Welcome to Stade Rennais FC a Youth Challenge

[leckuno]

The Introduction

Stade Rennais Football Club, commonly referred to as Stade Rennais FC, Stade Rennais, Rennes or simply SRFC, is a French association football club based in Rennes. Competing in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football, the club plays its home matches at the Roazhon Park, located within the city.


Founded in 1901, Stade Rennais are yet to lift the ultimate prize in French football. I don’t think it’s fair to put that down as one of our objectives because the financial power of PSG makes that an almost impossible task.

With a media prediction of an 8th placed finish, I think it’s fair to say that the first season will be one for learning about the club and the players so that we can have a full summer building the squad to challenge for those Europa League places.


Club Vision

Fortunately, the club does not have any particular playing styles that I need to adhere to. Which is a good thing because it means I can play my own style.

The only objective to meet the club culture is to develop players using the club’s youth system. Which should be pretty easy to achieve as that’s one of my own personal objectives, too!

In terms of the 5-year plan I’ve been asked to;

maintain the clubs current global reputation,
maintain the best youth system in the country, and
work within the wage budget.
The current season objectives are to;

reach the second knockout round of the Europa League, and
finish mid-table in the league.


Club Facilities

I’m very lucky to have some fantastic facilities at Stade Rennais, and I cannot wait to get stuck in and taking advantage of them.

The club plays their matches at Roazhon Park. It is a small yet intimidating stadium with the seats virtually on the pitch. Seating 29,194 fans there’s scope to increase this should we bring some success to the club.

In terms of the rest of the facilities, they look like this:

Corporate facilities: Good
Data analysis facilities: Basic
Training facilities: Excellent
Youth facilities: Excellent
Youth recruitment: Adequate
Junior coaching: Good
Overall, considering our status in France, the facilities are great, however, with our board expecting us to develop youth for the first team, we will want to increase our youth facilities and recruitment, as well as our junior coaching. These three things impact the quality of the youth players (newgens) coming through the system.

Finances

The finances are solid, with just over £40m in the bank on day one. The £30m sale of Ismaïla Sarr to Watford filling the coffers.

We are at the limit of our wage budget: £440k per week.

Our scouting budget is a modest £467k per year which affords us the upper tier of European scout packages for both youth and senior players. Looks like I’ll have to send some scouts to South America to uncover any talent there that we can!

We have a kit sponsorship worth £2.2m per season until 2024 and the main sponsorship worth €30m over the next 5 years at £5.25m per season.

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[leckuno]

Goalkeepers

Unfortunately, first-choice keeper Edouard Mendy is injured for the net two to four weeks, so 34-year-old Romain Salin will get the jump in pre-season to prove to me if he has what it takes to challenge him.

Full backs

We have two young options on the left, 22-year-old Souleyman Doumbia who is better defensively and Faitout Maouassa who is a year younger but better offensively. Both players are of equal ability, but Maouassa edges it with better potential.

On the right, Hamari Traoré is unchallenged for his position. I’ve had to call up 16-year-old Guela Doué as cover for his position when he needs a rest. Not an ideal scenario to be in, but we don’t really have any other options as I’ve like to keep the centrebacks fresh for rotation rather than forcing them into my demanding wing-back role.

Central Defenders

Not a position I need to worry about here. I have two great central defenders in Damien Da Silva and Joris Gnagnon, who is on loan from Sevilla.

Defensive midfielders

With Jakob Johansson the main defensive midfielder available to me, he’ll need to keep fit for me as I need him to play as many games back there as he can. I will likely look to replace him next summer. We do have the exciting Eduardo Camavinga who I’d rather was further forward, but if needed he’ll make a good option to drop back.

Central midfielders

Probably the strongest area in terms of cover here. We have Jonas Martin, Clément Grenier and Benjamin Bourigeaud who can all play here. I’ll likely be picking roles for them that will get them involved in the play.

