First Division. 20 teams, as usual. Two automatically relegated, the 18th going to relegation/promotion play-off. If there is anything standing out this season, this is the amazing decline of St. Etienne.
Rennes – last with 23 points. Very weak, but hardly a surprise: Rennes had been relegated before, they had a bit of trouble staying in top flight for long.
Nimes – 19th with 25 points. Their relegation was even less surprising than Rannes’.
St. Etienne – 18th with 30 points. Much stronger than the teams bellow them, but this was hardly a comfort: St. Etienne hit the bottom. The rot was noticed a bit earlier, of course, and the usual measures were taken – the legend Herbin was fired and now Djorkaeff was at the helm, but the team only slipped further down. Whatever it was – lack of money or terrible recruiting – this squad had nothing in common with the one playing at European cup final less than 10 years ago. Even the imported help – the former Polish international Kupcewicz – was of far lesser quality than the foreigners not even of 10 years afo, but only of three years ago. Poor selection and ending in the relegation zone. It was not over yet – St. Etienne still had a chance, if beating the second division pretender, but they lost to Racing Paris and were relegated. Joining the sorry fate of other venerable clubs there – Lyon, Nice, Reims, Marseille (they just climbed up, but were not the team they were years ago).
Brest finished in safety – 17th with 31 points. A close escape, but there was irony in it – modest Brest survived at the expense of mighty St. Etienne.
Another modest club, Toulon, also managed to survive – 16th with 32 points. Standing from left: Duval (entraîneur), Beringuier, Vizcaino, Alfano, Dib, Benedet, Neubert, Perlin, Courbis, Emon, Marc Duval, Riberi, Marc Duval.
First row: Pesce, Verstraete, Boissier, Paganelli, Col, Dalger, Chaussin, N’Kouka, Onnis.
Some old feet never die, though – Delio Onnis, now playing for Toulon, was still the prominent striker – and once again finished the top scorer of the championship. His goals helped the club in its fight for survival a lot.
Nancy – 15th with 32 points. The usual performance more or less.
Rouen – 14th with 34 points. Nothing new here as well.
Lens – 13th with 35 points.
Metz – 12th with 35 points. But they had something better happening.
Bastia – 11th with 36 points. Tarantini was trying to establish himself in Europe again, alas, with the same result as his spell with Birmingham City. Somewhat unlucky guy.
Laval – 10th with 36 points.
Lille – 9th with 37 points.
Strasbourg – 8th with 39 points. The real problem of Strasbourg was age – for years a look at their squad make the impression that such team could do more. Impressive names, but almost always too old already. Even their champion team was too old for keeping longer spell.
Sochaux – 7th with 41 points. Still enjoying their strong spell, but given their resources, that was the best they could do – the club had no means to build really strong team.
Nantes was the last of the leading teams of the 1970s keeping strong: 6th with 45 points. Not a title contender, but remaining solid and at the top of the league. Standing from left: Adonkor, ?, Rio, Halilhodzic, Bossis.
Middle row: Ayache, Baronchelli, Touré, Muller.
Sitting: Poullain, Picot, Bertrand-Demanes, Buscher, Bibard, Amisse.
The squad was a bit short, but good. Nantes needed a few more good players, though – largely because some of the established players were aging.
Toulouse – 5th.
To a point, that was a tempting justification for making another Parisian club strong – Paris SG was not winning. 4th this year with 47 points. Running only for bronze medals. Having the most famous and expensive squad in the country and not even able to challenge the leaders.
Bright and coming Auxerre proved it was not one-time wonder, but clearly was going to stay among the very best. Third this year with 45 points, ahead of Paris SG on better goal-difference. Excellently run by Guy Roux. Cantona was getting his foot in the game, still a young promise.
Monaco – perhaps with stronger squad than the ones winning titles in the previous years, but a bit unlucky. They were favourites entangled in dramatic battle with Bordeaux to the last minute of the championship. And not losing… both rivals finished with 54 points. Bordeaux had stronger defense and may be this was why they finished 2nd on worse goal-difference: stronger defense almost always means weaker strikers.
One may call them lucky and may be they were, but they were also good. Bordeaux clinched the title on better goal-difference after 23 wins, 8 ties, 7 losses, and 72-33 scoring record. Lucky may be, but in the same time their victory was just – Monaco traditionally was jumpy team, unsteadily alternating great seasons with flops. Bordeuax enjoyed very solid spell, the squad was the best in France, the coach was excellent, and there was no mistakes during the transfer periods: good additions were included just in time. By now, they had the closest squad to the great St. Etienne of mid-1970s. Back than the greens had about 16 national team players – Bordeaux presently had Tresor, Battiston, Tigana, Giresse, Lacombe, Tusseau, Girard, Specht, Domenech, Thouvenel, near-national team players like Rohr, Muller, Zenier, and the West German Memering, who made his name with Hamburger SV. Perhaps they needed stronger goalkeeper, but even with what they had, they were the strongest French team and clearly going to lead in the next years.