For Auxerre, the 1996 French champions, a season that began with ambitions of promotion back to Ligue 1 proved to be a disaster off the pitch and almost ended in relegation on it. The Burgundy club only secured their survival with a 1-0 win at home to Red Star on the final day - they ended up one place and five points clear of the bottom three. After back-to-back top-half finishes it was a big step backwards for Auxerre, but the calamity behind the scenes was always likely to have a negative impact on the team. Former Romania star Viorel Moldovan was appointed as coach last summer to succeed Jean-Luc Vannuchi but he was sacked in late September after clashing with the board and with the team in the relegation zone having won just one of their first nine games. Former Le Havre and Chateauroux coach Cedric Daury was appointed as his successor and the club stuck by him despite remaining in the relegation zone until February. That was apparently only because a controversial move to bring in Jean-Pierre Papin failed and Daury kept them up thanks to a run that saw them collect seven wins and 24 points from their last 15 matches. Even then they never went higher than 17th. Auxerre's season was perhaps summed up by their Coupe de France run - after beating Saint-Etienne of Ligue 1 in the round of 32 they were eliminated by lower-league Frejus Saint-Raphael in the following round.
Auxerre's biggest problem was up front. They conceded fewer goals (40) than anyone outside the top eight but scored just 28, the lowest tally in the division. They would have been stuck without Gaetan Courtet, who got 10 in the league and 18 in all competitions. Mohamed Yattara also made an important contribution after arriving in January, while Zacharie Boucher is one of the best goalkeepers in the division and Ruben Aguilar's performances at full-back have earned him a move to Ligue 1 with Montpellier. With a new president in Francis Graille arriving just before the end of the season, it could be another turbulent summer at the Stade Abbe-Deschamps.
