Chronicle of a Departure Foretold

Despite an apparent sportive standstill – no European qualification since this date -, the Stade Rennais has moved up to a slightly higher level since summer 2007. When he recruited Rod Fanni, Pierre Dréossi was leading an ambitious transfer market resulting in the arrival of Leroy, Pagis, Hansson, and later Wiltord and the mysterious Brazilian Emerson. Only recovering from the “Fauvergue” trauma a few months earlier, Stade Rennes was seen as a rising force in French football, but certainly not as a reservoir of players for the French national team.

True, a few months earlier, Raymond Domenech had called Jimmy Briand for the first time – with the striker remaining on the bench – but Fanni’s example marked an evolution: A player could now sign at Stade Rennes in order to improve, and eventually aim for a senior French cap.

Melchiot’s successor

Paradoxically, Fanni did not convince Domenech when he was at the top of his game. The defender was only called-up several months after a glittering early 2007-2008 season, in which he multiplied top-class attacking actions and soon replaced his predecessor Mario Melchiot in the supporters’ hearts.

This may be where the general frustration comes from, looking back at these three years. The regret to have so quickly lost track of this player able to eliminate three defenders and provide a wonderful assist to Jérôme Leroy, during a Rennes-Lille (2-2) in September 2007. Alas, with time passing by, actions of that sort would happen less and less often, slowly becoming a distant memory.

How to explain it? Player’s regression? A closer watch by the opposition? Coaching instructions? It will be interesting to observe whether this exploits returns under his new white and blue shirt.

Rod Fanni in Rennes, however, will be remembered for his image as the constant right back (an average of 40 games a season) , in a position where so many players had been thrown over the previous years, some with discussable abilities (Perrier-Doumbé, Grenet...), some just passing by (Melchiot...), or quite often, players re-positioned as an emergency solution (M’Bia, Sorlin, Diatta…).

During three years the Stade Rennais could rely on an international full back, rarely injured, and never losing his temper even last summer when his transfer to Atletico Madrid failed. Possibly a premiere in the club’s history.

Missed Departures...

Logically followed by clubs with a higher status than Stade Rennes’, Fanni was the protagonist of one of the most marking transfer stories of the recent years in Rennes, not far from the Soap Opera involving Wiltord, Lyon and the Stade Rennais between June and August 2007.

It all started in early 2009, when various clubs were reportedly interested with the right back’s profile. Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, Everton, West Ham, Lyon... and the Olympique de Marseille already. At the end of May that year, the player had already expressed his attraction for Marseille. “When I was a kid, I used to go to the Vélodrome. Marseille means something special to me », he explained to RMC at the time. But Pierre Dréossi would not budge. Fanni’s departure « isn’t in the agenda », therefore « we are not open to any discussions ».

In early November 2009, the club completed the first step toward the player’s departure… by extending his contract. A deceiving contract extension however, in the aim to increase a future transfer fee. A contract extension finally proving very welcome however, as Fanni would have been in the same situation as his teammate Sylvain Marveaux this season, had he not done it. His scheduled departure to Atletico Madrid, who did their utmost to sign the player last summer, was condemned by Rennes’ intransigence in the absence of real financial guarantees. [1]

At the end of the transfer market, his missed departure seemed nearly a problem in a defensive sector re-thought without him involved. A blatant assessment as proves Romain Danzé’s call for recognition, his announced replacement at the right back position losing patience during the preseason. Happy to keep the player in his squad, Frédéric Antonetti made the best of the situation and of the player’s versatility, lining him up alongside Mangane at centre back. But in the club, there are some worries to see a player remain, who isn’t part of Frédéric Antonetti’s “beginning of a new cycle” with a rejuvenated squad.

In fact, the sudden injury of Marseille’s Azpilicueta is somehow happening at the ideal moment. The OM was forced to recruit quickly, and Deschamps had soon ticked Fanni as his ideal choice. Consequently, instead of reaching summer 2011 in a pretty awkward position, the Rennes negotiators were in a clear dominant position to impose their transfer conditions.

A centre-back in January?

An agreement was found for a fee close to four million euros, with Marseille left to find a contractual agreement with the player. Not an easy task for the Marseille management, visibly not keen on offering a substitute the salary of a first XI player. “The Marseille directors were offering Rod the same level of wage he was receiving in Rennes”, the defender’s agent Dominique Six explained this Wednesday. Not enough for what Fanni would consider as an improvement in his career.

Then, after days of negotiations, the agreement was reached. Medical, signature, presentation to the press, and probably a first game on Sunday, everything should follow quickly now.

In Rennes, his departure leaves a gap… almost incredibly. To lose a French international is never ordinary, especially when he reached that level in Rennes. In terms of quantity, his transfer has already been covered since last summer, and the gap doesn’t really seem to exist on the right flank, his favourite position (Where Danzé and Théophile-Catherine are able to replace him) but at centre, where Apam’s long and unexpected unavailability continues raising endless questions.

Luckily, there are some additional solutions, with some of the full backs also able to play at centre. But when Rennes prepares to enter a decisive winter transfer window with the mission to strengthen their attacking line, would Stade Rennes not be well advised to also hire a new central defender?