The days of buying an Elye Wahi for €30m or an Andy Diouf for €14m are over at RC Lens, the club’s new sporting director has announced.

The spending in the wake of the club’s UEFA Champions League qualification did not pay off. In fact, they are still paying for it, and it has given rise to a period of austerity at the club, which came into force under Will Still last season.

Lens, like many clubs in France, continue to struggle with the financial implications of the ongoing TV rights deal. DAZN was the main broadcaster last season but their deal has been cut short after just one season. The LFP are now launching their own channel and are looking to associate themselves with partners ahead of the coming season. The body have, however, admitted that it will be a difficult season financially, with limited TV revenue.

Within this context, the new sporting director, Jean-Louis Leca, has announced a return to the old strategy. “The [version of] Lens that performed well is the one that bought Loïc Badé intelligently, the one that went out and bought Jonathan Clauss, the one that intelligently loaned Arnaud Kalimuendo, without even speaking about the opportunities [seized] by signing Seko Fofana and Deiver Machado in Ligue 2 from Toulouse,” he said in a press conference transcribed by Market football journalist Sébastien Denis.

He added, “When we went and bought Kevin Danso and Facundo Medina, no one had heard of them. They were transfers worth €3/4/5m. If we can do good deals, we won’t hold back, but the version of Lens that performed best was not the one that spent €25-30m because that isn’t Lens.”

Tezz | Sandy