FEATURE | Will Still and Reims from European hopes to an early divorce

It was announced today that Will Still has left Stade de Reims with immediate effect. The Anglo-Belgian manager was expected to last until the end of the season at the Champagne club, but recent results and growing tensions have left last season’s darling of French football out in the cold. 

The breaking point appears to have happened over the weekend when the club fell to a 3-1 defeat to bottom-placed Clermont Foot, with the manager stating after the game, “ I feel like such an idiot, it’s the worst day of my career, the hardest and most difficult to accept .” The problem for Still was that the result was not all that surprising. 

Ahead of Ligue 1’s winter break, Reims were in eighth place and only two points away from a Champions League place. Since January their results have fallen off a cliff, with the club having only picked up 14 points, a tally which has seen their lofty European ambitions come crashing down to Earth. And with three defeats in a row each coming against teams in the bottom half of the table there was the sense that the club had lost sight of what had made them such an exciting force. 

Still will likely blame this unfortunate second half of the season on Reims’ decisions during the winter transfer window. He had been clear that he felt the squad was not strong enough to maintain its European push without reinforcements. He was also concerned about how the Africa Cup of Nations and the AFC Asian Cup would deplete his resources with six of his players competing. 

It was a fear that the Reims hierarchy did not share with their manager, as Still relayed, “ The management was clear on the fact that there would be no recruitment this winter .” It was probably therefore surprising to Still when the