The French First Division was characterized by clear separation at top and bottom this season: two outsiders and two title contenders. Nothing surprising in between – the known stronger teams ended high, the lesser teams – low.
Angers was last with 24 points.
Nimes finished 19th with 26 points, joining Angers in relegation. Both teams were well bellow the rest of the league.
Tours was 18th , but with 31 points they were out of danger for a long time – although at the bottom of the table, Tours were successful in their own way: managed to remain in the first division without much trouble.
Laval was similar to Tours – staying with the best was their maximum goal, so the season was fine: they were 16th.
The crisis of Nice continued – the squad was not that bad, considering the names, but the club was going downhill for some years and there was no reversal of the fall: Nice was not yet in direct danger of relegation, but it was just a matter of time. 15th this year.
Mid-table had expected clubs in it: Lens, Sochaux, Nancy, Valenciennes, the usual dwellers.
Perhaps Metz deserves a note: they had relatively strong season, taking 9th place at the end with 36 points. Not much by itself, but a good beginning of coaching career for Kasperczak, one of most impressive members of the 1974 Polish national team. And practically the first of the key stars to switch from playing to coaching.
Auxerre finished 10th – not bad at all for a virtually unknown club only 3 years ago. Coach Roux was becoming familiar name, pushing his creation higher and higher. The formula was stubbornly uncompromising: local boys, helped by foreign stars – so far, only Polish. Three this season – Klose, a reserve by now, and Wieczorek, remembered form the 1974 World Cup. The third is not on this photo, but on the following one:
Andrzey Szarmach, one of the best Polish strikers in the 1970s, the most famous player in the squad of Auxerre. Next to the Poles, two local boys were getting stronger and stronger – Ferreri and Bats. Auxerre was the club steadily going up.
The top of the table was familiar:
Lyon was 6th, although they were really at the top of the mid-table bulk. May be a bit weaker than usual, but just a bit – they were constant feature of top French clubs year after year.
Paris SG was 5th with 46 points, 5 more than Lyon, but like Lyon, they were continuously among the best, without really able to contest the title. Perhaps the club philosophy was essentially wrong: for years Paris SG depended on oldish stars. Big names technically helped building followers – something important for a still very young club with ambitions – but on the negative side was the simple fact that the veterans were beyond their peak and the chemistry was not good enough for conquering the league. Bathenay, Rocheteau, Huck, Baratelli already had their best years elsewhere. Toko, Dahleb, and Pilorget never became first-class stars and the same was true for the Portuguese import Silva Braga. Luis Fernandez was practically the only younger player with star qualities – experienced and solid squad, but not a champion squad. Again.
Monaco, notoriously unstable, was at a good stretch and finished 4th with 49 points. They lost bronze medals only on goal-difference, but the future looked bright: Petit, Amoros, Ettori, Couriol, Emon, Bellone, the foreign solid players Umberto Barberis (Switzerland) and Victor Trossero (Argentina) – a well mixed skeleton of young and old stars, with reliable talent at the fringe. Stability was the constant issue, but the potential was very strong.
Bordeaux fully recovered its leading position in French football this season, but the team was not yet at its peak – 3rd place corresponded to their near-peak situation. Like Monaco, this was a squad with a future, perhaps better one than Monaco’s, for Bordeaux had a team of fighters: Tresor, Giresse, Lacombe were already the big leaders. May be Bracci and Gemmrich were a bit over the hill and van Straelen – not exactly the player expected to be five years ago, but there was solid and rising players like Rohr, Thouvenel, and Soler. Eime Jacquet was making his name coaching this team and whatever was still missing was easy to correct – it was a team needing only a fine tuning, a bit of a finishing touch.
The race for the title was familiar – between Nantes and Saint Etienne, the best French clubs since 1970. Both teams managed to change generations without losing class. Perhaps two ago Nantes was fresher, but now they needed a bit of reshaping – St. Etienne meantime had their new team, promising to be at least as strong as the one of the mid-70s, possibly greater. Yet, the race was tight and St. Etienne prevailed minimally – they won one match more than their rival. One more title.
Coach Robert Herbin must be on focus: he was with the club since 1957, first as a player, and in 1972 he took the coaching position from Albert Batteux. St. Etienne was already leading French club in the 1960s – with Herbin in it – and the 33-years old inexperienced coach only improved on the team, making it a leading European team, which culminated in 1976. But Herbin did not allow the inevitably aging team to sink – on the contrary, he managed to keep it at top of French football while he changed generation and by 1980 his new squad was ready. This time it looked like that Herbin took one more step up: St. Etienne started as strong French team, became European leading team, and now had the appearance of world class team: it was no longer making players, but buying great stars: the new team was based on Michel Platini and Johnny Rep. By now only 4 players of the old wonderful team remained – Ivan Curkovic, Gerard Janvion, Christian Lopez, and Jacques Santini, but transition had been smooth – Curkovic, for instance, was no longer the regular starter, replaced by Jean Castaneda, who was included in the French national team. The old-timers no longer defined the team, but the next generation was firmly in charge: Patrick Battiston, Jean-Francois Larios, Jacques Zimako. Of course, Michel Platini, coming to his peak, was central figure. Perhaps the squad needed a few finishing touches, but now it looked like that they will be at the level of Platini or Rep and the 1980s looked more than promising – St. Etienne started the new decade clearly determined to be even stronger than it was in the 1970s. Bright future on the horizon, but… wait a few years, keeping an eye on Italy. At the moment – a record 10th title, all but one of them achieved with Herbin as either player, or coach. Who would have expected this will be the last title?