Football Season Guide

Yet again Auxerre head into a season hoping for a fresh start with the Burgundy club - French champions in 1996 - preparing for an eighth consecutive season in the second tier. They finished a lowly 15th last season, but before the campaign was over they had announced the appointment of a new coach. Jean-Marc Furlan arrives with expectations high considering his pedigree. Furlan was an expert in winning promotion from Ligue 2 during a long stint in charge at Troyes - he just couldn't keep them up. He then went to Brest and led the Brittany side to promotion last season, but has opted to stay in Ligue 2 to try to repeat the feat at the Stade Abbe-Deschamps. Doing so will not be easy at a club who have remained a shadow of their old selves under Chinese ownership. Auxerre have not finished higher than eighth since being relegated back in 2012, and their chances of competing towards the top of the table this time are hardly helped by the loss of their star player Philippoteaux in the summer. Attacking midfielder has deservedly been offered another chance in the top flight with Nimes, even if he claims it was not his intention to leave three years before his contract expired. "This is a wonderful club in terms of structure and infrastructure, but what has surprised me is that I have to completely rebuild the squad. I had not imagined such a big rebuilding job. We have to reconstruct everything and the start of the season is going to come around far too quickly," Furlan said. Full-back Quentin Bernard has followed Furlan to Auxerre from Brest, but other departures include veteran centre-back Mickael Tacalfred joining Beziers and Argentine midfielder Daniel Mancini returning to parent club Bordeaux.