Wingers

The key area to my system will be the wings. It always is. We have four great options out wide, with M’Baye Niang and Flavien Tate fighting it out for the left-wing spot, and Raphinha and Romain Del Castillo fighting it out on the right. It’s a great position for me to be in.

Stikers

While M’Baye Niang can also play upfront, I’ll probably be looking to Adrien Hunou to start in the striker role. He can play as an Advanced Forward or Complete forward, two roles I really like to use. He’s very well rounded and can also play a more demanding Pressing Forward if we need.

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[leckuno]

Transfers Out

We got rid of a few of the older players who's contracts are running out at the end of the season and on higher contracts so it allows us to invest it back into the club. They were also going to be 3rd choice players at best so there is no point in hanging onto them


Transfers In

With only wanting to use youth players I have decided to only sign players 21 and under to make it a bit more interesting and it also playing the long game.

First up we sign Emanuel Vignato from Chievo for £3 million before sending him straight back out on loan to get first team experience.

Second in we bring in 16 year old Naci Unuvar who is an exciting prospect for down the left wing. We sign him from Ajax for £775,000.

We then agreed a pre-contract deal for Matias Arezo from River Plate Montevideo for £1.1 million who will hopefully be ready to make an impact in the first team by the time he joins on 01/01/2021

Finally we brought in Lovoro Majer from Dinamo for £2.8 million who will make the AMC role his own this season and hopefully link the midfield and strikers.

Preseason Results

We had a really good preseason with only losing our first friendly against a team with no real players in Beckham's Inter Miami but everyone was just back so I wasn't concerned as it all picked up nicely after that.

Competition Review

Everything should be pretty achievable here as there is no real pressure since in the league we only really need to be able to achieve mid table.

We are also left with £5.5 million to spend if any other players become available for the future or first team.

August

Not the start I wanted for my first competitive game in charge but PSG are the team we want to overtake at some point and the chance to win a cup straight away is always good.

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[leckuno]

Trophee des Champions
Stade Rennais v Paris Saint-Germain

In all honesty I really didn't expect to win this match on my first try so to only lose 1-0 against the champions is actually ok in my book.

RC Strasbourg v Stade Rennais

A great way to start the season properly as Niang makes his debut in the best possible way with scoring 3 minutes into the game.

Stade Rennais v Toulouse

Our wingers are the difference here as they both score a brace each. If they keep performing like this the results will keep coming and they can be sold for a premium next summer.

AS Saint-Etienne v Stade Rennais

Hunou finally gets on the score sheet as he's the difference as he gets us back in the came after falling behind and then gets his double right after half time which the game fizzles out afterwards.

Transfers

There was one additional piece of transfer business this month where we brought in Joshua Zirkzee on loan from Bayern Munich to try and add a bit more depth to the Strikers.

Europa League Draw

I feel we have a pretty good chance with progressing from this group with our toughest match probably being a trip to Turkey to face Besiktas

League

September

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[leckuno]

Transfers

So with the transfer window slamming shut at the start of the month we dove back into the transfer market to find some more young and exciting players.

We bring in Exequiel Palacios from River Plate for £5.5 million. With 2 caps already for Argentina he's definitely a bargain and will be a key member of our midfield for years to come.

Finally with scouring the transfer list with a couple of hours left of the window I came across Arjen Van Der Heide at SC Heerenveen who was transfer listed for £185k so hopefully that turns out to be a bargain and he can develop at the club.

There was also one final out going as we sold Benjamin Bourigeaud to AS Saint-Etienne for £6.25 million.

Stade Rennais v Angers SCO

We fall behind within the opening 5 minutes and thought we were going to get battered but Nyamsi gets the equaliser which was probably a fair result for the game.

Stade Brestois 29 v Stade Rennais

A really disappointing result here as we were all over Brestois in this game and they scored with their only shot of the match.

