Elsner Effect: Can Luka Elsner Elevate The Work Of His Former Assistant, Will Still At Reims?
The Slovenian reawakened France's oldest club, now a new challenge awaits.
Luka Elsner is just forty-one. But he has already travelled a winding road full of lessons and challenges on his journey as a manager.
In the past two seasons, the education from his past trials came together. They did so in a beautiful crescendo at France’s oldest club, Le Havre.
At Standard Liège in the 2021/22 season, Elsner recruited a young Will Still to his coaching team.
Today, Still has departed the Reims hotseat after a successful stint to join the great disruptors at RC Lens, the vacant hotseat at Reims left by Still is to be filled by his one-time senior at Liège, Elsner.
In this edition of the Ligue 1 Essential, we profile Reims' intriguing new coach.
Elsner's Amiens: A Challenging Journey Through Ligue 1 and Ligue 2
In 2019, Amiens fired Christophe Pelissier. They turned to Elsner. Back then, few knew his name, but Elsner was no stranger to France.
During the time when his father, Marko Elsner, played for OGC Nice, he grew up there.
His CV was long for one so young. At 37, he had already gained experience from managing in three countries. (Union Sainte-Gilloise in Belgium, Domzale Ljubljana in Slovenia, and Pafos in Cyprus.)
Elsner was then the youngest manager in Ligue 1. He showed tactical innovation and a thirst for attacking football. But the tools available to him at Amiens imposed big limits.
Mendoza, Otero, and the once wonderkid turned journeyman Gael Kakuta were coaxed to display their talent.
Elsner was enthusiastic. But he could not prevent Amiens' relegation. The world had turned upside down from the Covid pandemic.
The gatekeepers of Ligue 1 made a snap decision to end the season early due to the ripple effect of the pandemic.
With ten games still left to play, Amiens and Elsner are relegated.
The club retained Elsner as manager for their Ligue 2 campaign. However, a dismal season start put the young manager under scrutiny.
Amiens gambled on Elsner, but it did not pay off. They parted ways. He only mustered five wins out of thirty-three matches in Ligue 1 and Ligue 2.
We did not know it then. The Amiens stint was to form Elsner. One day, it would help revive the oldest club in French football.
Elsner And Will Still: A Collective Destiny Intertwined
Elsner did not rest on his laurels. Four months later, he took over at KV Kortrijk in Belgium. It was a football environment and culture he knew well.
Despite the Amiens failure, Belgian football circles still valued him. They did so because of his time at Union Sainte-Gilloise.
His time as manager was solid but not great. Elsner had guided the Belgian side to mid-table. But destiny had a bigger plan for him.
Giants Standard Liège is one of Belgium’s most decorated clubs. But they had fallen on challenging times. Elsner was the man entrusted with bringing Les Rouches back to where they felt they belonged.
Liège faced financial difficulties, burdened by devoted fans who were experiencing deep discontent.
It was here on the banks of the Meuse that Elsner and Will Still’s paths would meet.
Young, multilingual with an endless hunger for developing young players, they are football tacticians from the same clan, cut from the same cloth.
At the time Still was only twenty-eight, he resisted overtures from Vincent Kompany who was at the helm of rivals Anderlecht, to join Elsner.
Still, he was patiently educating himself up the coaching ladder. He had worked as a coach at Reims in Ligue 1 under Oscar Garcia before joining Elsner’s management team in Liege.
Initially, Elsner stabilised the fallen giants. But this would be brief. Liège were a mess. The club was dysfunctional and yearning for a saviour.
Under Elsner, they would only go on to win seven of twenty-seven matches across all competitions.
Liège and Elsner limped to the end of the season. Ironically, they finished in 14th place, just one point ahead of his old club, Kortrijk.
Summer 2022 brought sunshine to Liège. Their boardroom welcomed their new owners, an American investment firm called 777 Partners. They took over Standard, seeing a chance to flip a former giant like a house renovation.
Liège’s new owners wanted their own coach, and Elsner found himself jettisoned.
The Le Havre Transformation
Typical of Elsner’s career to date, he sought a challenge, and at Le Havre, a big one awaited him.
For fifteen long, barren years, Le Havre had no Ligue 1 football. It was an unwelcome break for the club. This hiatus was unbefitting of the club that won France’s first national championship in 1899.
Elsner walked through the door at Le Havre in the summer of 2022. His arrival signaled a complete overhaul at the Ligue 2 club.
Owner Vincent Volpe swung the axe. He appointed a new manager, president, directors, and scouts. A new era was beckoning.
Young Elsner on the face of it, was a gamble, his last stint in management on French shores at Amiens had not gone to plan, nor did the Standard Liege rebuild, but, neither were the most fertile grounds for Elsner to sow his seeds.
Le Havre noticed Elsner thanks to their Sporting Director, Mathieu Bodmer.
Bodmer is a native of Normandy. His voice carries weight in the halls of power. He knew Elsner well from their time together at Amiens.
