Almost guaranteed to go down to Ligue 2 on Saturday evening on the evening of the 37th day of Ligue 1 after a draw in Lorient (0-0), the Girondins experienced the worst sporting season in their history on the ground. A year marked by twists and decisions which should send the club to L2 for the first time in 30 years. RMC Sport details the reasons for the Bordeaux sporting disaster.
The transfer window fiasco
On the field in Angers during the last decisive match to hope to be able to remain in Ligue 1, only Benoit Costil acted as a survivor of previous seasons. Arrived in July, the sports director Admar Lopes and his president Gérard Lopez made the choice to rebuild a workforce that was in doubt. And Bordeaux has given itself the means to seek players despite a difficult financial context.
Last summer, Bordeaux was the 11th biggest spender in France on the transfer market (8.5 million). The only real satisfaction is undoubtedly Alberth Elis. The Honduran striker (9 goals in 20 L1 games) was injured and missed the entire end of the season. A felt absence and probably no stranger to the club’s pitiful second half of the season. The subsequent recruitment is a big failure. While Junior Onana had made a good start and internally we hoped to make a big capital gain on him at the end of the season by selling him for between 15 and 20 million euros, he was almost never able to play a full game.
The full-backs are the big flop this season. On the right, Timothée Pembélé was still too young to hold the post on his own. On the left, Ricardo Mangas and Gideon Mensah chained mediocre performances. One of the worst purchases of the year in Ligue 1 is called Fransergio, yet recruited as the future boss of the Bordeaux midfielder. The former Bordeaux captain never adapted. He even disappeared during the second half of the season with David Guion before coming out of the hat against Angers with another very disappointing performance. The Girondins have invested 6.5 million in the Brazilian. A fiasco. The Mbaye Niang bet, although successful in April, was not convincing. Despite his talent, Javairo Dilrosun the Dutch international will never have really weighed for his new club.
This winter, Admar Lopes will not have succeeded in changing the situation. The arrivals of Josuha Guilavogui and Marcelo are the main symbols of this. The former Lyonnais never knew how to compensate for Koscielny’s departure and had a string of bad matches. His lack of speed and his difficulties in restarting penalized the club. Despite his undeniable desire to contribute, captain Guilavogui, installed by David Guion, disappointed in midfield as in central defense. Even the impeccable Anel Ahmedhodzic ended up losing ground. Evidence of a team adrift. More than the performance on the field, the attitudes of several players recruited this season in recent days have challenged.
Dismissed executives who were sorely missed
It was the big project of the new management: to reduce the payroll. Last summer many players left free. This winter, Admar Lopes wanted to separate from two key players in the balance of the locker room. Salaries too high, attitudes that no longer appealed internally. The sportsman’s boss quickly told Laurent Koscielny that he was no longer counting on him. The blow is hard to take for the captain of the Girondins who has a conversion clause with the club. An agreement is reached in January, Koscielny becomes ambassador of Bordeaux. In the locker room, the suddenness of this decision and the way it was done shocked several players, especially the old ones. Even if the relationship between the French international and the members of the workforce (especially the youngest) was not always clear, he embodied professionalism and rigor within the pro group.
Another departure, less publicized but capital for the atmosphere of the group, weighed. That of Otavio. The Brazilian midfielder had become a lover of the city. He played 127 games with the Girondins in four and a half seasons. « He was a solar player even when the defeats were linked, says a witness from the locker room. He was always smiling to set the mood, got along with everyone. A real pillar also for the South Americans. His departure hurt a lot. » The club loaned him out with an option to buy to Atletico Mineiro this winter. A departure never compensated.
Another part of the ousted locker room, central defender Paul Baysse. In January the club announces to him that he is sidelined from the pro group and must train with the reserve. He is accused of being the « mole » of the locker room that the management team is looking for. Baysse’s behavior with the reserve remains irreproachable. Following a collective momentum of the players of the group, the former Niçois was reinstated in the professional group two months later. His attitude is praised by all. However, he didn’t have a chance on the pitch.
