The defeat against Rennes (4-2) on Sunday definitively condemned the SCO to play in Ligue 2 next season.
Such an outcome was not the shadow of a doubt, it is now official. Last in Ligue 1 with 14 meager points in 32 matches played, Angers is certain to evolve on the lower level next year, after its new defeat against Rennes, Sunday April 30. A sad epilogue for the SCO, eight years after their rise, at the end of a nightmarish 2022-23 season from start to finish, which saw them break the record of defeats in a row (13) in the history of the championship . Back on a black season in six points.
Summer 2022: light transfer window and aborted takeover
Easily maintained (14th) despite an end to the 2021-22 season in free fall (three wins in the last 17 days), Angers attacks this exercise in the dark. This marks the end of a long cycle: true ambassadors of the “Angevin slab”, the thirty-year-old executives Thomas Mangani, Ismaël Traoré or Romain Thomas are not extended. Other elements with high market value, such as Angelo Fulgini and Mohamed-Ali Cho, are also sold, without the cash accumulated being fully reinjected to strengthen the team.
Recruitment, a mixture of young shoots from Ligue 2 or the Premier League, and defectors from not very upscale championships (Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia), does not provide much certainty. To make matters worse, President Saïd Chabane announces that the club will be up for sale at the start of the summer, before retracting, for lack of a buyer, in August.
November 24, 2022: Gérald Baticle cannot resist the disastrous start to the season
Summer fears are confirmed and Angers misses its start to the season (11 defeats in 15 games). While the world of football has its eyes riveted on the World Cup in Qatar, Gérald Baticle has landed from his coaching position. The situation is not yet hopeless, since the SCO, eight points, is only five lengths behind the first non-relegation player and has a month to perk up before the resumption of the championship. To replace Baticle, Saïd Chabane appoints Abdel Bouhazama, until then director of the training center.
February 1, 2023: 13 defeats in a row, a record
Without any experience on a professional bench, Abdel Bouhazama did not reverse the trend and chained poor performances. Worse, on the evening of a new setback in stoppage time against Ajaccio, a direct competitor (1-2), his club made history and broke the record for consecutive defeats (13).
This infernal spiral will hardly be softened the following week with a draw in Lorient (0-0), but the damage is done. The laughingstock of Ligue 1, the SCO has “already a foot in Ligue 2”according to his coach, even though he has 17 games left to play.
March 7, 2023: Abdel Bouhazama resigns after an inappropriate chat
The SCO has not finished with its Way of the Cross and is bogged down behind the scenes. Two days after yet another defeat – the 20th in 26 games – in Montpellier (0-5), his new coach is giving up. Beyond the new road exit on the ground, the coach is singled out after inappropriate remarks during a chat. “We have all touched girls before”he expresses in front of his locker room to defend Ilyes Chetti, player accused of sexual assault but aligned in the Hérault (he will be sentenced, a month later, to four months in prison suspended).
The club categorically denies these remarks at first, before recognizing them and recording the departure of Bouhazama “din the face of media pressure and to preserve the club’s image”.
March 29, 2023: targeted by court cases, President Chabane in turn resigns
Unable to win a single match since September and mocked by his own supporters, Angers continues to hit rock bottom behind the scenes. Its president Saïd Chabane, at the helm since 2011, announces his resignation and hands over his post to his son, Romain. A few days later, on April 4, he was taken into police custody for money laundering in an organized gang and illegal exercise of the profession of agent. Two searches had already been carried out at the club, in June 2022 and January 2023.
Pending the outcome of this case – he will be summoned to the Bobigny court on June 7 to set the date for his trial – Saïd Chabane is also accused of sexual assault by six women. Indicted in February 2020 for facts he denies, the former president of the SCO will be tried on June 14.
April 28, 2023: Rennes endorses certain relegation
Despite a slight upturn after the departure of Bouhazama, with a victory – the first in 21 matches – against Lille (1-0), Angers did not escape the demotion that was promised to them. With 18 points behind the first non-relegation player with five games remaining, the SCO is mathematically certain to play in Ligue 2 next year. Before going down, a final challenge presents itself to the new coach Alexandre Dujeux: to grab more than three points in the last five six games, so as not to present the lowest total over a season, held by Lens in 1988-89 (17 units). We have had more exciting challenges.