The Great Times of as Saint-Étienne are long gone. Now, The Former Record Champion Has Been Relegated for the Second Time in Three Years.
Once a proud record champion crashes – again. 44 years ago, AS Saint-Étienne won their last championship title to date (the 10th in their history), on Saturday the traditional club had to cope with the bitter departure from Ligue 1 for the eighth time.
The 2:3 defeat against FC Toulouse sealed the renewed relegation of the former French record champion after only one year in the top flight. “It’s hard to explain. We started badly in the first four or five minutes, we didn’t have a ball, it was complicated for us,” said coach Eirik Horneland after the game at Dazn.
As St. Etienne is relegated from Ligue 1 for the Sixth Time
“Had to Fight for our Survival”
The coach explained: “We didn’t have the energy we needed for this game today. We had to fight for our survival. We wanted the stadium to go along with us. It was a bad performance.”
ASSE goalkeeper Gautier Larsonneur confessed to RMC Sport: “I’m devastated. Honestly, I’m at the end. I don’t even have the strength to cry.”
Saint-Étienne was last relegated in 2022. AS was allowed to hope until the end, but the goal difference was so catastrophic compared to the competition in the relegation battle that only a high win with the help of other clubs would have helped. Only the bottom of the table Montpellier had an even worse record than the team from eastern France.
“A predictable disaster”
In particular, the defense was blamed for the renewed relegation. AS conceded 77 goals this season, only two less than Montpellier. The French sports newspaper L’équipe consequently wrote: “Until the end of this hellish season, ASSE was undermined by its defense. The miracle failed to materialize.”
Le Parisien saw it similarly: “A predictable disaster”. The newspaper referred to the poor personnel planning at Saint-Étienne, which ultimately culminated in the return to Ligue 2.
In the golden era, big names played for “Les Verts” (“The Greens”) such as Michel Platini (former UEFA president) or later Laurent Blanc (former French national coach), Willy Sagnol (former Bayern player) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (former Dortmund professional).
In 1976, AS reached the final in the European Cup of National Champions – today’s Champions League – where they unluckily lost 0:1 to FC Bayern. It was the greatest sporting success in the club’s history.
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After the runner-up in 1982, the team also went downhill in the following years, as many regular players left the club. Only two years later, after 21 years of first class, the second descent followed.
In 1996 and also in 2001, “Les Verts” had to go down again before staying in Ligue 1 from the promotion in 2004 until 2022. So far, in most cases it has taken at least two years for ASSE to return. Only in the early 60s did the direct re-promotion succeed once. What will it be like after the renewed descent?