Football Season Guide

Following a long and extenuating summer, last August, Annecy were at last told that they would still play in Ligue 2 only a couple of days before the start of the new campaign. Nevertheless, despite an incomplete squad, they did quite well until early December, when they were floating just below the top 10. Then, they found themselves in the middle of a deep crisis, which lasted until the beginning of March, as they won only 1 out of 12 games, thus falling to the bottom 2. Annecy did not lose their minds, though, and managed to steady the ship thanks to memorable 5 wins straight, thus closing the campaign on the 15th place, 5 points above the bottom 4. Safe at last. Coach Laurent Guyot, who led them to promotion from the Championnat National, was once again confirmed at the helm of the team but he will have to deal with a rather renewed squad. In fact, Annecy first decided to give some sense to a bloated squad by trimming it down heavily. The attack was the area that mostly needed a refurbishing and therefore no less than 10 players were let go. Among them, only starting winger Kandil, their top assist man, and striker Camara had left a real mark but they both had to return to their parent clubs. Caddy, who came at odds with the club after a promising start, also returned to Paris. Surprisingly enough, no new offensive player was signed, apart from 19-year-old attacking midfielder Lemina, coming from Paris, and so they are now undermanned up-front. If anything, Ntamack should be given a more relevant role after scoring 9 mostly coming from the bench. They also lost starting Mouanga and back-up Diaz in the heart of the defence and addressed such departures with the arrival of Drouhin, who is a non-entity at this level, though. On the other hand, they hired Kouadio, also a debutant in the Ligue 2, to provide an alternative to Lajugie at right-back.