Football Season Guide

For the first time in four seasons, Nancy will play Ligue 1 football, and once again it will be Pablo Correa who leads the Lorraine club into the top flight. The Uruguayan has vast experience at the helm of the Stade Marcel Picot club, having been their coach for much of the last 15 seasons. He is therefore someone who knows what it takes to survive at the top level. Nancy won their place at the top table thanks to an outstanding season in Ligue 2, in which they emerged as champions. So far, Correa has felt little need to perform dramatic surgery on his squad. He has not lost any of the players who started regularly last term, although promising young midfielder Arnaud Lusamba – a player capable of finding the net from the midfield - has gone to Nice. Nancy’s strengthening process has largely taken place up front, where they have signed Christophe Mandanne, who impressed with Guingamp in Ligue 1 a couple of seasons ago before moving to the Gulf. Additionally, Anthony Koura, so prolific in the second flight with Nimes, has joined up. Nimes beat off Marseille to win Koura’s signature, so his arrival has been taken as quite a coup. With Maurice Dale and veteran Youssouf Hadji also present, there should be no shortage of scoring power, which is expected to be at least of a mid-table standard. In the heart of the midfield, Youssef Ait Bennasser will have a good deal of expectation placed upon him after a summer move to Monaco which has seen him loaned back. The middle of the pitch will be expected to be little more than solid for Nancy in regular play, with a 4-3-3 favoured last season. Much of the scoring is expected to be left to the strikers with more defensive players in this cohort. Benoit Pedretti will offer experience and much of the creativity but at 35 must prove he’s still capable at this level. In the rearguard, youngster Clement Lenglet is again the keystone, but there is plenty of experience around him, and most crucially beside him, in the form of Mickael Chretien. Physically, this area of the side should be OK, but technically they are perhaps lacking a little. In goal, Guy Rolland Ndy Assembe will vie with new signing Sergey Chernik to start.