The catastrophic balance sheets of coaches who did not have all the cards in hand
The huge failure of the new management will have been to entrust the team to Vladimir Petkovic, the former coach of Switzerland, this summer. Renowned for his calm and his interpersonal skills in all his professional experiences, Petkovic never managed to adapt to the Bordeaux environment without ever upsetting his training methods and having tried to shake up his group until his departure at the beginning of February. . “He never intervened during the sessions, confides a source close to the pro group. It was his style but at no time, when we started to sink, was he in the reaction and we continued to bog down. »
Petkovic is not, however, solely responsible for the sporting failure of the start of the season. Physical trainer Antonio Calado is a choice of Admar Lopes. He is not unknown in Ligue 1 since he supported Miguel Cardozo in Nantes in 2019 for three months. The new player performance manager is betting on intensity during the sessions, but many do not consider him « not at the level ». His management of the many returns of the Covid before the historic defeat against Marseille (January 7) has been singled out. While the players remained on a long period of isolation, no specific work was done before reintegrating the players into training. A lack of « cash » and in race volumes that has been felt since the start of the season. According to several sources, the situation has also been tense several times between Calado and Petkovic.
Another case that caused a stir internally, the goalkeeper coach who supported Benoit Costil and Gaëtan Poussin. The former management of the club, however, wanted to separate from Vitor Pereira for « unfitness for work ». A dismissal procedure had even been initiated. The Portuguese coach is suffering from a knee injury which « prevented him from touching the crossbar from 16m50 », we are told. The current sports management has chosen to maintain it with the pros. Relations with number one goalkeeper Benoit Costil remained very fresh until the end of their collaboration. It was Costil who campaigned to bring Grégory Coupet to the Girondins this winter when he was training separately with an individual coach to increase the doses of work, which were too low with Pereira.
David Guion arrived on February 17, without an assistant, to take over from Vladimir Petkovic. The former technician from Reims wanted to put his paw quickly on this team and relied on André Monteiro and Jaroslav Plasil to take the pulse of his group. With 61.54% defeats since his arrival on the Bordeaux bench (only 1 victory in 13 games, only 8 points taken), he is doing even worse than Petkovic. « The players are exhausted, a source told RMC Sport. Adli, Oudin, Kwateng, Costil are worn out. Guion has tried to put his principles in place but the players are focused on their personal cases and are not very receptive to what ‘he proposes. »
Plasil who tried to change things by activating different levers was not heard from throughout the season. The two coaches came up against the constant presence of sports director Admar Lopes in the choice of players lined up over the weekend. According to our information, Lopes has been involved regularly since the start of the season in the Girondins team compositions. Paul Baysse, who rejoined the pro group several weeks ago, never had a chance because the management did not want to see him on the pitch.
A night out, the starting point of the Covid epidemic
This episode marked the beginning of the club’s descent into hell. On December 12, the Girondins won at Troyes in an important match for the rest of the season. The Bordelais had met for a few days at Clairefontaine on an internship to prepare for this meeting. In the days preceding the match, the players go out to a nightclub. Starting point of the cluster. Ten days later, 21 players tested positive. The leaders then tried to postpone the Coupe de France match scheduled for Brest. Without success.
Bordeaux clings to the hope of seeing its meeting against Marseille at the Matmut Atlantique shifted. A capital match for the club which had not lost for 42 years against OM at home. Finally, the match is played. It is January 7, the Girondins lose 1-0 at home in a stadium behind closed doors, decision of the management team not to welcome any supporters for this meeting. Since then, Bordeaux have won only two of their 16 Ligue 1 games played.
The racism affair left its mark on the group
Certainly the period that best reveals the catastrophic season of the Girondins. The Ultramarines, the main group of Girondin supporters, accused Benoit Costil and Laurent Koscielny of being the perpetrators of racist acts within the club. The head-to-head between the international goalkeeper and Ultras spokesperson Florian Brunet at half-time in the match against Montpellier on March 20 left its mark. Since then, the evidence has never been released by the supporters. The internal investigation opened by the club has not yet been followed up. The management has still not expressed itself on this event, except by means of a press release.
The consequences were severe on the professional group. Benoit Costil the first. The former Rennais has been « traumatized » since this episode and has never recovered mentally. After being sidelined because management had announced to the Ultramarines that he would no longer wear the Bordeaux jersey, Costil made his comeback in goal in Nantes on April 24 (5-3 defeat). His replacement Gaëtan Poussin was heavily criticized for his performances and since his return, Benoit Costil has not been decisive.
In the group too, the case of racism has left its mark. Some players didn’t really step up to defend Costil and Koscielny. Although there is no major fracture in the workforce or clans between the players, some tensions could be felt. The group has been bruised for many weeks and the lack of reaction after the defeat against Angers last Sunday in a crucial match proves it. According to our information, no speech, no speech was made. The players returned to Bordeaux in dead silence, exhausted by a more than trying season.