A 1-0 defeat at Nice in March left Auxerre in 18th place and fighting valiantly against relegation. Three weeks and three games unbeaten later, AJA were still languishing in the Ligue 1 relegation zone.
Since then, the side have gone a further six games unbeaten, drawing at Marseille and spectacularly thrashing Lyon 4-0 in the sequence, as Jean Fernandez’ side secured their top flight spot for next season. The fear of relegation has been assuaged, but there are questions over how their Ligue 1 status ever came into doubt at all.
Certainly when Auxerre travelled to the Bernabeu to play Real Madrid in the Champions League at the start of the season, they could not have imagined that they could be facing the very real possibility of starting next season alongside the likes of Tours and Clermont, and the fallen giants of days past such as Nantes and Reims in Ligue 2.
Jean Fernandez’ men also went on trips to Amsterdam, Moscow and Milan in their Champions League campaign. It was brief, but spectacular, and few would have thought the French side would fall so far so fast.
In some ways, the writing was on the wall back in those heady autumnal days. Six games into the season, Auxerre still had not picked up their first win, and when they did, it came against Arles-Avignon, who would go on to be the league’s whipping boys, stuck to the bottom of Ligue 1 like glue.
And as they crashed out of the Champions League, Auxerre endured a run of 10 games without a win in all competitions, languishing disappointingly near the foot of the table. But it was to get worse; a further 17-game winless run was to come, which only ended in February.
The absence of Ireneusz Jelen, their powerful Polish forward, was key, as were the injuries suffered to Jean-Pascal Mignot, Delvin Ndinga and Alexandre Licata. But while Auxerre can legitimately point to misfortune on the injury front for their poor fortunes this year, the counter point is that they are too reliant on Jelen and Benoit Pedretti, their midfield creator and joint top scorer with five goals; it was ironic that the club’s best result of the season – the thrashing of Lyon – saw Auxerre score four goals after Jelen had gone off injured.
For Fernandez and co. though the situation is a little more complex than simply injuries to crucial players at inconvenient times; the French league has been a competitive championship this season, although that has come at the expense of quality in places. The top teams pick up fewer points per game than other top European leagues; this means that the gap between the top and the bottom is smaller and the margins between safety and trouble wafer thin. Indeed, 2009 champions Bordeaux have sailed closer to the bottom of the table than the top at points this season.
At the end of last season Auxerre also lost their best passer, the Romanian Daniel Niculae, to Monaco, replacing him with the largely ineffective Anthony Le Tallec (who has scored just once this season).
AJA’s success in the 2009/10 campaign was built upon a stubbornly solid defence, which conceded just 29 goals in Ligue 1. Fernandez has set up his side defensively, built to counter attack. This year, however the coach has watched his charges become ever more profligate, shipping 39 goals at the time of writing, with two games left to play. Though the defence has conceded on a more regular basis, this could have been offset by increased goalscoring, yet Valter Birsa and Denis Oliech have not answered their coach’s call. With a team designed to play a type of cantenaccio, a sliding defence and an absent frontline is a recipe for disaster.
As the season has gone on, Auxerre’s defence has improved, and not coincidentally an upturn in form has come about at the same time as the goals against tally has slowed. Just three conceded in their last six games, and six in the previous 11, have saved AJA’s Ligue 1 status. Just in time, the defence has rediscovered its 2009/10 form.
Question marks still hang over the club’s future however, and uncertainty is the biggest threat to Auxerre ahead of next season.
Jelen has confirmed that he will be leaving in the summer, whilst Pedretti and Cedric Hengbart are both considering their options. Pedretti in particular would be a huge loss, and the AJA captain almost departed last summer before the lure of Champions League football convinced him to stay for another season. And with the future of Jean Fernandez in doubt too, Auxerre may be facing a summer of rebuilding. In an increasingly competitive Ligue 1, the 1996 champions will need to reconstruct intelligently and thoughtfully, or their next campaign may not have such a comfortable ending.
