It has been a historic season for RC Lens. The former Ligue 1 champions won the Coupe de France for the first time in their history on Friday, just days after confirming a second-place finish in the league, which will lead them back into the UEFA Champions League.
The dust has hardly settled but there is already a negative framing for the next campaign as Pierre Sage grapples with the same question that The Clash so famously struggled to resolve: “Should I stay or Should I go?”
The framing seems a little ridiculous. Why wouldn’t a manager who will next season have the chance to compete in the UCL for the first time in his ‘young’ career choose to leave? To do so, it would seem, would be illogical.
Sage, however, has been sowing the seeds of doubt for over a week, multiplying interview upon interview, overtly contradicting as he grapples with the question. Last Tuesday, he said that “the idea was to stay,” not entirely convincing. Doubts increased when he admitted there were “lots of contacts” with other clubs. “I will try to honour my contract,” he added.
And then all doubt was seemingly put to bed during Sunday’s edition of Téléfoot. Playing the “Yes-No” game, a regular segment on the show broadcast on TF1 on Sunday mornings, the Frenchman replied in the affirmative when asked whether he would be Lens manager come the start of next season.
End of story. Well, not quite, because on Monday came a fresh statement. “The idea is obviously to stay, but I must admit that quite a few things are moving,” said Sage, who added that the tendency was for him to stay, but he then revealed that an offer had been received.
Such offers are difficult to pass up due to the nature of French coaching. To obtain the Brevet d’entraineur professionel de football (BEPF) is no minor undertaking. In Sage’s situation, there is a requirement for a minimum of five years of coaching in professional football before you can even apply to undertake the course, run annually. That is on top of all of the preliminary badges.
It means that when we talk about ‘young’ French coaches, they aren’t that young, or at least not as young as their counterparts on the continent, with whom they are competing for the top jobs. Sage, for example, whose first job in the top flight came in 2023, is 47 years old. Habib Beye, with whom he worked at Red Star, is similarly considered an up-and-coming coach in France, is 48.
The window of opportunity, therefore, is smaller than for managers obtaining their badges in other countries through different federations. No wonder there is an eagerness to pounce on an opportunity when it arises. There is hardly any time to wait.
There is the French context, and then there is the Lensois context. Unfortunately for Sage, hard lessons were learned when the club last qualified for the Champions League. When they did so, under Franck Haise, the cheque book was whipped out, and there were – by Lens’ standards – some big moves made in the transfer market. Notably, Elye Wahi joined in a €30m deal from Montpellier HSC. He struggled and was offloaded one year later.
Lens won’t return to that strategy. Sporting director Jean-Louis Leca was definitive when evoking how Lens would function going forward. “The [version of] Lens that performed well is the one that bought Loic Badé intelligently, the one that went out and bought Jonathan Clauss, the one that loaned Arnaud Kalimuendo, without even speaking about the opportunities [seized] by signing Seko Fofana and Deiver Machado in Ligue 2 from Toulouse,” he said.
Leca, who implemented the new strategy perfectly last summer, added: “When we went out and bought Kevin Danso and Facundo Medina, no one had heard of them. They were transfers worth €3/4/5m. If we can do good deals, we won’t hold back, but the version of Lens that performed best was not the one that spent €25-30m, because that isn’t Lens.”
The cheque book won’t come back just because Lens are now in the Champions League; in truth, the financial situation in French football prohibits such lavish spending in any case. Leca will once again have to be clever. But for Sage, there is perhaps doubt that he can repeat his feat without significant investment. “I have worked quite well this year, and maybe I want to leave that feeling here (at Lens) and not disappoint,” he told RMC Sport on Monday.
And the lack of guarantees here opens him up to potentially disappointing. Last season’s dealings were rightly loaded – all hits, no misses. Florian Thauvin, Mamadou Sangaré, Robin Risser, Odsonne Édouard… these were the key figures on the pitch that put Lens in the conversation for the Ligue 1 title.
But there will be plenty of departures. Captain Adrien Thomasson is on the verge of joining Stade Rennais on a free transfer; Allan Saint-Maximin’s contract is up and there are no signs that he will extend; Malang Sarr looks likely to depart upon the expiry of his deal; and there are coveted players who are still under contract. Robin Risser is being linked with a Premier League move, whilst Sangaré will be highly coveted. Lens have set a €50m asking price, Foot Mercato understands. It is an attainable figure for many Premier League sides, many of whom will come sniffing.
And for those that do stay, can they replicate this year’s form? Thauvin, notably, excelled, driven by the prospect of playing for France at this summer’s FIFA World Cup. There won’t be that dangling carrot next season. At 33, can he remain at the same level for the duration of next season, factoring in the introduction of European football, which Lens did not have last season? No guarantees.
Sage knows that his stock is high; it may never be higher. His comments suggest he is tempted to strike the iron while it is hot. Crystal Palace are interested, as per L’Équipe; Liverpool, Sage announced, would be his dream job, although even if Arne Slot were to leave, the Frenchman would be an outsider’s choice. But there is a scent of opportunity. There is already one “big offer” on the table, he told RMC Sport, and given his situation, you wouldn’t blame him for taking it.
