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Tuesday saw Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa leave the south of France for England’s north east, swapping Montpellier for Newcastle. If Montpellier fans were still lamenting what was happening to last season’s title winners following confirmation of that transfer, then hopefully they didn’t open up a copy of L’Equipe first thing on Wednesday morning. Following the departure of his captain, coach Rene Girard is now apparently considering leaving at the season’s end. Quite a turnaround from half a year ago, when the team from the south of France sat proudly on top of the country’s football tree. First Olivier Giroud, then Yanga-Mbiwa. With Younes Belhanda, currently on African Cup of Nations duty with Morocco, but also linked with an exit, things are falling apart as quickly as they were built at this most remarkable of teams.
If last season was a dream, Montpellier have not quite woken up yet. Maybe that is for the best. This has been a classic case of second season syndrome for Girard’s men. Many would point out that they are entitled to be languishing down in mid-table for their remarkable achievements last year. And certainly none would have expected La Pallaide to have mounted another challenge for the title.
Yet there is still disappointment for some associated with Montpellier, and of course no one feels it more than Girard, who was left frustrated by the late winner scored against his side by Marseille recently. Girard said his team had played like youngsters, lamenting how Marseille “were incapable of scoring without our help.”
The coach has plenty of reasons to feel frustrated. From the heights of last May he seems to have lost everything that he and his team worked towards last season. And the Champions League dream was short and brutal.
All of this may have been expected and Montpellier never had any pretensions about being able to keep the stars who propelled them to the title last season, nor did they seriously expect a long sojourn in Europe. But the question really is ‘where now?’ It is a strange question to ask of the champions of any country, but the reality is that this was one title winner that were never going to be able to able to really build on their success.
At the time of writing, the team currently sit in 12th place, 10 points off the relegation zone and 13 from the title race. It is actually the lowest position Montpellier have been at this stage of a season since returning to the top flight in 2009.
Counter intuitively, despite the loss of Giroud, Montpellier’s greatest struggles have been in defence. Emmanuel Herrera, a left field signing as a replacement for the powerful Frenchman, may have scored just four times in Ligue 1 this season, but the goals have been spread well, with Souleymane Camara and Belhanda both netting six and Remy Cabella five. Only three sides have scored more. Yet while Yanga-Mbiwa and Vitorino Hilton formed such a solid centre-back partnership, Montpellier have leaked goals alarmingly this season.
Consistency of selection is a clear issue. Yanga-Mbiwa, Hilton, Garry Bocaly and Henri Bedimo were almost all ever-presents last time around. None played less than 34 of Montpellier’s Ligue 1 games; replacing Yanga-Mbiwa will be particularly difficult for the champions. Similarly the midfield stayed much the same through most of the season, Jamel Saihi, Marco Estrada and Joris Marveaux crucial throughout. Yet none have featured regularly this term, with the demands of the Champions League clearly taking its toll on a squad which has been stretched.
The exit from the Champions League may have done Montpellier a favour, as European qualification is not quite out of sight in spite of their troubles and there has been a significant improvement of late. Montpellier’s run of form leading into the new year saw them win six and lose just two of their eleven games before the clash with Marseille. But it was a defeat in the Coupe de la Ligue to Rennes which was perhaps most worrying, not for the fact that they were beaten 2-0, but the way in which La Pallaide went down to defeat.
A 2-0 loss in a game where they failed to muster any real fight or quality suggested that something more than just star players has been ripped from Girard’s team. The special spirit which took them to the title appeared to have dimmed too. Last year Montpellier had battled against numerous obstacles; unlimited oil wealth at Paris Saint-Germain the most obvious. But there was also the tempestuous draw at home to Evian near the end of the season, with Belhanda sent off and falling out with Giroud at the end, which had some questioning whether they were about to crack. Hard fought wins against Lille and Rennes followed, before that dramatic final day, when they played at Auxerre in a game which was paused in the middle because of protests by the home fans at their relegation from Ligue 1. At 1-0 down and then knowing PSG had won, Montpellier had the pressure of realising they had to win to claim the title, and they did.
That determination and spirit seems a million years ago now. Where Montpellier go from here is a very open ended question, given how many more of their players could be lured away in the coming months. Girard has an exceptionally tough job trying to build a new team to live up to the one he created last year – and he may choose to walk away rather than attempt to achieve the impossible for a second time. Whatever will be, they will always have the memories of last May.
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