RC Strasbourg: The sleeping giants

[Linecoigne1998]

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The sleeping giants

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Back in the 1960s, this club was one of the most promising French clubs in world football. They played in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup against the likes of AC Milan and FC Barcelona, beating them both before losing in the quarter-finals against Manchester United. This was in 1965. A year later they won the Coupe de France by winning in the final against champions FC Nantes who at the time were one of the best clubs in France. A Ligue 1 title in 1979, the first and only 1st division title in the club's history, and also a third place finish in 1978. The club was definitely on the rise but unfortunately for them, it wouldn't last. In 1980 the manager Gilbert Gress was controversially sacked and the club went downhill from there. After mediocre results for the next 6 seasons, RC Strasbourg eventually got relegated to Ligue 2. Despite getting promoted again 2 years later, the club wasn't good enough and moved down once again. From 1992 to 2001, the club managed to stay in the French top-flight and was always a mid-table team, which wasn't too bad considering the difficult past few seasons. A series of relegations and promotions and in 2007, Strasbourg got relegated from Ligue 1 for the last time in their history. They then got relegated from Ligue 2 and played in National for 2 seasons before getting liquidated in 2012 due to financial reasons.

Now, RC Strasbourg are back knowing that somewhere inside of them there is success. The success that they had in the 1960s and in the 1970s. I'm the new manager here at Strasbourg, my name is Hugo Letellier and my goal is to take RC Strasbourg to the top, win Ligue 1 and hopefully one day, win the Champions League . RC Strasbourg are back, and other teams should be worried.


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[Linecoigne1998]

Club and squad report
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The club has been on the decline, no secret there. I think I know what to do to get the club back on track and with the amazing facilities that we have, it shouldn't be too hard to get back to Ligue 2 and hope for a better future.

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The squad that I've got available to me isn't the best and will need a lot of work for sure. Maybe we can try to sell some players we won't use but my priority is to develop players through our youth academy and hopefully create some amazing young talents that can take us all the way to the top. Our stadium also has a capacity of 29 000 fans which I know will really help our finances in the long-term. For now, our transfer budget is too small to buy anyone and the money that we'll be getting from those match tickets will really help.

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Our most valuable player for now is Jean-Philippe Sabo, a 27-year old French left-back who came through the Olympique de Marseille academy. Unfortunately for us, he is wanted by Gazélec Ajaccio, a club in Ligue 2. It might be hard for us to keep him here any longer but I think we can do it.

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The rest of the squad is quite good but really small so we might bring in some youngsters through the academy to really have a squad ready for when the season starts in about 3 weeks. In general our team is also very old, which is not something I like to see and I'll definitely change before the season starts.

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Finally, I have two formations in mind that I'll be using throughout pre-season to see which one is most effective with the squad that we've got available for now. As we have a pretty strong squad for the Championnat National, I've mainly designed tactics that will help us getting forward and getting a couple of goals while staying solid at the back. One formation will be a 4-2-3-1 which I can also change to a 4-5-1 and the other will be a 4-1-2-2-1. For now, our primary tactic will be the 4-2-3-1 as the striker that we've got currently is not very accomplished a false 9.

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[Linecoigne1998]

Pre-season review and first league games preview

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Three games, two draws and one win. Looking at it that way, it doesn't sound like we had a great pre-season but considering the teams that we faced I'm very happy. The 7-2 win against Union La Calamine was a great performance but by far our best one was the 2-2 draw against an Olympique Lyonnais side who had put out their best team to face us that day.

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I'm very satisfied with how we played and those performances give me a lot of confidence for the first game of the season in the league against FC Chambly-Thelle.

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Despite conceding quite a few goals during pre-season, I think we are solid defensively and it gives me hope for the first few games of the season. Our games throughout August are games that we can easily win as all the teams we're playing are predicted to finish in the bottom half of the table. As we come into September, games will become tougher and we will have to make sure that we stay focused. I'm excited to get into my first game as the RC Strasbourg manager and I feel confident despite having our first game away from home.

Unfortunately, our finances are not looking the best and our star player Jean-Philippe Sabo requested a transfer to Gazélec Ajaccio as I feared because he wants to play in Ligue 1. The funds that we'll get from his transfer will be useful in the long-term for the club but I'm worried that our side is being tremendously weakened.

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