Without a trace

Surname : Marveaux. Name : Sylvain. Age : 24. Occupation : Professional footballer.
Seen for the last time at the Stade de la Libération during an away game at Boulogne-sur-Mer (62200), May 15th, 2010. If you meet him, know him or have any information regarding the real Sylvain Marveaux, please contact the Stade Rennais Football Club as soon as possible.

This is the sort of appeal one could launch to try and find out what happened to one of Rennes’ very best players in the 2009-2010 season. How did Marveaux, in only six months, manage to change from “Marvelous” to “Marveloose”? Since the summer break, the left winger drags himself on the pitch, and doesn’t seem able to make any difference as he used to do last season, finishing the season with a beautiful stats sheet: 10 goals and 5 assists in 35 Ligue 1 games. His thrust has gone, so has his vision, when Stade Rennes are most in need of their twirling attacking midfielder to keep on playing a major role in the Championship….

Disturbed by recurring adductors pain since the summer, Marveaux seems worried with his personal horizon too. With a contract finishing in June, his future on the Vilaine banks seems more than uncertain, as Pierre Dréossi confirmed to RTL on October 14th: “If we can find a solution, we will find a solution. I think we can manage it but it will have to be a solution that satisfies all parties. If Marveaux was to leave for free, it would be a shame, but not a disaster”.

A few months before, the player himself had given is view to Le Parisien. At the time, the Vannes-man expressed his desire to leave the club that introduced him to the highest level:”I’d like to leave[…], I’m 24, and I think it’s time for me to see something else”, he declared, knowing the interest of a few high-profile teams towards him: Arsenal, Marseille or Paris SG were among those.

At the time, his words chocked the Rennes supporters, worried they would live a repeat of Jimmy Briand’s aborted transfer to Paris in summer 2007. As opposed to the current Lyon striker who missed the traditional pre-season camp in Carnac, Marveaux always promised he would not “cause any clash”. A promise he respected despite his management’s strict refusal to transfer him.

A Sow jurisprudence ?

In the same contractual situation as Marveaux last season, Moussa Sow had spent most of the season on the Rennes bench. Refusing to extend his contract with his training club, the former Rennes striker had lost Frédéric Antonetti’s confidence, who preferred to leave him on the side-lines despite Ismaël Bangoura’s mixed performances.

Strangely, the man voted Stade Rennes’ « sexiest player » by the club’s female supporters in 2010 retains all confidence from his manager, even though a discussion reportedly happened between the two men on October 24th, according to L’Equipe, after Rennes’ first defeat of the Ligue 1 season to Montpellier. In the post-game conference, the Corsican manager had regretted that his winger would not pull his team forwards: “Rennes won’t remain at the top of the table with Marveaux playing at that sort of level”. A wake-up call sounding like a formal request for his player to recover his lost ability.

Despite reduced competition within the squad after the departures of Badiane, Bangoura, Briand, Gyan, Pagis and Sow, some ambitious youngsters are keen to earn more and more time on the pitch. The highly talented Yacine Brahimi started the season in the first eleven before becoming a super substitute. On the other side Abdoul Camara is waiting patiently for his chance to gather more experience. His entrances against Toulouse, Montpellier and Lyon confirmed that his qualities of penetration, his spontaneity and his pace could prove highly valuable on the… left flank of Rennes’ attacking line.

Antonetti knows this perfectly well, and the quick adaptation of players such as Jean-Armel Kana-Biyik, Yann M’Vila and Kévin Théophile-Catherine would certainly comfort him in the opinion to bring in youngsters when injuries or bad form hit the players. Last Saturday, Samuel Souprayen confirmed all his ability and the hopes placed in him by the fans, earning these compliments from his manager: “This example proves that they (the youngsters) should not be giving up when they don’t play. They should not sulk, but rather work harder”. Marveaux is warned.