Even if they do not really know which players they will start the season with, the Girondins de Bordeaux know that they have on the bench a coach accustomed to succeeding in Ligue 2. Their coach David Guion has indeed experienced a rise in Ligue 1, when season 2017/2018, at the head of the Stade de Reims. At the time, it was his first experience as a head coach. And she is successful, with a Ligue 2 title. His team had even set records, winning 28 wins in 38 games and totaling 88 points. No one has done better since.
“The project was not necessarily to go back that year. But he put something in place that worked well”, explains Alexandre Audabram, journalist at France Bleu Champagne-Ardenne, and director of the film “Comme des frères”, which retraces this season. Former director of the training center, David Guion trust young people like the current Bordeaux Rémi Oudin, where the striker Jordan Siebatcheu, who will be his top scorer. And he supervises them with experienced players, like Yunis Abdelhamid, Diego Rigonato, Xavier Chavalerin, or Danilson Da Cruz, his captain. “He relied on him a lot in the locker room, because he needed a very strong relay. He had really made the link between the locker room and him” he explains.
Bordeaux are not as ready as Reims were
So, can David Guion do it again in Bordeaux? The situation is different, of course. Five years ago, he had been able to rely on a full workforce from July. There, given the administrative twists and turns of the Girondins, he will have to rely on a very young team to start, which necessarily complicates the project. And he himself recognizes it. “I am an ambitious coach, I want to return to Ligue 1 with the Girondins, but I am also realistic”, he explained at a press conference on Friday. “I know we need to strengthen, we will do it in the coming weeks. But we have fallen behind. With Reims, from the first days, we were first.”
But for Alexandre Audabram, the Bordeaux coach, also a graduate in mental preparation, could also use these difficulties. “He is someone who knows how to rely on events. That season, he told the players ‘write your story’. There, he will perhaps use everything he has just learned. move to Bordeaux to try to motivate his group.”
A dozen teams contenders for the climb
It also remains to make everyone understand that the task of the Girondins will not be easy. Over the last 10 Ligue 2 seasons, only three times have teams dropped from Ligue 1 moved up immediately (Metz in 2015-2016 and 2018-2019, Troyes in 2016-2017). “It’s a championship that will be very homogeneous this year”, explains Alban, supporter of the Girondins and specialist in Ligue 2, a passion which he regularly shares on Twitter. “I think there are ten contending teams for the rise, with Metz, Paris FC, Sochaux, Caen… And for the others, when we go to play QRM or Rodez, we’re not going to amuse”.
But the first recruitments of Bordeaux, with players who know Ligue 2 well, like Yohan Barbet and Vital N’Simba, give him rather confidence. To see if the Girondins end the transfer window well, and attack their season well.