Montpellier are fading in Ligue 1 after being led down Labrune’s road to nowhere

Montpellier’s Stade de la Mosson is a metaphor for a club that has been allowed to slide into a state of decay. The stadium, which was renovated back in 1997, hosted knockout matches at the 1998 World Cup, but is now in a state of disrepair, unable to withstand the elements and as leaky as the defense, which has conceded 13 goals in its first four Ligue 1 games.

In the 12 years since they were crowned Ligue 1 champions, Montpellier’s decline has been slow but sure. Ambition has seeped away; Pessimism has crept in. “Let’s be happy just to be in Ligue 1 … in a world where we don’t have great financial resources, to be in Ligue 1 is exceptional in itself. People should be aware of that and be happy to support us,” club president Laurent Nicollin said earlier this month.

If they continue on their current trajectory, they won’t be a Ligue 1 team for much longer. The financial constraints Nicollin referred to are notable. The TV rights deal negotiated by recently re-elected LFP president and close friend of Nicollin, Vincent Labrune, left Montpellier with a €20 million hole in its budget.

“Offering lower wages and integrating young players are the only possible levers,” Nicollin said. Montpellier, like many clubs in Ligue 1, have been put in a sticky situation after being led down Labrune’s road to nowhere. They received €19.5m from TV rights last year; As it stands, they have only received 6 million euros, although there is hope that the figure will rise slightly.

Montpellier therefore desperately needed to sell players in the summer – and didn’t. There were hopes that around €20 million could be raised through the sale of four or five players, a figure that would have allowed them to refresh the squad.

“The Jordanian Messi could be MHSC’s savior,” claimed Nicollin, referring to the potential sale of one of the club’s more valuable assets, Musa Al-Taamari. He stayed, as did Joris Chotard, Arnaud Nordin and Khalil Fayad.

Consequently, Montpellier signed just two players all summer: the inexperienced Raby Nzingoula arrived at the end of August on a loan deal from Strasbourg, with no option to buy, before journeyman midfielder Birama Touré agreed on a free transfer last week. Nor does the quality of the squad, which last season finished in the lower middle of the table, increase.

Despite Labrune’s failure in the TV rights deal, Nicollin has remained an ardent supporter, voting to re-elect the president and proving an excuse for the deal with DAZN, thanks to which consumers will pay more than they did last season. “I want to tell people to stop DAZN bashing … €30, that’s the price of a restaurant on a Friday night so it’s only one Friday a month where you don’t go to the restaurant and you pay your DAZN subscription ,” Nicollin told L’Équipe.

For Nicollin, a meal out would have been preferable to watching Montpellier succumb to their latest defeat at Rennes on Sunday. Just as they did in their 6-0 loss to PSG and the 3-1 loss to Nantes, La Paillade conceded chance after chance and were duly punished with a 3-0 loss. Sure, there are mitigating circumstances, most notably some key absences in defence, such as Boubakar Kouyaté and Becir Omeragic, while further forward Chotard and Al-Taamari were also missing.

But beyond that, there is an unmistakable shift from stagnation to decline. Nicollin’s public pessimism rings alarm bells. A club’s past success does not make them impervious to future failure. Bordeaux, who won the Ligue 1 title in 2009 and were still in the Europa League as recently as the 2018-19 season, had their professional status revoked this summer after years of financial mismanagement. The historic club wants to rebuild from the fourth level as an amateur side. They are a cautionary tale; giants can fall in France and fall fast.

Unlike Gérard López, Nicollin does not put his club on the line. Living within one’s limited resources is not the same as a lack of ambition per se. But in the midst of Montpellier’s financial struggles, maintaining the status quo through his vocal support for Labrune feels like an act of self-sabotage. The consequences of Labrune’s re-election on French football will only be known in time, but it is a wider mismanagement up to this point that leaves Montpellier in a precarious situation, without solutions both on and off the pitch.

There is still hope; after all, it is only the fourth game week of the season. Injured players return; on paper, there are weaker teams – Auxerre and Angers immediately spring to mind – and while Michel Der Zakarian may have his detractors, he has a proven track record in Ligue 1. But at Montpellier, the authors of one of the great shocks in French football taking PSG to the title in 2012, and celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, there is little room for optimism. The rain that pours in in pairs at Mosson is a symbol of a club that has seen better days.

Number points

“Together they are better than last season.” That was Eric Roy’s ominous assessment of a Kylian Mbappé-less PSG, with the Brest coach also noting their increased work rate and more effective counter-pressing in the absence of the France captain, who left for Real Madrid at the start of the summer. In February, Brest picked up a deserved draw from their trip to the Parc des Princes, but despite leading in the first half and only trailing with less than 20 minutes remaining, they were overrun on this occasion, losing 3-1 on Friday night . The pirates‘ inability to build out from the back amidst intense and sustained high pressure prevented them from asserting any control of the game and in the end pressure and superior quality won out. Ousmane Dembélé was PSG’s outstanding player. The Frenchman revealed that Luis Enrique had “the harp on” about being more selfish in dangerous positions. The message gets across clearly; Dembélé already has three goals in Ligue 1, the same tally as he did throughout last campaign. Both he and PSG go into their Champions League opener high on confidence.

The chasing pack is not that far behind PSG. Monaco cruised to a comfortable 3-0 win against Auxerre, with former Chelsea and Juventus midfielder Denis Zakaria, now club captain, starring with a goal and an assist. They are level with Marseille who, after a 2-0 win over rivals Nice, look set to hit rock bottom in their bid to challenge PSG. They continue to impress under their new manager, Roberto De Zerbi. The impending arrival of France international and former PSG midfielder Adrien Rabiot, whose wage demands had put off some of Europe’s elite, is a huge coup. Given their investment in players and staff this summer, a return to the Champions League feels like a necessity and a title challenge a real possibility, especially given their mild calendar in relation to their rivals.