Football is often a matter of contrast. The one between the Lyon bench and that of Stade Rennes after the rout suffered by the Rhone (4-1) at Roazhon Park, Sunday, November 7, is one.
Like this fifth place on which the Bretons will be enthroned during the international break, only a month and a half after having grazed the red zone. Because on a canvas as on a field, nothing is ever fixed. And like the painter on his main working tool, only players can modify its contours.
However, it was on a blank board that the Stade Rennes season began last August. The master builder Olivier Létang left the ship a long time ago and the one he had launched, Julian Stéphan, followed by resigning last March, when the season was still in full swing. It is therefore a new duo which took the reins of a Breton workshop in the street. Florian Maurice became sporting director and called Bruno Genesio, with whom he had already worked in Lyon, to seize the bench.
Several tens of millions of euros are released into new brushes including Gaëtan Laborde, Kamaldeen Sulamana and Baptiste Santamaria. But the rendering is messy. The team is struggling in the game and the copy is very pale for a team that has so animated the transfer window. After six days and facing one of the best artists in Ligue 1, Marseille, the Rennais are in distress (2-0 defeat). Bruno Genesio too. “It’s very worrying. My responsibility is essential. I assume. You have to be able to react and raise your head, you must not lock yourself in the negative.”
In this black and white atmosphere, the Rennais will finally put a few touches of color. Without his favorite piston the previous season, Jérémy Doku, who had allowed to dynamite many defenses, the Bretons are reinventing themselves with their recruits. Without stars, but with a clever mix of duty players like Flavien Tait and Benjamin Bourigeaud, surrounding finishers like Kamaldeen Sulemana and Gaëtan Laborde, the first results end up falling. A box against Clermont (6-0) launches the new workshop still in its infancy.
29 – Rennes has gleaned 29 points at home in Ligue 1 since Bruno Génésio made his debut with the club on March 10 (9 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss), which is more than any other team over the period. Roazhon. #SRFCOL pic.twitter.com/FnUtodT5CD
– OptaJean (@OptaJean) November 7, 2021
And then it is the sequence. A victory against PSG validates the offensive work of the Rennes coach. Ideas on the web are asserted and the game takes shape. A series of six games without defeat in the league confirms the good momentum. But the masterpiece was only unveiled this Sunday. Faced with his former mentor, Jean-Michel Aulas, Bruno Génésio kept the best for last. A broad victory and a new status. The workshop is finally recognized and is ready to be exported.