Lille, the example to follow?

In the early 2000s, Lille OSC and Stade Rennais FC were playing in the same category. Ten years later, Lille will be celebrating their title as French champions, this Sunday at Villeneuve-d’Ascq, while Rennes will fight to keep their fifth place. Between the Bretons and the Nordists, a “gap has opened”, according to Frédéric Antonetti himself. Is there any way to close it?

Common guidelines

Before the final game of the season, the coach affirms that « Lille is a good example of how things should be done ». It is “a club that managed the double, and was just slightly better than Rennes not so long ago”. In three years, the LOSC have strengthened their infrastructures (training centre, and a new stadium being built). Since the departure of Michel Bastos to Lyon in summer 2009, “they have kept their best players and strengthened their squad”, Antonetti establishes. To keep the best players and bolster the team: this is exactly the policy of Stade Rennes since summer 2010. A strategy inspired by Lille, and illustrated by Yann M’Vila’s contract extension earlier this week. “We have the basics, Frédéric Antonetti assures. What convinced me to extend, is the opportunity to continue the work a bit further after launching so many youngsters. Rennes is a nice house in French football, but there is no shame in admitting that there are five nicer than ours.”

Limits to the comparison

With the sale of talented players and two recent qualifications for the Champions’ League, the LOSC built a comfortable treasure for themselves. Stade Rennes could experience this financial capability when they lost Moussa Sow, the best goal scorer in the current season: “I fought to keep him, but Lille’s room for manoeuver was way bigger than Rennes’”, Frédéric Antonetti notes. And the biggest interrogation, at the Stade Rennais, is to know whether the club, qualified for Europa League, has got a way to keep its best players. While Yann M’Vila signed a new contract, Nicolas Douchez decided to leave.

The other major difference between the teams resides in their style of play. “Lille impressed me with their attacking football, Kader Mangane observes. They try, they dare. To win games, you have to score. This is what made the season difficult for us. They are first and we are fifth. I hope that next year, we will score more goals."

Rennes also has the best Academy in France, a source of young talents that Lille doesn’t really have. But the Rouge et Noir are facing a challenge: how to keep on improving when the last few months showed the limits of the squad?

No consistency without money?

According to Frédéric Antonetti, the issue is to be considered in accountancy terms. “The club is worth between 50 and 60 points, whether it is with me or my predecessors. I ask the following question: how to enter the 60-70 points level? I have got the answer, but I can’t do anything.” Rennes consistently managed between 53 and 61 points over the last seven seasons, while Lille managed to get over the 60 points bar five times in the same time. In other words, in order to compete with Lille, the budget and the salaries would have to be increased: “The more financial means you have, the least uncertainties there is, according to Gérard Houiller’s formula. For example, a goalkeeper worth 10 million euros is expected to help you win 10 points, while for a goalkeeper debuting in Ligue 1, you don’t know what to expect.”

Nicolas Auffray - Le Mensuel de Rennes

- Photos : www.rennes.lemensuel.com