Europa League Group I
Feyenoord v Stade Rennais

An excellent game for the neutrals as we get 2 guick fire goals right before half time to take the lead. Camavinga then puts the game beyond reach with his first goal for the club becoming the clubs youngest ever goal scorer.

Stade Rennais v Nimes Olympique

A much better performance in the league as we run out 2-0 winners to take the 3 points.

Olympique de Marseille v Stade Rennais

A fair result for the game here as Marseille were the better team here as our players struggled to deal with the atmosphere at the stadium as they get the goal in the final 5 minutes.

Stade Rennais v SC Amiens

We bounce back straight away with a win. Niang and Raphinha appear to be our star player so far this season as if they don't score then we don't seem to have anybody else to get us any goals.

League

October

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[leckuno]

Europa League Group I
Stade Rennais v Besiktas

One of our two toughest games in this group and the wingers deliver yet again. With the way our strikers are playing we are going to have to invest in January to help out in that area.

Stade Rennais v Dijon FCO

We're brought back down to earth in the league as it was a first half to remember for fans as there were 4 goals. The second half was an absolute stinker though.

Girondins de Bordeaux v Stade Rennais

A much better performance here. We showed great character to pull it straight back after giving away the penalty. Niang was again the man to see us get the 3 points. Keeping him fit is going to be the difference for us this season.

Europa League Group I
FK Kransnodar v Stade Rennais

The trip to Russia was a big game for Zirkzee as he takes his chance and scores an excellent brace in the first half. The second got off to a tricky start and nearly ended in a similar way as Berg had a second goal ruled out for offside in the final minute of the game.

Stade Rennais v Paris Saint-Germain

A game that had so much good luck in it for us also had fair bit of bad luck. We took the lead just after half time thanks to an own goal. Then we took the lead again with 1 minute to go which would normally be enough but not against PSG who managed to score with the final kick of the ball to share the spoils.

League

November

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[leckuno]

OGC Nice v Stade Rennais

Luckily this time its us who grabs another quick goal after falling behind which is enough to grab us a point.

Europa League Group I
Stade Rennais v FK Krasnodar

A much better performance as we run the Russian's riot as they can't cope with Raphinha or Niang cutting in off the wings. This has seen us qualify from the group after only 4 games.

Stade Rennais v Stade de Reims

Hunou finally getting back on the score sheet to prove that we still have a striker at the club who can score a goal once in a blue moon.

AS Monaco v Stade Rennais

The game was really balanced right up until the red card for a terrible challenge on Niang but we take full advantage with 2 quick fire goals in the final 7 minutes to take a big scalp.

Europa League Group I
Stade Rennais v Feyenoord

A nice easy game at home as we get off to a quick start and the game never looked in doubt after Raphinha cut in off the right to score a well placed shot from 20 yards.

League

December

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[leckuno]

Stade Rennais v Lille OSC

What a first half whre there were 6 goals scored. Again though we get the important quick peg back which seems to be coming something of a part of our game. Hunou also getting a very quick brace before Da Cunha makes a goal scoring debut for the club.

Montpellier HSC v Stade Rennais

Yet again the quick peg back happens and its enough to grab us an important point.

Stade Rennais v Lyon

Lyon were just far too good for us today and showed their class and why they are at the top of the table.

Europa League Group I
Besiktas v Stade Rennais

This was always going to be our toughest group match and we are made to work right to the end where Zirkzee comes on with 15 minutes to go and scores the winner with the final kick of the ball.

FC Metz v Stade Rennais

A great way to bounce back from the defeat to Lyon with Zirkzee taking his chance after getting the winner in the last match.

Coupe de la Ligue BKT 4th Round
RC Lens v Stade Rennais

We rotate the squad where possible here to give people some chances but its the current first team players that grab the goals.