Bodmer was a midfielder in his playing days. He had played under the Slovenian coach during his troubled time at Amiens.
The Elsner Effect was not instant at Stade Océane. But, in late August, Saint-Étienne suffered a crushing 6-0 defeat in the grand old stadium. People began to take notice.
The malaise and gloom at Le Havre was beginning to dissipate like a springtime shower.
Full of intent and energy, they attacked as a well-oiled unit, Elsner’s methods were beginning to bear fruit.
A word from inside the camp alluded to an increased focus on training at a level not previously experienced.
Elsner, like all good leaders, kept surrounding himself with great people. One main force behind the scenes at the Le Havre revolution was said to be Thomas Joubert. He was a former Auxerre player turned physical trainer.
Elsner on Thomas Joubert:
“He changed my vision with regards training. He opened doors for me.”
Defensive fortitude was central to the Le Havre machine, at home they lost just a single game and conceded a paltry nine goals in front of their own supporters.
On their travels, their defence was full of fierce resolve. It was breached only ten times across the season.
Elsner’s promotion chasers were a tough nut to crack, his nomadic managerial career had found a home.
Promotion beckoned, a sleeping giant of French football was awakening from its slumber.
Le Havre's influence runs deep in the game in France. This is thanks to their rich academy. It has produced stars like Paul Pogba, Dimitri Payet, and Riyad Mahrez.
The club nurtured great talents. But, for other teams, with promotion secured, Le Havre had a chance at redemption. If they could survive in Ligue 1.
Preparing for Ligue 1 Life: Wheeling and Dealing
Like most promoted clubs, starved of TV money, Le Havre entered the Transfer Market with a shoestring budget, avoiding immediate relegation would not be an easy task for Elsner and his team.
To make matters worse, cornerstones of the promotion campaign that was built on an extreme defensive philosophy were poached.
During the Ligue 2 promotion charge Elsner’s side conceded just 19 league goals across the season.
To reach such a level of defensive synergy, attacking gusto must be partly sacrificed, Quentin Cornette and Nabil Alioui finished the Ligue 2 season as the club’s top scorers with a grand total of just six goals each.
Volos, from Greece, whisked Cornette away. This was despite the allure of Ligue 1 football Le Havre had to offer. His time near the beaches of the Aegean Sea was short. Today, he plays in Kazakhstan.
Le Havre had to find some artillery in the transfer market potent enough to breach Ligue 1 defences.
Considerable nous would be required to ensure the squad was sufficiently fortified for the battles that lay ahead.
To fully appreciate the impressive work Elsner did at Le Havre it is vital that we view the clubs’ transfer business in the summer of 2023/24.
The arrivals of Mohamed Bayo (Loan) and Andre Ayew (Free Agent) were pivotal acquisitions. The pair laid the key foundation stones in the Le Havre survival story.
Bayo was well-regarded in France the summer before. He blasted fourteen goals for newly promoted Clermont. He was twenty-five and in his prime. So, why was he available for loan?
His Clermont heroics earned him a transfer to Lille, the glitz and glamour proved hard to resist for the young Guinean international, he suffered a banishment from the first team at the hands of then manager Paulo Fonseca after he was seen partying in a nightclub on the eve of a Lille 7-1 defeat to PSG.
At the vanguard in front of the defence Le Harve also managed to assemble a formidable midfield pairing of free transfers.
Abdoulaye Touré returned to France after a voyage in Italian football with Genoa, he proved to be a powerhouse in midfield alongside box-to-box Daler Kuzyaev another free signing from Zenit St Petersburg.
The duo proved to be vital sentinels in front of Elsner’s three men defensive structure.
Elsner had the Amiens relegation experience. He knew they would need defensive strength to survive. This would be the template for him and Le Havre.
Gone was the attacking nativity that had often undone he and Amiens during his previous Ligue 1 experience, Le Havre had no pampered Prima Donnas, defensive pragmatism and effort was their ideology.
Vital points on the road were gathered via high fought draws against some of the powerhouses of French football including PSG, Rennes, Lyon, Monaco and RC Lens.
These precious points coupled with impressive victories over Toulouse x2, OGC Nice, Strasbourg and Lyon ensured there was to be no Ligue 1 trap door for Elsner this time round.
In recent days, Elsner’s appointment at Reims has been officially announced after weeks of negotiations.
Adrien Tarascon will be his assistant, and he will arrive from Lille once he serves his notice.
Elsner has earned this chance. At Reims, his expected goals will be far higher than just surviving. But so will his means.
Fortune did not play a role in his rise to prominence, as his methods had a profound impact at Le Havre that will resonate for some time.
If he manages to strike a balance with his bewitching defensive football and attacking impetus, his managerial rise will only continue to go in one direction with Reims.
Elsner and Reims have both independently shown they are empathically capable of knocking the big boys out of their usual composed strides on occasion.
Next season they may become the bête noire for many at the top table of Ligue 1.