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Jonas
Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise
Personally I discovered AJ Auxerre (translated Auxerre Youth Association) in the 2002/2003 season due to their awesome Kappa kits sponsored by PlayStation. I mean, which 13-year-old wouldn't dig that? I quickly figured out that they had a half decent side too and were playing in the Champions League. Phillippe Mexès, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Khalilou Fadiga, Olivier Kapo, Teemu Tainio, Amdy Faye, Benjani and last but not least Djibril Cissé were all part of that Auxerre team that I have had a soft spot for ever since.
Despite hailing from a town of only 40.000 inhabitants in the Burgundy region of France, famous for it's wine production, Auxerre have enjoyed unprecedented success as a club. Similar to that of Villarreal in La Liga. It wasn't until the appointment of Guy Roux in 1961 that Auxerre would start making a name for themselves however. Roux remained in charge for the next 44 years, eventually signing off in June 2005 having revolutionised the club; their Ligue 1 debut came in July 1980, having been beaten in the previous season's French Cup final.
Roux's team reached their peak with a league and cup double in 1995/96, a side featuring the likes of Laurent Blanc, Lionel Charbonnier and Sabri Lamouchi reaching the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals the following season; they also got to the UEFA Cup semi-finals in 1992/93 and the quarter-finals in 2004/05, though the coach's abmbitions famously never rose above "securing our top-flight spot".
Having finished 3rd in the 2009/2010 season and qualifying for the Champions League group stages for a third time, the following season included both ties against the likes of Real Madrid and AC Milan and relegation battle on home soil. Auxerre eventually finished 9th - only five points from relegation in an exceptionally tight season; Bordeaux finishing 7th with 51 points - Monaco getting relegated on 44 points. One year later Auxerre's 32-year run in Ligue 1 came to an end as they finished rock bottom.
Auxerre have since struggled to adapt to life in Ligue 2 only managing to finish 9th and 16th. Can the club with one of France's finest academies producing players like Éric Cantona, Mexès, Cissé, Abou Diaby, Bacary Sagna, Mohamed Sissoko, Yaya Sanogo and Younes Kaboul rise again?
SBR
Jonas
The team:
Not exactly a side comparable to the good old days, eh. The financial situation at the club isn't the best as there is nothing to spend on the transfer market and I'm already overspending on wages. On loan striker Cheick Diarra from Rennes would probably do the trick in Ligue 2, but he doesn't justify the £8,250 p/w he's getting paid so I'll terminate his loan deal. That goes for Chérif and Mbombo as well as they won't be first team regulars. Looking to sign a new left back, centre back, midfielder and a striker up front.
For now I'd say Puygrenier, Gragnic, Äit Ben Idir and Sammaritano (my own Valbuena) are the key players of the side.
The most promising youngsters:
It's not Sagna, Diaby, Sanogo or Cissé class but something to work with at least.
Dan
Jonas
Cool! Still remember him nutmegging Vieira and blasting it past Seaman (video) in their 2-1 win at Highbury. Just too bad his career never really took off after leaving AJA.
Cheers.
Johno
Jonas
First off the transfers...
Not too disappointed that we actually managed to sign two players for money given the fact that we didn't have any to start with. Julian Viale's £72k move to Le Havre made sure of that. A decent player but I needed the money and got someone better instead:
If he doesn't go on and completely rape the league then I don't know...
Whatever happened to this guy? Anyhow, he'll do good for my midfield. Unfortunately you're only allowed to sign five players on loan per season in Ligue 2, so he'll be my last loan deal as he's the fifth. A bit stupid since I terminated the other four deals.
We also invited a couple of guys for trials who I'll be following closely for the next months.
Friendlies
New star man Senghor got injured against Moulin and will be out for 2 weeks, meaning he will miss out on the league premier against Le Havre. Other than that it's been a good pre season and my assistant's made sure the players are starting to get familiar with the 4-2-3-1 tactic I'll be using.
SBR
Jonas
Hope so! He certainly have the attributes for it.
DP91
Johno
Franck
Jonas
Thanks mate! Yeah, I've alwayd liked a challenge on FM. Contre le football moderne!
Cheers. Hope so!
I do indeed have that, yeah. Impossible not to say his name out loud as Gordon Kaye's Rene from Allo Allo.
Jamie3
Jonas
I've decided I'll try my best to give you guys a month-to-month update on how I am progressing, though I'm sure there will be a random update every now and then too.
