Montpellier fade in Ligue 1 after being led down Labrune’s road to nowhere | Ligue 1

Montpellier’s Stade de la Mosson is a metaphor for a club that has been allowed to drift into a state of dereliction. The stadium, renovated back in 1997, hosted knockout games at the 1998 World Cup, but now lies in a decrepit state, unable to withstand the elements, and as leaky as the defence that has conceded 13 goals in their first four Ligue 1 games.

In the space of 12 years, the time that has elapsed since they were crowned Ligue 1 champions, Montpellier’s decline has been slow but sure. Ambition has seeped away; pessimism has crept in. “Let’s be happy just to be in Ligue 1 … in a world where we don’t have big financial means, being in Ligue 1 is exceptional in itself. People should be aware of that and be happy to support us,” said the club president Laurent Nicollin earlier this month.

If they continue on their current trajectory, they won’t be a Ligue 1 side for much longer. The financial constrictions that Nicollin referenced are notable. The TV rights deal negotiated by the recently re-elected LFP president and close friend of Nicollin, Vincent Labrune, left Montpellier with a €20m hole in their budget.

“Offering lower wages and integrating young players are the only levers possible,” said Nicollin. Montpellier, like many clubs in Ligue 1, have been put in a sticky situation after being led down Labrune’s road to nowhere. They received €19.5m from TV rights last year; as things stand, they have received just €6m, although there is hope that figure will rise slightly.

Montpellier therefore desperately needed to sell players in the summer– and didn’t. There was hope that around €20m could be raised through the sale of four or five players, a figure that would have allowed them to refresh the squad.

“The Jordanian Messi could be MHSC’s saviour,” claimed Nicollin, referring to the potential sale of one of the club’s more valuable assets, Musa Al-Taamari. He stayed put, as did the likes of Joris Chotard, Arnaud Nordin and Khalil Fayad.

Consequently, Montpellier only signed two players all summer: the inexperienced Rabby Nzingoula arrived in late August on a loan deal from Strasbourg, without a purchase option, before the journeyman midfielder Birama Touré joined on a free transfer last week. Neither increases the quality of the squad that last season finished in the lower-mid table.

Despite Labrune’s failure in the TV rights deal, Nicollin has remained an ardent supporter, voting to re-elect the president and proving an apologist for the deal with DAZN, thanks to which consumers will pay more than they did last season. “I want to tell people to stop the DAZN bashing … €30, it’s the price of a restaurant on a Friday evening so it’s just one Friday per month where you don’t go to the restaurant and you pay your DAZN subscription,” Nicollin told L’Équipe.

For Nicollin, a meal out would have been preferable to watching Montpellier succumb to their latest defeat at Rennes on Sunday. Just as they did in their 6-0 defeat to PSG and the 3-1 loss to Nantes, La Paillade conceded chance after chance and were duly punished with a 3-0 defeat. Granted, there are mitigating circumstances, most notably some important absences in the defence, such as Boubakar Kouyaté and Becir Omeragic, while further forward Chotard and Al-Taamari were also missing.

But beyond that, there is an unmistakeable shift from stagnation to decline. Nicollin’s public pessimism rings alarm bells. A club’s previous success does not leave them impervious to future failure. Bordeaux, who won the Ligue 1 title in 2009 and were still in the Europa League as recently as the 2018-19 season, had their professional status revoked this summer following years of financial mismanagement. The historic club are looking to build their way back up from the fourth tier as an amateur side. They are a cautionary tale; giants can fall in France, and fall quickly.

Unlike Gérard López, Nicollin isn’t putting his club on the line. Living within their limited means does not equate to a lack of ambition in itself. But amid Montpellier’s financial struggles, perpetuating the status quo through his vociferous support of Labrune feels like an act of self-sabotage. The ramifications of Labrune’s re-election on French football will be known only in time, but it is wider mismanagement up to this point that leaves Montpellier in a precarious situation, without solutions both on and off the pitch.

There is still hope; it is only the fourth gameweek of the season, after all. Injured players will return; on paper, there are weaker teams – Auxerre and Angers immediately spring to mind – and while Michel Der Zakarian may have his detractors, he has a proven track record in Ligue 1. But at Montpellier, the authors of one of the great shocks in French football when they pipped PSG to the title in 2012, and who this year celebrate their 50th anniversary, there is little room for optimism. The rain gushing through into the parvis at the Mosson is a symbol of a club which has seen better days.

Talking points

“Collectively, they are better than last season.” That was Eric Roy’s ominous assessment of a Kylian Mbappé-less PSG, with the Brest manager also noting their increased work rate and more effective counter-pressing in the absence of the France captain, who departed for Real Madrid at the start of the summer. In February, Brest picked up a deserved draw from their trip to the Parc des Princes, but despite leading in the first half and only going behind with under 20 minutes remaining, they were overrun on this occasion, losing 3-1 on Friday night. Les Pirates’ inability to build out from the back amid an intense and sustained high press prevented them from asserting any control in the game and, eventually, the pressure told and superior quality prevailed. Ousmane Dembélé was the standout player for PSG. The Frenchman revealed that Luis Enrique had been “harping on” about being more selfish in dangerous positions. The message is clearly getting through; Dembélé has three goals already in Ligue 1, the same number as he got in the entirety of the last campaign. Both he and PSG head into their Champions League opener high on confidence.

The chasing pack aren’t too far behind PSG. Monaco picked up a comfortable 3-0 win at Auxerre, with the former Chelsea and Juventus midfielder Denis Zakaria, now club captain, playing a starring role with a goal and an assist. They are level on points with Marseille who, after a 2-0 win over their rivals Nice, look to be going for broke in their attempts to challenge PSG. They continue to impress under their new manager, Roberto De Zerbi. The impending arrival of the France international and former PSG midfielder Adrien Rabiot, whose wage demands had deterred some of Europe’s elite, is an enormous coup. Given their investment in players and staff this summer, a return to the Champions League feels like a necessity and a title challenge a real possibility, especially given their gentle calendar relative to their competitors.