Football Season Guide

Paris FC started off the past season as promotion candidates and, for a few months, they managed taking the Ligue 2 by storm. However, it did not last long and, in the end, they had to face a major disappointment being eliminated from the playoffs by Grenoble. Coach Girard, deemed the main responsible for such a disaster, was thus sacked after 1 and a half years in charge. Thierry Laurey, the new man at the helm, has been capable of leading both Gazelec Ajaccio and Racing Strasbourg to Ligue 1 promotions in the past decade and these results certainly led an ambitious club like Paris FC to acquire his own services. Paris were denied any transfer activity until the end of June and this certainly affected their summer campaign so far. In fact, none of the new arrivals is hair-raising. Midfielder/centre-back Bernauer could represent a promising back-up while Demoncy, who has a limited Ligue 2 experience, though, could be given relevant playing time in the midfield. As for 23-year-old Alfarela, he had a great past season in Championnat National, where he scored 7 goals and assisted 7 times, but is a non-entity among the professionals. On the other hand, Paris lost two major players in Abdi, a left-back/winger and their top scorer for the past campaign with 9 goals, and Nomenjanahary, a versatile midfielder often acting as playmaker, whose past season was plagued by injuries. With 53 goals scored, last season Paris lacked a prolific striker as Fadiga was injured most of the campaign and Caddy still lacked the needed experience. More will be expected from them this time around and it would not be surprising if a new addition had to be made. Having conceded just 37 goals, Paris held one of the best defences of the league and there should be no reason for a change but they might need some strengthening also in that department as Paro and Bamba will be unavailable in the initial weeks.