One season at Lens, then nothing
Will Still has spoken out. In an interview with Ligue1+, the AJ Auxerre manager looked back on the months after leaving RC Lens. The word he uses is brutal: empty.
Still was appointed at Lens in June 2024 to replace Franck Haise. He lasted just one season. The Belgian-British coach chose to step away and return to England, not least because of serious health issues involving his partner. A brief spell at Southampton followed, then nothing for months on end.
“After the year at Lens, physically and mentally, I was empty,” he says. “There was nothing left. I was drained, done in.”
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Seven or eight months completely out of action
Still is happy to compare himself with some of the biggest names in the game. He points to Jurgen Klopp and his early retirement. He also points to coaches who announce a sabbatical and get a blank stare from the public.
“Supporters on the outside might say, ‘What are you talking about? You’ve got the best job in the world, how can you be tired?’ But now I get it,” the Belgian continues. “I did nothing for seven or eight months. I had time to look after myself, my family and spend time with them.”
Seven or eight months out of the game entirely. For a coach who had been hopping from one dugout to another since breaking through at Reims in 2022, the break said plenty. Still had become the youngest manager in a major European league, to the point where his club were paying weekly fines because he still did not have an UEFA Pro licence.
Auxerre to get the engine running again
The Belgian-British coach finally returned to the touchline this summer. AJ Auxerre handed him a two-year deal. The Burgundy club are betting on a young coach, shaped by the English way of managing, who already knows Ligue 1 from spells at Reims and Lens.
The backdrop is different now. Still is no longer arriving as the division’s novelty act but as a coach who has been through the full grind, right to the point of exhaustion. His public remarks on the mental load on managers are still rare in Ligue 1, where these things are usually dealt with behind closed doors and away from the cameras.
Time will tell what it looks like on the pitch with Auxerre.
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