who will both be playing in the top flight in the new campaign. Egyptian full-back Karim Hafez has gone too, with Lens unable to pay the asking price to Belgian side Lierse to make his loan move permanent. "Signing Karim was a priority for us. Signing players on loan is fine but they play for you for one year and they don't belong to you. In Ligue 2, we couldn't envisage signing a left-back for the price his club wanted," said sporting director Jocelyn Blanchard. There in lies the problem for Les Sang et Or, who are determined to get back into the top flight this time. They have largely looked abroad for reinforcements, with Christos Tasoulis joining on loan from Panionios in Greece to replace Hafez and Alvaro Lemos of Celta Vigo another loan arrival in defence. In attack, Mouaad Madri has performed well at this level in the past for AC Ajaccio but Ivan Lendric is more of an unknown quantity. The former Croatian under-21 cap joined from Zeljeznicar after scoring lots of goals in Bosnia last season. He has also played in Belgium, Austria, Slovenia, Moldova and Greece. Can he get the goals to fire them back up?