Angers, Petit Poucet who got lost on the way

The poster for the quarter-final of the Coupe de France, Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG) – Angers SCO, Wednesday April 21, is flattering. But the gap has never been so large between the ogre of the championship, who touches his dream of European coronation, and the Petit Poucet de l’Ouest, whose ambition has always been limited to staying in the elite. since his return to Ligue 1 in 2015.

Angers SCO is on its way to completing its sixth straight season within the elite of French football. Despite an ongoing series worthy of a relegation (only one victory in ten games), the team did what it took in the dead of winter to avoid any unpleasant surprises. With a total of 41 points five days from the end of the Ligue 1 championship, there is no more reason to tremble. Nor to vibrate, for that matter.

It is in this context that the coach, Stéphane Moulin, announced, on March 26, his departure at the end of the season. More than a symbol, it is a rupture for the club and the man: ten years of common life. An eternity in football, a record in Europe, jointly held with Diego Simeone, the Argentine coach of Atlético de Madrid. The epilogue above all of an endless tumble for Angers SCO, which sees leaving, one by one, all those who have made it successful in recent years.

“It’s a global reflection, in which you have to have properly measured everything that has already been achieved and everything that will have difficulty in being. We had a very difficult season, because of the context, because of everything that has happened within the club ”, explained Stéphane Moulin. What he spoke with lip service, sitting next to its president, Saïd Chabane, is the storm that has been blowing over the club since February 5, 2020 and the latter’s indictment for sexual assault.

The financial windfall of transfers

Four young women – mostly club employees – filed a complaint. The investigation has still not been concluded, but the prospect of an upcoming referral to the criminal court weighs heavily on the atmosphere within the club. And, by extension, on the Cosnelle charcuterie group, chaired by Mr. Chabane.

Read also The president of Angers SCO indicted for sexual assault

One month after the president’s police custody, on March 10, 2020, the general manager, Olivier Pickeu, was brutally dismissed and asked to leave the Baumette training center without delay. The reasons for this rupture are still mysterious to this day, the labor tribunals having sent the parties back to back on April 7.

But between this former midfielder, at the club since 2006, and the president who arrived in 2011, relations were notoriously bad. Saïd Chabane found it increasingly difficult to see the club’s success being attributed to the Pickeu-Moulin duo. In particular their ability to attract promising players, followed by juicy transfers.

A master stroke, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, paid 1.6 million euros in 2018 to Arsenal, had thus been sold to Lyon the following year for 25 million. The club still have defender and international prospect Rayan Aït-Nouri up its sleeve, trained at the club and loaned to English club Wolverhampton in October with a purchase option set at 20 million euros.

This financial windfall has allowed Angers SCO to inflate its budget, from 25 million euros in 2015 to 45 million this season. Olivier Pickeu had negotiated with former president Willy Bernard a percentage of 5% on each transfer. A contractual clause that Mr. Chabane wanted to repeal for a long time, in vain.

An isolated president

Since this thunderclap at the head of the club, the departures follow one another: the former players who have become coaches, Laurent Viaud and Olivier Auriac, have left, and the deputy president, Fabrice Favetto-Bon, appointed in the midst of the crisis in March 2020, has returned the keys five months later. Saïd Chabane finds himself very isolated and takes refuge in cautious silence while waiting for justice to rule on his case.

On March 26, exceptionally seated next to Stéphane Moulin at a press conference, he just blurted out, enigmatic: “At some point, you have to know how to make room for others, who arrive with other projects, other desires. I had said to Stéphane: “As long as I am president, you will be a coach.” Finally, he leaves first. “ And to add: “I can only understand his position, his desire to change something after ten years. Fighting every year ends up wearing out, me included. “ He has repeatedly mentioned the opening of the capital to new investors, without giving any details.

“Saïd Chabane is breaking his toy”, summarizes an observer of the club, while the supporters accuse the president of having fired “A bullet in each foot” with the departures of Olivier Pickeu and Stéphane Moulin. A hypothetical victory against PSG in the Coupe de France will not be enough to erase this impression.

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