Football Season Review

№11: Chateauroux

After an impressive ninth-place finish last season, Chateauroux never came close to matching that performance this time around. Indeed, La Berrichonne spent the whole of an unspectacular campaign between 10th and 16th position. Jean-Luc Vasseur was sacked as coach in early October after a slow start to the season, although it was difficult for him with the club losing loan stars Mouez Hassen and Said Benrahma in the summer and then allowing Senegalese midfielder Sidy Sarr - their top scorer in the previous campaign - to leave for Lorient right at the end of the summer transfer window. Nevertheless, the decision to appoint the little-known Nicolas Usai as coach to succeed Vasseur paid off, with Chateauroux pulling clear from danger on a run of just one defeat in their final nine matches of the campaign, and that loss came away at champions FC Metz. Usai has been rewarded with a contract extension to 2021 and will hope to improve next season. Maxime Barthelme was again influential in what looks set to have been his last campaign at the club, while former Paris Saint-Germain defender-cum-midfielder Gregory Bourillon was their top scorer with eight goals, although five were penalties.


Player of the Season: Maxime Barthelme