According to L’Équipe, former Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira is now the favourite to take the helm at Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace.
Despite keeping Strasbourg in Ligue 1 last season, survival specialist Frédéric Antonetti left Les Alsaciens by mutual consent earlier this week as since the club’s takeover by Chelsea owners BlueCo, ambition has been revised upwards. The club are therefore looking for a new manager who is in line with those loftier ambitions, and a three-man shortlist was drawn up.
Vieira, Philippe Montanier and Karel Geraerts are the three names on this shortlist, according to L’Équipe. However, the latter is now out of the running. Geraerts has been linked with many jobs in Ligue 1 this summer since leaving Union Saint-Gilloise, however, Strasbourg are looking for a francophone manager to take charge at the club.
That leaves Montanier, who was arguably harshly dismissed by FC Toulouse at the end of the season, despite leading Le TéféCé to the Coupe de France title during the club’s first season back in Ligue 1. However, his entourage have said that after his experience at Toulouse, he is “tired” and it is, therefore, doubtful as to whether he will wish to get stuck back into another project. Vieira is therefore considered the priority by the hierarchy at Strasbourg at this moment in time.
GFFN | Luke Entwistle
