Nicolas Usaï leaves, Thierry Debès takes interim charge as Pau seek reset | OneFootball

Pau have parted company with Nicolas Usaï by mutual consent, with Thierry Debès taking interim charge and leading training. The club said in a statement that the two sides had ended their collaboration.

In early October Pau beat Clermont 3-1 to reach 20 points in nine and sit on the Ligue 2 podium. Since then they have taken only 8 points from 11, the league’s worst return in that span, and lost 0-1 at Mérignac, an R1 side, in the Coupe de France.

Two late equalisers turned recent home games against Rodez and Grenoble into draws, with a 3-1 defeat at Dunkerque between them, and tensions grew over winter. A 1-0 win at Montpellier on six December remains the last victory, a day marked by a tense pre-match exchange.

Pau are 10th, six points off fifth-placed Saint-Étienne. After the Grenoble draw, a dejected Usaï criticised part of his squad and both sides concluded separation was the best option.

Usaï’s two-and-a-half-year spell covered 99 matches, yielding 34 wins, 31 draws and 34 defeats, and he was out of contract in June. Debès, who joined in November and previously kept AC Ajaccio up before their bankruptcy, is working towards the BEPF and is understood to have two weeks to convince the hierarchy, while the squad should add at least one signing before the window closes.

Source: L'Équipe