It was another rather turbulent season for Auxerre, one that ended in an 11th-place finish that felt like a success after the way they had started out.
The Chinese-owned former French champions had begun the campaign with ambitions of making a push for promotion after appointing former Bordeaux coach Francis Gillot. However, Gillot never managed to make his mark and was sacked in the wake of a 2-1 home defeat against Chateauroux in December, just before the season's halfway stage.
Auxerre lay 17th in the table over the winter break, just one place and two points above the bottom three. But the appointment of Pablo Correa, the Uruguayan former Nancy coach, helped dig them out of a hole.
Correa had an immediate impact, with the Burgundy side going eight league games unbeaten to climb away from trouble. They were safe by March, but then rather stumbled to the finish, winning only one of their last seven outings as they ended the season in 11th place.
A seventh consecutive season in the second tier beckons for what was once France's model provincial club, but Correa's impact has created some optimism, and he has agreed an extension to his contract, keeping him at the Stade Abbe-Deschamps until 2020.
The rebuilding will begin again, but there were enough good players there in the season just finished to maintain a solid spine, from Zacharie Boucher in goal to Mickael Tacalfred in defence, Jordan Adeoti in the middle and Romain Philippoteaux and Mohamed Yattara further forward. Philippoteaux scored 11 goals and was nominated for the Ligue 2 player of the year award.
