Le Havre back in the big time after promotion

Since being relegated from Ligue1 in 2009, it has not been smooth sailing for Le Havre

Based in the Normandy port city some 200km northwest of Paris, France’s oldest club still in existence had to get used to second division purgatory. Coaches such as ex-USA boss Bob Bradley and former Lyon, Paris Saint-Germain and Rangers manager Paul Le Guen had failed in recent seasons in their attempts to return Le Havre to the top flight.

Prior to this campaign, the closest Le Havre had come to ending this exile came in 2017-18, when they lost on penalties to Ajaccio in a play-off semi-final that was marred by violence both on and off the pitch.

As the setting for some of Claude Monet’s most famous paintings, continually falling short of promotion had caused some Le Havre fans to view things with the blurred vision of disillusion. Matches had been boycotted, and there had also been several disagreements with owner Vincent Volpe. The American – who has lived in Normandy since 1990 and is married to a local woman – bought the club in 2015 but has tried to sell on several occasions since. Having retained control yet again last summer, Volpe attempted to jumpstart a new promotion push. A restructure of virtually all of the club’s main positions saw former Lille, Lyon and PSG midfielder Mathieu Bodmer arrive as sporting director, while Jean-Michel Roussier became president, a role he previously held in the late1990s at Marseille.

This fresh start extended to the dugout, with Le Guen let go after three seasons of mixed results.

His replacement Luka Elsner, who himself had only exited Standard Liege in April, seemed an uninspired choice. In his only previous coaching excursion in France, the Slovene had relegated Amiens to the second tier with a win rate of just 14 per cent. Yet at Le Havre he has revived both his own fortunes and the club’s.