Stade Rennais v FC Nantes

Its our first big local rivalry against Nantes and Hunou finally decided to turn up this month as he grabs an excellent hat-trick to get make sure he isn't sold in January

League

January

Youth

Looks like we could have a right gem of a midfielder coming through

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[leckuno]

Coupe de France 9th Round
Stade Rennais v FC Lorient

A nice easy game in the league to get us started and we make it difficult for ourselves by going behind right before half time. I gave the players a booting at half time and they were able to rally and take a good victory

Coupe de la Ligue BKT Qtr Final
PSG v Stade Rennais

The quick reply comes back to haunt us here as PSG peg us back straight away and we never recover after that and get knocked out the cup.

Toulouse v Stade Rennais

An awful game here as we lose to bottom of the table. We need to be doing a lot better in games like this.

Coupe de France 10th Round
Annecy FC v Stade Rennais

We rotate the squad here to give everybody a chance to see what they can do and Vignato takes his chance after his cal back from his loan.

Stade Rennais v AS Saint-Etienne

We bounce back in the league as the first teamers come back into the team and after a rest they blow Saint-Etienne away to give me some confidence back in the team.

Coupe de France 9th Round
Paris FC v Stade Rennais

Again we are able to rotate the squad fully here and we get off to a great start going 2-0 up after 5 minutes before Camavinga scores a belter from 24 yards out.

Transfers Out

There were a number of youth players leave the club who weren't needed and weren't going to get promoted to the first team and we were able to put a 50% sell on clause into most of them. The big deal was Clement Grenier who moved to Tottenham for £33.5 million. He was 29 and on £40k a week. He had also come out and said he wasn't going to sign a new contract when it expired in 2021 so it was time to cash in and help to bring a few more players in.

Transfers In

Wuilker Farinez

We bring in a keeper who at such a young age will walk into the first team and can be there for years to come.We sign him for £2 million from Millonarios.

Armel Bella-Kotchap

The young defender was transfer listed for £6,500,000 from Bouchum so we snapped him up as he will be a key player going forward from next season.

Boubakary Soumare

With Grenier leaving we needed to sign another midfielder so we snap up promising midfielder Soumare from Lille for £10,250,000.

Reinier

With only Majer in the AMC role we decided to sign Reiner from Flamengo for £6.5 million. He will add some more depth in the league and cups so Majer can get a rest.

League

February

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[leckuno]

Angers SCO v Stade Rennais

What a result. Normally when you concede the first goal of the match in the 4th minute of injury time your losing but not us. We are the masters of the quick peg back as we walk away with a very lucky point.

Stade Rennais v Stade Brestois 29

A much better result here as Niang gets both goals with the second coming with the final kick of the ball.

Nimes Olympique v Stade Rennais

A disappointing result here. These are the sort of games we need to be winning to challenging for top spot.

Coupe De France Qtr Final
OGC Nice v Stade Rennais

Its always tough when you concede right before halt time but we pull it together and make them pay in extra time to reach the semi final.

Stade Rennais v Olympique de Marseille

What a win for us and what a game for Zirkzee. He came on at half time and Marseille just couldn't him as he ran riot and get 4 goals in less than 15 minutes.

UEFA Europa League 1st Knockout Round 1st Leg
Maccabi Tel Aviv v Stade Rennais

We really struggled here and were on the back foot for most of it but Majer took his chance well and gives us the advantage going into the home leg.

SC Amiens v Stade Rennais

We did well here to pull it back but again we really need to be winning these games. Is this our lack of experiance starting to show?

UEFA Europa League 1st Knockout Round 2nd Leg
Stade Rennais v Maccabi Tel Aviv

We leave it late her to put the game to bed but we do and march onto the next round and start to pocket some better money from the Europa League.

League

March

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[Sam91]

Always enjoy your stories man, brilliant work so far

 

[leckuno]

Always enjoy your stories man, brilliant work so far

Cheers mate glad your enjoying it

 

[leckuno]

Dijon v Stade Rennais

Tait comes on for the final half hour and makes a massive impact as he scores an excellent brace off the left wing.

