Roux Are You?

Remember Auxerre?

The tiny provincial team who rose from nowhere – well, Burgundy – to become French champions.

The club which dominated the Coupe de France (French FA Cup) between the mid-1990s and 2005, winning it four times and even clinching the double in 1996.

Auxerre, with its population of less than 40,000 (roughly the same as Accrington), who were playing Champions League football just four seasons ago, while finishing third in Ligue 1.

The sleepy little side against which Paolo Maldini made his European debut and watched on helplessly as AC Milan lost 3-1. Auxerre, who reached the UEFA Cup semi-finals only to lose on penalties to big, bad Borussia Dortmund.

The team which gave the footballing world Bacary Sagna, Basile Boli, Djibril Cisse and Eric Cantona while all the while being managed forever by everyone’s favourite uncle and visionary Guy Roux, who was in the hot seat for every year but one between 1964 and 2005.

That Auxerre.

(Btw, when at Auxerre, Cantona did this among other things. A foul so revered in French football it received its own article in Le Monde 25 years after the event)

Auxerre was the club that was loved by football hipsters, before such people were even given that name and instead were referred to as bores.

They would be mentioned reverentially, breathlessly by the kind of people who bought World Soccer magazine and actually read it.

When they won the league in 1996, their average gate was just over 11,000. They finished ahead of PSG and Monaco in second and third place.

Those who eulogised about Auxerre were the same kind of fans who could tell you the colour of Carl Zeiss Jena’s away kit, how many clean sheets Rinat Dasaev had kept last season or the strength in depth of the Eredivisie.

Auxerre were even given the highest hipster accolade of all; compared to the great Dinamo Tbilisi side which destroyed The Footballing Academy of West Ham in 1981.

Yes, that’s right, there was a time when beating West Ham at Upton Park was used as a measuring stick for football teams. It may or may not be coincidence but at the very same time the measuring stick for best record in the UK – sales – was being won by Shakin’ Stevens with “This Ole House”.

Back to Auxerre or AJA – Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise – to give the club its full name.

On Saturday afternoon, the current Auxerre team will nervously trot out for their Ligue 2 fixture at equally anxious Caen.

The home side will be worried as they grip perilously to the final promotion spot in third place, heading four teams tied on 50 points.

Auxerre are worried for quite different reasons.

They hover one place, 17th, and one point, 36, above the relegation zone.

Four seasons after they were playing Real Madrid they could sink into the margins of the third tier of French football, a sort of footballing neverland akin in the reality TV world to being placed in the secret spare room in Big Brother after being voted out by your housemates.

Sandwiched between the powers of FC Istres and Stade Laval, Auxerre have six matches left to try and stay up. Four of those matches are against the current top 5, including one against as-good-as-promoted league leaders Metz.

Their best hope for three points may be the match against Le Havre, and even better, it is at home which means two things are in their favour: Not only will they have the backing of their admittedly dwindling support but also they won’t have to visit the town of Le Havre.

Winning has proved difficult in the last few months for Auxerre, the side having taken maximum points only once in the past nine games.

In fact, winning has proved difficult for the past few seasons.

They were only relegated from Ligue 1 in 2012 – after 32 years in the top flight – and struggled in their first season back in Ligue 2.

With a debt of over €16 million they had to sell off some of their better players, including young forward Paul-Georges Ntep, who when presented with a possible choice of signing for QPR and Stoke, chose to play his football in the cathedral city of Rennes.

As well as shedding players they have, surprisingly for a club that employed Roux for 895 games, been shedding managers.

In the nine years since Roux retired, Auxerre have tried five managers, the last one being sacked just last month.

Among those who tried and failed to walk in Roux’s shoes was a former Tottenham coach (is there any other kind?), Jacques Santini.

Things look bleak; the playing staff is young and inexperienced, the team can’t score and relegation rivals have an easier run-in.

Even if they manage to scrape through this season, finances will probably dictate another tough campaign ahead next year, though at least with Ajaccio coming down from Ligue 1 there is a French side who have every chance of imitating Wolves, pre-Kenny Jackett. Sadly, if feels like the third tier beckons.

Football should be in constant flux and not too sentimental and if Auxerre do go down it will be their own damn fault. It also shows just how much Roux overachieved.

But in an era when French football, like others, is so dominated by money, the further demise of Auxerre will be one more sign of a little less romance. Let’s face it, it could be a long time before they finish above PSG and Monaco again.