A long way from Monaco: Cercle Brugge’s recent success a distant memory as relegation remains a real possibility | OneFootball

Rewind to the end of the 2023/2024 season. Cercle Brugge had shown that being closely aligned to a ‘bigger’ club isn’t always a negative thing. The green and black half of the city had put together a young team led by an exciting head coach in Miron Muslic who had taken them from being a relegation struggler to European football. Yet, just months later, things started to unravel and now we have reached a point where relegation to the Challenger Pro League must be considered a real possibility by the club.

After a close defeat to KV Mechelen this weekend, Cercle Brugge have lost six of their past seven games, with their last win in the Belgian Pro League coming all the way back in August. Onur Cinel has been publicly backed by the club, but even they must be wondering if a change is required. Yet how did we get to this point?

Many fans will say that Muslic should not have been sacked. He came in under a cloud of controversy under the previous Sporting Director Carlos Avina. Now at the parent club Monaco, Avina was never afraid to make the big decisions. He believed in his long-term vision and built the club around it, and with Muslic in charge, his dream became a reality. On the pitch the side were a combative young group that pressed high and made life difficult for their opponents. They also recruited extremely well as Avina made use of extensive scouting networks and looking two or three steps ahead.

His replacement was Rembert Vromant. Vromant was in charge of recruitment for the summer of 2024 as the side needed to build a squad capable of managing both European and domestic football. Myself and Scott Coyne of the Belgian Football Podcast went to the sides Europa League qualifier against Kilmarnock, in which Vromant told us that he didn’t feel the club needed to spend more money, despite Monaco having given the green light for them to invest. This was clearly not what the head coach wanted, and a clear divide between the Sporting Director and Muslic came during a Conference League defeat against Icelandic side Vikingur. Muslic had not been able to call upon the entire Cercle Brugge squad, and his side were not at full strength as they suffered an embarrassing defeat in Reykjavik.

Fast forward to December, and Muslic would be suffering the consequences of this inaction and disagreement. The side were performing well in Europe, but with top scorer Kevin Denkey off to the MLS and other key players having left in the summer, Cercle Brugge were struggling domestically. Muslic was sacked, then ended up in England with Plymouth but was unable to turn the clubs fortunes around. He is now leading Schalke 04 to the top of the 2. Bundesliga and potentially back to the top flight, a reminder of how talented he is as a head coach. Cercle Brugge fans will likely be watching his current fortunes with great envy and sadness, as he was incredibly popular for what he had brought to the club during his time in charge.

In place of Muslic, Cercle Brugge turned to Ferdinand Feldhofer, who spent just 13 games in charge, winning three, drawing seven and losing three. Cercle Brugge found themselves in the relegation play-off, and the board moved quickly, sacking Feldhofer to bring in survival specialist Bernd Storck in for those two games. Cercle Brugge proved too strong for Patro Eisden over those two games and remained in the Pro League. Storck was under the impression that if he was successful in those two matches he’d have the job for the 2025/2026 season. He was mistaken. Instead, Cinel was brought in to try and get the club back on track with Avina’s original vision. Vromant was also gone, much to the delight of the clubs fans.

After 18 games in the Pro League, Cinel has won just two, drawn seven and lost nine. Yet is it all his fault? The side had problems at the back last season when Jesper Daland left, but these were slightly rectified by the signing of experienced defender Lucas Perrin. This year, they have not rectified that issue in the same way. Instead, Cercle Brugge’s oldest defender is 25-year-old Edgaras Utkus. This is a clear area where the side simply cannot afford to bring in someone with quality and experience in the winter window, like they did in Perrin.

On Cinel, he has shown signs of being able to adapt to situations, but too often than not the side have looked naive and caught out at the back. Is this down to inexperience in the back line, or a lack of proper instruction from the coaching team?

Of the players they did sign in the summer, not many have had much of an impact. Cercle Brugge are always able to call on Monaco for loan players and have done so successfully in the past. Last year none of these players who swapped the principality for Brugge had much impact, but so far this season Edan Diop has done reasonably well and is a clear crowd favourite. The winger has scored three and provided one assists in 20 appearances.

It says something when the sides top scorer, Steve Ngoura with four, has scored less goals than Flavio Nazinho has picked up yellow cards (six). Creativity and efficiency are an issue for Cercle, who put up 17 shots against KV Mechelen but only converted two, one of which was from the penalty spot. Ngoura has looked good at times, and works hard. Back in 2023/2024, Muslic had gotten a lot out of young Ecuadorian winger Alan Minda. The former Independiente del Valle youngster scored eight goals and provided six assists. Last season there was a clear drop off, as Minda only managed three goals and six assists in 42 games. This season he has been a bit part player, and he feels far less dynamic than his first season at Cercle Brugge. Getting Minda back on form could help turn things around. If that isn’t possible, the club will be frustrated that they didn’t cash in on him when they had the chance.

The big question hanging over the side now is what direction they will go in next. Do they stick with Cinel, back him in January with more signings and hope to keep the original vision alive. Or do they go back to Storck, who remains unemployed. Whether or not he would be willing to take up the job remains to be seen, but that style of manager may be what they need.

What hasn’t helped Cercle Brugge and Cinel in recent weeks has been the resurgent form of Dender. The side at the bottom of the Pro League looked dead and buried, meaning that they would more than likely be facing the side from the Challenger Pro League in the relegation play-off. Yet, that spot is now up for grabs once again, with Cercle Brugge trending in it’s direction.

Monaco and Cercle Brugge cannot afford to dice with relegation for a second season in a row. Something has to change to reverse this current trend. All the positivity that had been generated by that side under Muslic just two seasons ago has evaporated as quickly as it appeared. Cercle Brugge are reverting to type, and this time that may well cost them a place in the Belgian Pro League.

GBeNeFN | Ben Jackson