Many Ligue 1 clubs would dream of having François Pinault as a shareholder. Owner of Stade Rennais, the Breton billionaire was indeed (very) generous during this transfer window. With more than 80 million euros invested, the Breton club was the most spending club this summer in France, ahead of PSG. “We have a huge chance to have at the head of this club someone who is able to invest and that is fantastic”, did not fail to recall this Wednesday Florian Maurice, technical director . The Breton club was quick to start shopping by signing Loïc Badé, Kamaldeen Sulemana and Birger Meling in July. After the resumption of the championship, the shareholder again took out the checkbook to enlist Baptiste Santamaria, Lovro Majer and the young Turkish goalkeeper Dogan Alemdar.
🔴⚫️ Top 6 #RMercato the biggest spenders in the history of Stade Rennais (excluding bonuses).
1️⃣ 2021: € 79.5m
2️⃣ 2020: 70 M €
3️⃣ 2000: € 53.4 million
4️⃣ 2019: € 53.3m
5th 2017: € 49.4m
6️⃣ 2010: € 16.4 million
🔗 https://t.co/ROV9elpOzr pic.twitter.com/qxIIlUOOdM– ROUGEmémoire 🔴⚫ SRFC (@ROUGEmemoire) September 1, 2021
In the very last hours of the transfer window, Stade Rennais finally offered a nice blow by signing the Montpellier striker Gaëtan Laborde, author of sixteen goals and eight assists last season. A major reinforcement for the Rennes attack which has shown little enthusiasm since the start of the championship (three goals in four games). “He is a versatile player who will bring us goals but also a generosity and a desire that we can sometimes miss in certain matches,” said Florian Maurice during the player’s presentation conference.
The central defense will have to hold on to three
Aged 27, the native of Mont-de-Marsan comes to strengthen an already well-stocked attacking sector with Terrier, Guirassy and the young Abline, tenured for the first time on Sunday against Angers. “We have a lot of offensive players but it’s important to have several possible solutions and combinations,” said Bruno Genesio.
On the other hand, the Rennes coach will not be able to count on an additional central defender. Despite the youth of the three players occupying the post (Aguerd, Badé and Omari) and the feverishness observed since the start of the season, the Breton leaders did not want to compensate numerically for the departure of Gerzino Nyamsi, who left for Strasbourg. “We are convinced that we have solutions within the group that will allow us in case of glitches to be able to compensate for an absence,” said Florian Maurice.
Camavinga? A great deal for everyone
If Stade Rennais bought a lot, it also sold a lot, which was also one of the objectives of this transfer window. “We tried to reduce the workforce to give young people playing time,” admitted Florian Maurice. Maoussa, Del Castillo, Soppy, Nyamsi, Guitane thus left Brittany to go scratch playing time elsewhere. But the biggest departure is obviously that of Eduardo Camavinga, who has signed up for six seasons with Real Madrid for an amount of 31 million euros, excluding bonuses.
A great deal for all parties, according to Florian Maurice. “It all happened very quickly but in the end, everything ended very well for the club and the player,” said the technical director. I had always said that I didn’t want Eduardo to go free. He didn’t want to either. We would have hoped perhaps to sell it a little more expensive a few months ago but in today’s context, it is an offer which is interesting ”.