Football Season Guide

The past campaign undoubtedly was the best Auxerre had in almost a decade as they ended up on the 6th place, just 2 points away from Paris FC and the promotion playoffs. While he can be happy for the results obtained, his boys were a proper scoring machine and eventually held the second-best attack of the Ligue 2 with 64 goals, coach Furlan must have felt a bitter taste in his mouth at the end of the season as Auxerre could have actually pushed for a return to the top flight. Furlan was confirmed at the helm for the third season straight and he was given the reins of a squad quite similar to the one he led last season. In fact, Auxerre were not particularly active over the summer, as they limited themselves to signing just 2 players, having equally lost 2 and released some supporting players like Begraoui or Ngando. Left-back Boto was loaned out to Pau FC, where he should be given some precious playing time, after representing merely a back-up for Bernard and enjoying very few opportunities for displaying his skills. Le Bihan, instead, was lured by Dijon FCO after scoring 19 goals in the past season, his personal record, and ending up the second-best striker of the Ligue. Newly-arrived Pellenard did not have many opportunities to shine at Valenciennes recently and he represents a like-for-like alternative for Boto at left-back. On the other hand, winger Perrin had a great season at US Orléans in the Championnat National, where he scored 13 goals and served 9 assists, and could represent a great alternative to now ageing Dugimont, who had a great past campaign. So, Auxerre are still missing a proper replacement for Le Bihan at centre-forward as the likes of Fortuné or Ben Fredj either lack the needed skills or are still too young, but they can still rely on two productive assist-men such as Sakhi and Autret.