ChristopheVAFC

The pre-season tournament between the 3 teams will not take place this summer. Phil Parsons, your CEO, has told me that this is not possible because of the start dates of the championship.

My warmest congratulations, my friends, on yesterday's fine victory at Saint Mary's! Enjoy these moments of happiness! Come on, friends! Now all we have to do is finish the job at Wembley! All the best from France and Valenciennes to you! Come on Saint's ! Allez Southampton !

Hello everyone. First of all, my sincerest congratulations on your victory yesterday at Saint Mary's! Very happy for you! For our part, we had a complicated trip to Normandy, where Valenciennes were playing a team that could play in the play-off for promotion to Ligue 1. The 3-0 defeat put the seal on a season that was complicated from start to finish. It's time to get down to business this summer, when we'll probably be doing some major housework... As for the Valenciennes supporters, around thirty brave souls made the trip. Allez VA!

Hello everyone. Last game of the season for Valenciennes FC tonight as they travel to Normandy to take on Stade Malherbe de Caen. The aim of the match is to finish as worthy as possible against a team that could be in with a chance of playing in the play-offs. The match is expected to be a sell-out, with between 20 and 50 supporters expected to make the trip. (4-hour drive / 234 miles). I'd also like to say a special word of thanks to your club, who are playing in the play-offs tonight. Enjoy the game, folks!

I'm really pleased that Sport Republic is coming in, even if going down is never a pleasure, but you know our previous managers were so incompetent and unambitious too, they left the club in a lamentable state. Now it's time to continue the reconstruction and I hope we can get some good results quickly and get back up as soon as possible. As for you, my friends, I wish you every success for the play-offs and I'll be watching the 2 games at Valenciennes with the greatest attention.

Before Sport Républic bought our club, we came close to going down several times, but unfortunately it happened this year and you can imagine what happened with the other two clubs... It's almost unfortunate but I'm staying positive because I know that SR are going to do their utmost this summer to create a new dynamic. They've already put in a lot of money and they're going to continue to do so, they're going to bring the training grounds up to standard and they're going to have plenty of time to set up their organisation. No more excuses next year, they've got their work cut out for them!

It's true that he's often a few floors behind me haha

Last match at the Stade du Hainaut last night. Faced with a Quevilly Rouen team already relegated like us, we won 2-1. But yesterday was also the night we said farewell to the club: our speakrine, whose name is Marie and who has been at the microphone for 25 years, will no longer be able to entertain at the stadium next year for professional reasons. Our captain, Joffrey Cuffaut, who played 159 games for Valenciennes, will not be staying on next year as his contract expires. A large majority of Sport Républic's management team were present yesterday (including Rasmus and Henrik). In the photo, circled in yellow, that's me, I'm always in that seat haha, very well placed (the standing room is free seating).

The end of the season is drawing to a close, and with the club already condemned to relegation, the aim is to put on a good show before moving down to the lower division. I also think that some of the players are giving it their all for next season, just to show off to future recruiters... It's a shame, because with this rate of points, we could have done better this season...

-- Unknown in the French league until 2 years ago, Will has quickly made a name for himself. He is the coach with the longest unbeaten run after taking over in the history of Stade de Reims, with 17 games unbeaten in Ligue 1. The club, meanwhile, began its unbeaten run before Will Still's arrival with a run of 19 games without defeat. This is the sixth-longest unbeaten run in the history of the competition, and the longest if you take into account Will Still's arrival during the season. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Still https://www.ligue1.fr/clubs/Calendar?id=stade-de-reims

Thank you very much, we hope SR has learned from his mistakes this year.

SR hasn't missed everything with us this year, there have been positive changes internally and in the way the club operates, but unfortunately the sporting side of things has gone wrong and SR has promised us to do better next year and to be more vigilant about recruitment. We'll wait and see Sékou Mara, I take him from you every day, but I'm not sure he wants to play in the French 3rd division haha.

Hello friends! Some news from my club since the official announcement of our descent into the 3rd division. After losing to Pau 4-1 at home on 13 April and sealing our relegation, we travelled to Paris to take on Paris FC (not Paris SG haha), also losing 2-1. This week, we had 2 home games, against Ajaccio (Corsica) and Grenoble: Result: 2 wins. Which is a first for our club since the start of the season. Unfortunately, it's more than too late to wake up. It's more a question of honour if we're going to finish the league well. As far as I know, the club really want to make amends with the fans following the descent and are already working on building a squad for next season. We supporters have told the directors to be more vigilant about recruitment and to choose players who know the country and also the league and who also have experience. A descent is never pleasant, but we hope to be back in Ligue 2 as soon as possible. The supporters' groups have called a strike in the kop stand this week, to symbolically show that they are already on holiday haha, they will be back for the last home match on 10 May. Allez VA!

My warmest congratulations to our friendly club Goztepe on winning the league title and moving up to the top division. I wish them all the best for the future.

I wish Gavin a speedy recovery, and there's no doubt that the substitute goalkeepers in your team will be working hard to get the best out of him at the end of the season!

When I look at what Goztepe and Southampton have achieved this year, I'm not worried about next season. What's more, we have plenty of time to prepare for next season. I hope we'll have a great season and play a leading role in the division. I can't blame Sport Republic because I know that my club was sick before the takeover and that it takes time for everything to fall into place. They're already doing a lot of things outside the sporting sphere and that's already been positive (links with supporters, organising round tables, partnerships with local elected representatives and businesses, etc.). I'm convinced that things will go much better next year.

The good thing is that we're not too far away and it's pretty easy to get here. It's a real pleasure to be able to welcome you one day!

It's a real pleasure to chat with you in any case! If it wasn't for SR, we'd never have been able to talk to each other, and I think that's great! It helps to create links between supporters. No problem, you and all of you would be very welcome to join us at Valenciennes. A pleasure to welcome you!

We're going to try and get the message across to him!

Coincidentally, I had just arrived in Southampton on Friday 29 March, and was going to buy some things in the club shop at the stadium, when my friend and I were approached by Phil Parsons, who offered to talk to us for a few minutes. It was very interesting, and he actually told me that there would be a tournament this summer with the 3 clubs. It was a surprise for us, and a very nice one in any case

More and more people are saying that we're going to have a big clean-up this summer and that we'll be hiring more qualified people who are more interested in our club. I'm waiting to see, but I know that now that relegation has been confirmed, SR is already starting to think about next season, so there's no excuse for falling behind like we did this year! Wait and see, as they say!

I think this type of tournament is really interesting, as it gives you the chance to meet teams with a different style of play and different levels of ability.

I can confirm this information, which I obtained myself from the CEO of Southampton, whom I met on my visit here at the beginning of April. I would normally be there

Where I am rather conciliatory towards Sport Republic is that before the takeover they did not have access to information about the club (number of employees / financial situation / state of the facilities), because the former management was rather opaque on these subjects, and we knew this, because knowing the behaviour of our former president, we knew that he was going to show malice and bad faith. He promised Sport Républic a club with little work to do and ready to rediscover its ambition, but when SR took over the keys to the club, it was one problem after another, which didn't help SR to have a good season. Now, following the relegation, SR has all the time in the world to continue its project of rebuilding our club and I am convinced that next year we will have a much better season because SR will have put the right people in their place. I can't thank SR enough for buying my club, because with our previous directors, we were heading for bankruptcy and a descent into National 3 (5th division in France). The project will take a little longer than expected, but we won't give up!

Communication by Sport Republic after official relegation: https://www.va-fc.com/articles/communiqué-de-sport-republic-21783