Football Season Guide

Having just celebrated the 20th anniversary since the first and only time they became French champions in 1998, in the current campaign Racing Club de Lens will aim at doing better than the past season, when they had to content themselves with a mere salvation in the Ligue 2. First of all, they had to find themselves a new gaffer as none of the three coaches who led the team in the past campaign deserved being called back. The choice of the management fell on Philippe Montanier, who spent the past season on the dole, after being sacked from Newcastle United, having failed to lead the Magpies back to the Premier League. In fact, the marriage between the coach and Lens should have originally taken place back in 2016, had it not been for the arrival of the English offer. Montanier usually adopts a 4-2-3-1 formation, not too differently from his predecessors at the helm of the team. For sure, he will have to deal with a squad completely different from the one that only managed salvation in the past campaign as no less than 11 players already left during the summer while just as many arrived. In particular, the defence was completely renewed with the likes of Frédéric Duplus, Alex Gersbach, William Bianda and Brice Dja Djédjé all departing. The two former regular centre-backs will not be considered either as Dusan Cvetanovic is also expected to quit soon while Jean-Kevin Duverne underwent a serious knee injury and will miss for some time. Therefore, the feeling is that Lens still need to strengthen their defence as the new arrivals, Mehdi Tahrat from Angers, Fabien Centonze from Clermont Foot and Aleksandar Radovanovic from FK Vojvodina do not seem to be sufficient. The midfield lost Abdellah Zoubir, who left for Qarabag FK, and Clément Chantome, whose loan from Stade Rennais came to an end and had to return to his parent club. And they were not properly replaced yet. If nothing else, the experienced Jean-Louis Leca from AC Ajaccio should represent an adequate alternative for Jérémy Vachoux, whose past season was remarkable.