The media has tipped us to end 8th but as I aim much higher than that, the league opener win against Le Havre was particularly pleasing. Even more so given the fact that Serigne Diouck proved to be a superb replacement in countryman Senghor's absence scoring two goals on his debut. Managed to pick up three consecutive wins in the following games before we got hit with another injury blow as my only natural left back Karim Djellabi picked up an ankle injury, sidelining him for five weeks. We then suffered our first defeat of the season as captain Sebastien Puygrenier decided to cock things up on the score 1-1 by getting sent off. It was back to winning ways in Coupe de la Ligue three days later as Diouck continued his fine form by netting a hat-trick.
The month of August ended in this spectacular comeback win.
How they were even up 2-0 I still don't know...
Top 10 Ligue 2 after five games - so far so good. Would have been topping the league had it not been for Puygrenier's sending off at Dijon, I'm sure of it.
As if the youth facilities weren't already good enough, they are now going to be among the best in the country thanks to this. Financially the state of the club's finances will tell at the end of the season however, as we're currently overspending on wages too. But heck, I couldn't resist increasing the level of our youth facilities.
Johno
Bastard \o/ I wonder how many t-shirt with his name will sell?
Dan
Jonas
I guess they didn't really have choice but to grant it as the club's philosophy is to give youth the chance.
Cheers! New update on the way as we speak.
Jonas
A slightly less hectic month in terms of action on the pitch.
We lost two points away to Troyes in an extremely disappointing manner as they equalised in the 94th minute through Ghislain Gimbert. In an evenly matched contest up until half time against league leaders Ajaccio we once again ruined it for ourselves by getting a man sent off, this time Kemokho Cissokho. The red card clearly hurt us as on-loan midfielder Benoît Cheyrou clinched the win for the visitors early in the second half. Game over. We immediately bounced back to end the month with two consecutive wins against bottom placed Angers and Arles-Avignon. André Senghor netted in both games - for the first time in about a month - and looks to be on form.
Interesting draw in the Coupe de la Ligue. Our first test against a Ligue 1 side and I actually think we stand a chance.
This popped up as Laurent Blanc selected his France side. We're looking to top that list in a couple of years time!
Three points behind the Corsicans due to that unnecessary home defeat. Time to take the lead in the coming month.
Johno
Jonas
First match of the month after the international break and boy, what an encounter it proved to be.
Very happy with the comeback to avoid a defeat, not too happy with our defending and us getting another man sent off yet again.
Despite not winning in the following game against Nancy as we continued our bad habit of conceding first, we extended our unbeaten streak to five games as Nîmes were beaten 2-1 thanks to a injury time winner for Serigne Diouck.
We then faced our biggest test as of yet. Ligue 1 side Toulouse at home in the Coupe de la Ligue. Surprisingly Le TFC proved to be no test as we beat them 2-0 quite comfortably.
A good, solid 2-0 win against 5th placed Brest concludes the month of October and makes sure we're still in the race for the Ligue 2 title with five games to go before the winter break.
Allez l'AJA!
Franck
Johno
TheMazzeRunner
Jonas
Apart from the last two games, Lyon in the Coupe de la Ligue and Niort in the league, we really enjoyed a good run of games before the annual winter break. The scoreline in the Lyon game didn't really reflect the action on the pitch, but I guess it was a bit of a morale killer as we were extremely bleak in the final game of the period. And even lost to Cannes in a winter break friendly.
Still topping the league halfway through the season though.
King Eric approves
Always enjoy the start of a new year as the hunt for bosman players begin. To take part this time around though I had to the cancel the loan of Remi Mulumba from Lorient. One of our key players up until now but what don't you sacrifice to find a new gem or two, eh? To compensate a little I brought in a bunch of freebies on trial and ended up signing two of them. Actively tried selling a bunch of fringe players on expiring contracts also without any luck.
Finances gradually went to shit as there's no money in Ligue 2 and I struggled to sell any players.
Johno
Gabor T.
Jonas
A nine game winning streak ain't 'too badly', yeah.
Thanks! Yeah, I'll come back to that later on.
Jonas
A magnificent run of wins both in January/early February and towards the end of the season, combined with our Mourinho-esque ability to get something out of every match (only three losses in the last 20 games) proved to be the main factors behind our fantastic promotion. One that I hadn't seen coming that easily. Nor in such superior fashion. At one point we even had an astonishingly 10 points advantage on the team in second place, but obviously lost that due to the poor run of form halfway through the period. The 4-1 win at home to Tours proved to be the turning point as we from there on and out totally dominated the league.
It's been a good year no doubt about that, but as far next season's concerned I'm not overly confident that the current bunch of players has got what it takes to avoid relegation. Ligue 1 is definitely a whole another level and the side's in need for some quality signings. Thankfully the board agrees on that an even provided for a cash injection of nearly £6M to help improve the shitty finances.
Thats's our owner already. All hail Emmanuel Limido!
Johno