Football Season Guide

Strasbourg have been to hell and back since their last Ligue 1 campaign in 2007-8, when they finished second bottom of the standings and lost 21 games. The squad has been relegated to the amateur ranks due to financial problems but has now gotten over these troubles and won successive promotions to earn their place back in France’s top flight. Last term, they claimed the Ligue 2 title, storming through the closing weeks of the season in a tight race for top spot. Their main strength was their offensive power, yet over the close season head coach Thierry Laurey, an arch pragmatist, has decided to release top scorer Khalid Boutaib. Meanwhile, Baptiste Guillaume, who was his regular strike partner, has also departed the scene. Laurent Dos Santos and Felipe Saad, regulars in the title winning defence, have also both been allowed to leave. The players who have been drafted into the squad are mostly gambles. Idriss Saadi will bear much of the scoring burden after a dire spell with Cardiff, while Nuno da Costa, the other key offensive reinforcement, spent much of the second half of the season injured with Valenciennes and has never played at this level before. Jonas Martin’s arrival from Real Betis appears a more sure fire piece of business, while the capture of experienced midfielder Benjamin Corgnet from Saint-Etienne seems a good one. Athletic right-back Kenny Lala has signed from Lens after impressing for several seasons in Ligue 2, while Bingoura Kamara, a highly rated 20-year-old goalkeeper, will get his first chance to impress in France’s top flight. Laurey himself has experience in Ligue 1, going very close to keeping Gazelec Ajaccio safe after their similarly incredible rise to prominence. Strasbourg, though, appear better equipped to avoid the drop and they will be hopeful that they can do so. Having kept most of their players from last season, including dead-ball specialist Dimitri Lienard, they look in reasonable shape.