Ouest-France and RMC Sport report that former Angers Sporting Director Olivier Pickeu has been tapped by Ligue 2 side SM Caen to lead their attempts to return to the French top flight for the 2020/21 campaign.
This news emerges at the same time as the local media outlet reports that Pierre-Antoine Capton has finalised an agreement with a consortium of stakeholders about the future SM Caen project, which should be made official in August.
The Normandy club’s financial future was in serious doubt in the first half of this year, following COVID-19, with the existing shareholders barely able to scrape together a budget for the club to operate in the French 2nd division with for 2020/21.
The make-up of the consortium of news investors in the club, led by Pierre-Antoine Capton and backed by American investment fund Oaktree, has now been fully agreed, according to Ouest-France. It will be formalised once all remaining contracts are signed with the current owners, with whom negotiations are at a very advanced stage.
With the sale to be technically completed in August, this has not stopped Capton’s team from making moves to define the club’s future from the off. Capton will become SMC’s new president, but he will not have an operation role, rather the title is symbolic.
He has already convinced ex-Angers Sporting Director Olivier Pickeu to become his right-hand man in the project.
Pickeu began his playing career in 1989 with SM Caen and will make a magical return to the team, where he is expected to be handed a far bigger mandate to control all facets of club operations than he had at Angers.
