Stade Lavallois will return to Ligue 2 next season, a championship that corresponds a little more to its rank. The objective will be, initially, the maintenance while four teams will be relegated to National. The club won’t want to miss out, explains Tango coach Olivier Frapolli: “we are starting to work on recruitment, the outline of the team. It’s hard to say which place in the standings we’ll be aiming for next year. When you start a championship, you always want to finish as high as possible. And we really want to settle in Ligue 2. We will have to be ambitious and give ourselves the means to get there.“
During his career, Olivier Frapolli never managed to maintain a team in Ligue 2 (a descent and a dismissal with US Orléans). “It’s not the spirit of revenge that drives me but it’s the desire. In France, very often, we stick labels and so I want to show that I can coach in Ligue 2 and be a good Ligue 2 coach. We are judged on the results so we will have to be up to it.“The Varois was designated Sunday, May 8, best coach of National.
Which team next season?
Regarding the general profile of the team that will compete in this Ligue 2 championship, Olivier Frapolli has clear ideas: “we have the same desire as this season, it’s to take players who will fit perfectly into the project, it’s very very important. We don’t want Laval to be just a springboard or passing players. We will keep our methodology and our desire to recruit players who correspond to what we want in terms of “know how to be”. And of course, then, you will need quality players. It is a different recruitment than for the National. It’s not the same market. In Ligue 2, there are fewer free players than in National because the contracts there are often for one season. There is also more competition because a player who has a good season in Ligue 2 is of interest to Ligue 1 clubs. Recruitment is going to take a little longer. Fortunately, we don’t have the same work to do as last season. We will have 7-8 players at most to recruit. At the start (June 20, editor’s note), we know that we will not be complete but we will try to get closer to what we have done this season.“
Stade Lavallois should make its first announcements this week, first concerning contract extensions and then the first recruits, perhaps as early as next week.