Coupe de France Semi Final
Lille OSC v Stade Rennais

A dissapointing result here as we never get going at all and don't trouble the Lille goal much at all over the 90 minutes.

Stade Rennais v Girondins de Bordeaux

A much better result here as the second half is where all the action is as Niang and Hunou get us the 3 points

UEFA Europa League 2nd Knockout Round 1st Leg
AS Roma v Stade Rennais

What a game. We really didn't expect this result traveling to Rome. Going in 1 goal up at half tme wasn't even enough to convince me we'de get the win but the final 15 minutes was a dream. The tie should be over now.

PSG v Stade Rennais

I fully expected this result to be worse as we rested a few players after the Roma game so I'm quite happy with this defeat.

UEFA Europa League 2nd Knockout Round 2nd Leg
Stade Rennais v Roma

A much tougher game in this leg but Majer slots home from the penalty spot on the strike of half time

Stade Rennais v OGC Nice

A great team performance as we get goals from all 3 areas of the park. Its great to see Bella-Kotchap on the scoresheet.

Youth

With March brings the youth intake and we have a decent intake where there are a number of prospects that might make the first team.

We have two key youth players though that I'll be looking to get into the first team over the next couple of seasons.

League

April

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[leckuno]

Stade de Reims v Stade Rennais

A nice start to the month as we keep our hands on 3rd spot.

UEFA Europa League Qtr Final 1st Leg
Stade Rennais v Sevilla

Well I really didn't expect Sevilla to lie down like that after they wen't ahead but what a turn around in the second half. Got to give the lads credit for that.

Stade Rennais v AS Monaco

Was probably fair result as nobody really deserved to take all 3 points here.

UEFA Europa League Qtr Final 2nd Leg
Sevilla v Stade Rennais

A tougher game here but after we got two quick goals in the opening 20 minutes the game was really over as we now meet Manchester United in the Semi Final.

Lille OSC v Stade Rennais

A disappointing result as we just didn't turn up for the second half but we did have to rotate the squad here after the Sevilla game.

Stade Rennais v Montpellier

We bounce back with a good win. Nothing like scoring 2 goals in the matter of a minute.

UEFA Europa League Semi Final 1st Leg
Manchester United v Stade Rennais

A good result here as we keep ourselves in the tie and even give ourselves the advantage going into the second leg.

League

May

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[leckuno]

Olympique Lyon v Stade Rennais

We had to rotate here with the games coming in between the semi finals of the Europa League and we jut weren't strong enough to stop a poor Lyon.

Stade Rennais v Manchester United

We were so close and then it was taken away from us right at the end. It was disappointing but we had a great run in the competition and beat all our expectations.

Stade Rennais v FC Metz

Niang plays an absolute blinder as he finishes off his hat-trick with the winning goal with the final kick of the ball to put us in touching distance of confirming Champions League football.

FC Nantes v Stade Rennais

We play our biggest derby match of the season in the return fixture and we just smash them as they don't turn up at all. This win has also confirmed that we will be playing Champions League football next season.

Stade Rennais v RC Strasbourg

Hunou turns up right at the end of the season to grab another couple of goals. Its also always good seeing one of our young players getting on the score sheet.

League

Budget

Will be interesting to see who we can bring in to improve the squad on this budget but luckily I used up our remaining budget before it was all replaced but those will be announced later.

Takeover

Be interesting to see if this turns into anything concrete so better get our business done quickly.

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[leckuno]

Takeover

Well the takeover finally happened after it dragged on for the whole of June and most of July meaning it caused us to miss out on a few transfer targets but I feel we still did ok out of it. They invested around £40 million into the club finances which was good as they also boosted my transfer budget along with it.

New Stadium

The big news to come out of the takeover though is that they have decided to build a new stadium for the club. Hopefully this won;t bankrupt us though since currently we rent our stadium off the council they will need to get the finances for it from somewhere and hopefully it won't be all loans.

