STRASBOURG: Fluorescent Baby Blue, Bitch

By: Sam | August 1st, 2007

As the start of the season looms, it’s time for the France Offside to give you an in-depth look at each of the 20 teams vying for Hexagoal. Today, we meet RC Strasbourg, the team that possibly has the ugliest logo of all twenty clubs.

The team: For a side coming up to the top flight, Strasbourg picked up a fair few of decent players for the amount that left. Onto the squad come James Fanchone from Le Mans, Grégory Paisley from Troyes, Rodrigo on loan from Ajaccio, as well as the two flashy ones, Manuel Dos Santos from Monaco and the young Colombian Rentería on loan from Porto. Doing chemin inverse are Gaetan Krebs (Hannover), Tum (Bursaspor) and a few other benchwarmers/reserve team starters.

RCS has got a pair of very dependable goalkeepers to work with, who are Stéphane Cassard the 34-year old Ligue 2 keeper of the year, and Nicolas Puydebois, formerly of Lyon. Strasbourg’s backline, however, is simply very, very poor. Dos Santos and Paisley will carry it as far as they can, but besides them there’s just no Ligue 1-caliber players. Abou Moslem and Habib Bellaïd will probably start as well, but they’ll be no match for the attacking firepower they’re up against (their first game is against Marseille, btw). The midfield, albeit a bit better on paper, has the same problem. Yacine Abdessadki and Pascal Johnasen are two alright wingers, and Guillaume Lacour and Rodrigo mind the middle well enough. No one knows how much of Pascal Camadini we’ll be seeing due to his dwindling fitness level. Up front, James Fanchone will provide valuable Ligue 1 smarts alongside Eric Mouloungui and former Ligue 2 goalpoacher David M’Bodji.

Basically, in a league like this, especially in a season with very good teams involved, this squad’s shit.

The coach: Jean-Marc Furlan, shown the door by Troyes after leading them to relegation last year, got the job at Strasbourg only after Jean-Pierre Papin left them, provoking a fit from the staff. Furlan’s palmarès is not impressive, but to his credit, kinda stable, with stints lasting seven and three years with Libourne and Troyes, respectively. If you ask me? He’ll be the first to get fired.

The stadium: Strasbourg play in the state-of-the-art Stade de la Meinau, a 29,000-seater that holds many a firm. Not always full to the brim, but nonetheless an above-average crowd for an above-average ground. In a pretty bureaucratic city, mind you.

The final say: Relegation, don’t even try it. They can fight to avoid twentieth place.