Troyes It is a club with more than 100 years of history in French football which includes several name changes, its disappearance and its refoundation as it is recognized today in 1986. Without being one of the most traditional in the country, it competed in the first division in a handful of seasons in this last stretch of existence, winning an international title -Intertoto Cup 2001- and its fans were excited about a greater role since In September 2020 it was purchased by the City Group. But it was the beginning of a new nightmare.
The arrival of the company that successfully manages Manchester City, of the English Premier League, and Girona, of Spain, promised greater resources, new colors and results that would allow him to return to Ligue 1, something that happened immediately. That promotion in the 2020/2021 season seems like it would have been in another life: Friday’s game at his stadium could not be completed because Their fans filled the area of the sector they occupied with flares when their second consecutive decline was already irreversible. A scandal. Yes, in two years he dropped to the third category and the ultras do not forgive that, especially the leadership.
Trojans one of the 13 clubs that is under the wing of the City Group, with more shares in some than in others. It does not have the level that Manchester City, the last winner of the Champions League, reached and maintains, nor did it become a revelation like Girona, which was the leader of the Spanish League for almost the entire first round of the current tournament and is third. Those from Aube, in the northeast of France, are one of the ventures that do not prosper. On the contrary, the fans point to the company with a majority of Arab interests as responsible for the debacle. They attribute disastrous management and certain abandonment. And the fury was felt two minutes before the end of the match that tied 1-1 at the Stade de l’Aube with Valenciennes, the last of the positions in Ligue 2 and already relegated a few days ago.
The rain of flares – which players and security personnel returned to the stands – and smoke invaded the field when the team was about to take a side in attack in search of an insufficient victory. The unrest of the fans made it clear that the situation was irreversible and the referee immediately suspended the match. At a date before the end of the contest, The new relegation has already been decreed and not only the compendium of bad results emerge that leaves him among the last, but the decisions that, according to the fans, caused the sporting cataclysm.
A resonant case is what happened with Savinho, the Brazilian forward that City Group bought from Atlético Mineiro for six and a half million euros for Troyes, but the club never used it. When he reached the age of 18, the boy was loaned to PSV, from the Netherlands, and in the following season, to Girona, where He has scored 10 goals and given 8 assists in 36 games, between the League and the Copa del Rey. While Troyes sinks, Savinho shines on the other side of the border and has already agreed that After June he will go to… Manchester City. The ultras know it and that only fueled the hypothesis of contempt. Metinho and Amar Fatah, whose incorporations involved an investment of close to 5 million euros in each case, they also did not play for the French team and went to Sparta Rotterdam, from the Netherlands, and Lommel SK, from Belgium, respectively. Their goals did not help to avoid the debacle either.
Another decision that points to the leadership is the dismissal in the middle of the tournament of coach Bruno Irles, with the team outside the relegation zone, to giving that place to the Australian Patrick Kisnorbo, who at that time was coaching Melbourne City, another club in the group. The coach took over with the club trying to improve in the table and closes the season leaving it in the bottom positions, with a climate of misfortune and bad mood that revives the ghosts of the past. In the shadow of the brilliance of Manchester City and the rise of Girona, Troyes is collapsing, it is in free fall. And there is no containment network in sight that could put an end to the nightmare.