Transfers Out

I've only included the transfers out that went for over £1,000,000. The big 2 deals going out was seeing three of our key players in Hunou, Raphinha and Niang leave the club for a combined £90 million. I didn't necessarily want to do the the deals but it needed to be done for the long term future of the club and allowed us to go after some of the best young players in Europe.

Transfers In

We've properly gone for it this season and spent a total of £183 million in transfers with us only managing it because of paying a small dent of that over the next 3 seasons but hopefully it will all pay off. Before the transfer embargo was put in place we had already secured Cuisance, Solomon, Pellegri and Machado for the first team. Afterwards the board made an offer for Milenkovic which I couldn't cancel for some reason but I'm actually uite happy with that deal as he can double up fr RB as well as Cb. We then also had to replace Niang so Bergwijn can hopefully fill those shoes and help improve the team while he's at it. Sergio Gomez and Haaland were both transfer listed so I jumped straight for them as the deals were too good to pass up, especially the Gomez one. the final big transfer was Hernandez who will be challenging for the France squad by the end of the season I reckon and will be with us for the next few seasons. We also signed another bunch of younger regens who go into the U19 team to start building up some experience.

Starting XI

I'm almost happy with the squad now. The only piece of the puzzle I would like to fix is to bring in a new younger RB as Traore is our oldest starter at 28 but there isn't currently anybody in our price range hopefully that will be our only focus for the transfer window at the end of the season unless somebody pops up on the transfer list before that.

Expectations

Hopefully everything here should be achievable and it will be easier to get into the Champions League as France now has 4 spots in the league up for grab to qualify.

August

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[leckuno]

Champions League Best Placed - Third Round Play off 1st Leg
Club Bugge v Stade Rennais

A nice start to our qualifying campaign as our two local youngsters get us a nice lead before new signing Pellegri scores on his debut.

Olympique de Marseille v Stade Rennais

We get off to a lucky start in the league here as it was always going to be a tough match and to be honest a draw would of been a fair result here but we'll take the 3 points.

Champions League Best Placed - Third Round Play off 2nd Leg
Stade Rennais v Club Bruge

We are really made to work for the draw here. Just lucky we had the 3 goal advantage going into this game.

Stade Rennais v Paris Saint-Germain

With the game coming just 2 days after facing Brugge and players still at the Olympics PSG just played us off the park and there was only ever going to be 1 winner.

Champions League Best Placed Play off 1st Leg
Zenit St. Petersburg v Stade Rennais

Haaland comes into the team for his debut and gets us off to a great start. the goal after half time made things a lot tougher but thankfully local lad Gelin gets the all important second to give us the advantage going into the second leg.

FC Nantes v Stade Rennais

What a win. We get off to a great start with Majer slotting home from 12 yards out. Bergwijn makes a goal scoring debut as well with 2 quick goals. Haaland really showing what he can do in this league with a fantastic 4 goals.

Champions League Best Placed Play off 2nd Leg
Stade Rennais v Zenit St. Petersburg

A really broing game here but we do enough to make it through to the group stages of the champions League.

Stade Rennais v Angers SCO

We rotate the squad a wee bit here and boy Pellegri is showing that its not to be all about Haaland. I wonder how they would do if we played 2 up front.

Champions League

Well if there was ever going to be a group of death then this is it. I think 3rd spot is going to be our aim here with 4th spot being more realistic.

September

 

[Sam91]

Madness in the window!! Great signings. Pellegri and Haaland means you're sorted up top for a good few years!!

 

[leckuno]

Sorry guys lost this save game the other day as the laptop was on the wrong side of me getting some bad news. So new laptop will have to sadly mean a new save

 

[Sam91]

Sorry guys lost this save game the other day as the laptop was on the wrong side of me getting some bad news. So new laptop will have to sadly mean a new save

Shame man but look forward to your next save