Lens manager Franck Haise: “I didn’t think we’d be here.”

RC Lens manager Franck Haise has admitted that he has been unpleasantly surprised by the historically bad start to the Ligue 1 campaign. 

Lens have just one point from their first five matches following Saturday night’s 1-0 defeat to FC Metz at the Stade Bollaert. It is Les Sang et Or’s worst-ever start to a Ligue 1 Uber Eats campaign and the lowest total of points accrued by a team that in the previous season finished in second place. With four defeats in their first five games, Lens have also already equalled their amount of defeats from the whole of last season’s campaign.

Things don’t get any easier for Lens, whose Champions League campaign kick-offs with a trip to Sevilla this week, before a match against Toulouse FC next weekend. 

Speaking after Saturday night’s defeat to newly-promoted Metz, Haise expressed surprise but also resilience in the face of the club’s difficult period. 

“Things will turn around. When? I don’t know. I’m not going to arrive with a bucket of confidence. We’re going to continue to believe in ourselves. I believe in my players and my team. The season will perhaps be difficult until the end. We came up short this evening, but I am confident,” said Lens’ manager in a press conference transcribed by RMC Sport. 

He added, “I didn’t think we would be here, with just one point from 15. I knew it would certainly be a more difficult season. But this is where we are and we have to face it.”

GFFN | Luke Entwistle