After a heavy 0-4 defeat against Auxerre, Will Still did not hide his feelings: “We know that it is the end of a cycle for some and the end of a story for others! A lucid observation, but that hides a more worrying reality in the artesian wardrobe. Many players visibly turned their backs on their coach, criticizing a management deemed too rigid or brittle. This fracture resulted on the ground in a blatant lack of commitment and a lack of reaction, symbols of a totally lost group.

Initially, RC Lens management wanted to retain Will Still, convinced of his competence and the quality of his project. However, the situation has visibly changed in recent hours: the board has just realized that the coach is now isolated, without the support of his changing room. There is a dilemma: do you have to sacrifice the coach to revive the dynamics, or do you have to rely on a re-engineering of the workforce around your project? The recent history of French football shows that this kind of crisis, if not quickly resolved, can precipitate a club into a negative spiral.

The RC Lens is at a crossroads: the end of a cycle is at work, but the way the club manages this crisis will determine the future of the artesian project.