Finishing bottom of Ligue 2, cast adrift from the closest club by eight points, is bad enough. Doing so when a promotion challenge was expected by many is an absolute disaster.
Caen have been in something of a mess for a while and the arrival of the Mbappé family as new owners has only appeared to make things worse. Last summer, then star-striker Alexandre Mendy had been pushing for a move to Sunderland, something he thought had been promised to him.
Indeed, at one point Mendy thought it was a done deal and spoke to the media about moving his family to England, and the appreciation he’d already built up for Sunderland and their fans.
When the French club blocked the move, he spoke about his disappointment and has done so on several occasions since, feeling the chance of a move to English football was unfairly taken away from him because Caen upped their asking price.
Another Sunderland connection at Caen is Yann M’Vila, who became a fan favourite during his short stint with the Black Cats. The midfielder joined Caen in August on a two year deal and sounds absolutely furious with how the season has gone.
He’s compared Caen’s relegation battle to that which he experienced at Sunderland and believes there’s a huge gulf between the two.
Quoted by Ouest France after a 4-0 loss to Lorient, M’Vila said: “It’s been a long time since I reached a new level of disappointment. What do you want to do? Even though we played against the best team in the league, if we had managed to finish off our chances in the last 30 metres, we could have made things difficult for them. But even that, we can’t do.
“When they’re in our last 30 metres, they’re there to kill. And they did it: they killed us! Football is simple: you have to defend well and score goals. Lorient knows how to do it, that’s why they’re in Ligue 1.”
He then made the Sunderland comparison: “We belong (bottom of Ligue 2)! We’ve had a chaotic, rubbish season. When the fans tell us, “You’re rubbish,” I think we really are! If a club like Caen finishes last in Ligue 2, it’s because its players are rubbish. I could say a lot of things, honestly, but I’ve never seen anything like it.
“I’ve already fought for relegation, with Sunderland for example (in 2015-2016), but there were 11 lions on the pitch. We managed to score some goals against Chelsea or Manchester United thanks to that. Now, we don’t even have the determination. We don’t have the football or the determination, so we’re where we belong, we’re relegated to the National League and we keep our mouths shut.”
