Auxerre owner delivers a message to supporters following Christophe Pélissier sacking | OneFootball

AJ Auxerre have some ambitious goals for the future. Club owner James Zhou addressed fans on the team’s official website on Friday.

Zhou acknowledged how difficult a season his club endured in 2025-26, hovering near the bottom of the Ligue 1 table for much of the season. Even so, he stuck by manager Christophe Pélissier, who was able to keep them in the top flight thanks to a victory on the final matchday over Lille OSC (2-0).

Despite guiding them to three successive triumphs to end the domestic campaign. Zhou chose to part ways with Pélissier, with Will Still expected to replace him very soon. With the club, in his words, entering a transitional period, Zhou had this to say to fans of the Burgundy club.

“I ask you for understanding and patience. Our project is now to be more ambitious, to take the AJA to an additional level.”

He says that is what prompted him to make a managerial change. Pélissier took charge of AJA during the 2022-23 Ligue 1 campaign following the dismissal of Jean-Marc Furlan. While they dropped down into Ligue 2 at the end of that campaign, Pélissier got them right back into the top-flight with Auxerre capturing the Ligue 2 crown in 2023-24. Under Pélissier, this small club finished a respectable 11th in the table in 2024-25.

The Chinese owner believes he has demonstrated, during his tenure as owner, a commitment to ensuring the club grows and remains the pride of the whole region. He says he has full confidence in Baptiste Malherbe, the club president, to carry out the club’s future mission. That is:

“To progress even more, to go higher, to develop the club and to guarantee its sustainability and future at the highest level,” he said.

Besides the Ligue 2 title, Auxerre have won just one other major trophy this century, the Coupe de France in 2005. Under former manager Guy Roux, they won the Ligue 1 title and Coupe de France in 1995-96.

GFFN | Joel Lefevre