Le Havre came into this season eager to win promotion after missing out in the last campaign by virtue of having scored two fewer goals than FC Metz, who finished third. However, French football's oldest club failed to build on a promising start that saw them win their opening two matches and were seventh at the end of September when American coach Bob Bradley announced he was leaving for English Premier League side Swansea City. His assistant Oswald Tanchot was promoted to replace him and started well, with four wins from his first five matches at the helm. Le Havre sat in third place in mid-November. But a run of 10 games without a win saw them plummet down to 14th by early February, killing off their top-three hopes. The HAC improved after that and two big wins to end the campaign (4-0 at Tours and 4-1 against Orleans) saw them finish in eighth place. Nevertheless, it was their worst showing in three years and they came in 12 points adrift of the podium.
The Normandy side ultimately paid the price for not suitably replacing Lys Mousset, the exciting young striker who was sold to Premier League side Bournemouth last summer after netting 14 league goals in the promotion near-miss. Indeed, without him Le Havre scored 13 fewer goals, with only the bottom two having a worst record in front of goal. That undermined a defence that was the best in the division with just 31 conceded. Mathieu Duhamel was their joint top scorer with eight league goals despite being frozen out and not featuring after the end of January. Alexandre Bonnet and Jean-Pascal Fontaine were influential as ever and Ferland Mendy is destined for a higher level after a fine season at left-back. Zinedine Ferhat also starred after being brought in from his native Algeria last summer, providing three goals and eight assists.
