1-9 defeat to Como: Cahuzac's appointment at Lens raises questions

The heavy blow dealt to RC Lens on Wednesday evening against Como (1-9, matchday 4 of the Champions League) continues to reverberate, and it is now Yannick Cahuzac’s appointment as head coach that finds itself under fire.

The sequence of events that led Cahuzac to the Lens bench remains difficult to explain. Recruited to replace Pierre Sage, who departed for Crystal Palace, Dino Toppmöller lasted only a few weeks. On September 15, the German manager left the club out of solidarity with his assistant Nelson Morgado, who had been suspended by the board. A departure that paved the way for Cahuzac, promoted to head coach on the decision of sporting director Jean-Louis Leca.

It is precisely this choice that raises eyebrows. On the L’Équipe channel, journalist Virginie Sainsily evoked possible “favoritism.” “There was some. We said so when Cahuzac arrived,” she stated, before recalling a telling detail: “He had been offered a number-one position at his former club Lorient. He refused to go to Lens as an assistant. That makes no sense. So in any case, there was something underlying. Perhaps he had been promised that in a few months… I don’t know, I don’t want to say anything without facts. But there was already something fishy.”

Sainsily also highlighted the paradox of Toppmöller’s departure, who was not in a position of failure at the time of his removal. The German had won his first Champions League match and beaten PSG in the Trophée des champions. “When that happened, while Toppmöller was not on a catastrophic record, quite the opposite, there is reason to ask questions,” she concluded.

RC Lens’s board, and Jean-Louis Leca in particular, now finds itself in a delicate position: not only has the club suffered the heaviest defeat in its European history, but the circumstances that led to this sporting situation are now publicly being called into question.