For an hour on Wednesday, Girondins de Bordeaux were relegated from Ligue 1 as fellow fallen giants and relegation battlers AS Saint-Etienne led OGC Nice 2-0 away from home which would have condemned David Guion’s men to demotion from the French elite. Ultimately, Christophe Galtier’s Aiglons fought back to beat Saint-Etienne 4-2 which earned Bordeaux a scarcely merited temporary reprieve, but any salvation hope remains slim with a four-point gap to the relegation playoffs and just two matches remaining.
Just over 10 years ago and before Qatari ownership made Paris Saint-Germain the dominant power in French soccer, Les Girondins were one of the leading clubs, with a 2009 Ligue 1 title and a 2010 UEFA Champions League quarterfinal appearance on their resume. Fast-forward little more than 12 years from that two-legged affair which saw Olympique Lyonnais advance 3-2 on aggregate to face eventual beaten finalists Bayern Munich and Bordeaux are on the verge of the unthinkable: dropping into Ligue 2 or worse with the club in total financial disarray.
French legends such as Zinedine Zidane, Jean Tigana and Alain Giresse graced the turf of Bordeaux’s former Stade Chaban Delmas home, while more recent star turns included Yoann Gourcuff in his absolute prime and a young Aurelien Tchouameni who is now with AS Monaco. So, how do six-time French champions, four-time Coupe de France, and three-time Coupe de la Ligue (now defunct) winners like Les Girondins plummet like a stone to reach their sad current situation, which not only threatens their topflight status but their very existence?
Sadly, the Southwestern French giants’ recent history is a story of stagnation and terrible mismanagement which is now likely to banish one of the most historic names in the French game to the lower reaches of the domestic game. Aside from a 2014 Coupe de France success, results were already suffering when Bordeaux’s…
Source : cbssports
