This Wednesday at the end of the afternoon at the Bastide, the Crocos touched the ball for the first time of the season. Burner has arrived, Koné and Doucouré are taking it easy, and the sixth and seventh recruits are announced. Point.
The workout. Workshops with a one-meter cage without a goalkeeper, ball retention exercise… the Crocos, who resumed training on Monday, touched leather for the first time this season. Finally, almost all of them: Koné (who did not gain weight according to the scale on Wednesday morning, another positive sign), returned a little ill from Senegal, was content to jog; while Doucouré, who is coming back from injury, cycled indoors.
Benezet, Eliasson and Nasraoui already interesting
There were 17 of them in the field. With Burner who has arrived, but without Mbow still on stand-by on the side of Reims, where he must extend to be loaned to Nîmes. Ueda, who didn’t have a holiday break because he was not selected by Japan for the last meeting, is training normally. We liked Benezet, Eliasson and the young left-back Nasraoui. “Simplicity and fluidity”, coach Nicolas Usaï appreciated the hour and a half spent on the ground.
The market. NO has so far recruited five players (Maraval, Labonne, De Gevigney, Benezet and Tchokounté). The sixth recruit was confirmed by the coach this Wednesday evening: Thibaut Vargas, 22-year-old offensive right-back trained in Montpellier, who played in Châteauroux (N) during the past season. The track, very hot before the start of the transfer window, had cooled since. “I called his agent back a few days ago, says the Gard coach who cared about the player, and it will happen.” His arrival could be formalized by the end of the week.
For the boss in the middle, you will have to wait
A seventh reinforcement is also becoming clearer. In the middle of the field. But it will not be the boss, the expected framework, as envisaged with Mangani and Oniangué. Not yet, anyway. According to our information, it would be a young foreigner, box to box profile, who, according to a source close to the club, “breaks lines and plays vertically”. A profile that suits Nicolas Usaï’s game project. He would come on loan, which could also come in the next few days.
Paquiez, Martinez and Briançon, the end of an era
Otherwise, it’s the end of an era: the arrival of Vargas puts an end to a hypothetical extension of the contract of Paquiez, who refused the first proposal from Nîmes; while that of Martinez is not on the agenda. “Pablo” went to the Bastide with his children, this Wednesday afternoon, but to greet his now former teammates. Finally, Briançon has officially signed up with Saint-Etienne (L2) for three years.
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