The window of FC Nantes’ city-centre shop, situated on the edge of the old town, sees six figures in various FCN shirts looking menacingly out at shoppers. The figures in question are Vincent Bessat, Jordan Veretout, Issa Cissokho, Alejandro Bedoya, Lucas Deaux and Papy Djilobodji. Of that collection of players only Bedoya and Deaux remain at the club. Bessat opened his Ligue 1 account for Caen at the weekend, Veretout and Djilobodji have jetted off to England and the trappings of the English Premier League, while Cissokho joined former Nantes winger Serge Gakpé at Genoa in Serie A.
To further emphasise the level of turnover over the summer, not a single player who started Nantes’ weekend loss to Rennes also started the equivalent game less than a year ago in November 2014. Only Bedoya links the two games, having come off the bench on both occasions. This overhaul was evidenced by the fact that young back-up keeper Maxime Dupé wore the captain’s armband, ahead of Lucas Deaux who was possibly sanctioned for his willingness to join Gent, and play Champions League football, at the end of the summer window.
Sunday’s 2-0 derby loss to Rennes gave a stark appraisal of where FCN are at right now. A new group of players trying to coalesce into a cohesive team unit, whereas their opponents seem to be really hitting their stride after a couple of transitional seasons under Philippe Montanier. Moreover, in Paul-Georges Ntep they have a real game-changer: he made a couple of runs that seemed to frighten the life out of the Nantes defence, who were playing together for the first time. It was the French international who finally broke the deadlock in the second half and who should have earned a penalty which was bafflingly not awarded.
The referee was again brought into the spotlight when he brandished a red card to Brazilian Adryan for a challenge-cum-block. Having arrived at the incident with the yellow in his hand, he changed his mind and pocket after seeing a mixture of the Rennes player on the ground and his assistant nearby who may well have offered a different perspective. The red seemed very harsh.
The same cannot be said for Icelandic outpost Kolbienn Sigthorsson who was lucky to pick up just a yellow shortly after for a very poor tackle, then towards the end of the game made a very late, harebrained tackle to ensure Nantes finished with nine men.
New recruits Emiliano Sala and Sigthorsson both lined up in attack, were totally starved of service and couldn’t impose themselves at all. This sense of frustration may well have led to the Icelandic striker’s two moments of ill-discipline in the second half. The diamond midfield has yielded a single goal (Nantes’ other goal was an own-goal) and that system may well be modified ahead of future assignments.
The need for wholesale recruitment was there if only to deal with the outgoings. As well as the aforementioned departures, Kian Hansen returned to Denmark having failed to settle in France, Georges-Kevin Nkoudou joined Marseille, club captain Olivier Veigneau left for Turkey, and Chakur Alhadhur joined Bessat at Caen.
To make up for that loss of personnel, Nantes brought in two Albanians: the experienced Lorik Cana returns to Ligue 1 to shore up the Nantes defence while Emir Lenjani joined on loan from Rennes and has already gone from hero to zero, following up a debut match-winning goal with a red card the following week at Bordeaux. Highly rated midfielder Adrien Thomasson joined from Evian while right back Youssuf Sabaly arrived from PSG on loan.
Last season Nantes’ main issue, to put it lightly, was goal-scoring. They were akin to a man who couldn’t manage to enjoy himself in a house of ill-repute, in terms of goal-scoring. 29 goals last year was the worst in the league; they only found the net more than once on six occasions and only once after the winter break. Worryingly this trend has continued into this season.
This result made it two derby defeats in a row for the Canaris, having been beaten by the same scoreline away at Bordeaux, meaning another miserable weekend for the Nantes faithful. On paper, things do not get much easier with trips to Saint-Etienne and Lille and the visit of PSG sandwiched between. The six corresponding fixtures over the last two seasons have yielded a single point. The outlook appears bleak for FCN.
Nantes have actually done pretty decently in the last two seasons, with two mid-table finishes without really being troubled by relegation issues. Part of the reason for this is the hard graft of their manager, Michel Der Zakarian, who in his first season back took an underachieving bunch of players and dragged them to promotion back to the big-time, before taking that same set of players, relatively green at Ligue 1 level, to a comfortable mid-table finish with notable wins at Marseille, Bordeaux and Rennes. The 2014/15 season saw the effects of a long-mooted transfer embargo come into force, leaving MDZ to play the cards he was dealt, relying on youth to supplement the existing squad. The first half of the season saw Nantes chalk up a remarkable 30 points, all but ensuring survival and insulating them somewhat from any slump in form suffered after the winter break.
This season should be a much bigger challenge for Michel Der Zakarian as he endeavours to galvanise his team complete with so many new faces. In previous years he appeared to create a siege mentality around his side: firstly they were the big beasts in the second tier that other teams would either attempt to frustrate to take a point from or would see as an opportunity to take a big scalp. Then they were a group of second tier players attempting to cut their teeth in Ligue 1. Finally the transfer ban they had fought so hard to avoid deprived them of the opportunity to kick on.
We are only five games into the season and Nantes have seven points and sit a place above Marseille in the standings. Doom and gloom it is not, but given the run of fixtures and how poor and lacklustre Nantes have looked this season, morale is not at its highest at the Beaujoire. What has helped FCN immensely in the last two seasons is their early season form. Without that they will be under pressure to pick up results as the season drags on, which is uncharted territory for Nantes.