The top brass at Uefa have a penchant for fine living, which is why Monaco hosts the Champions’ League draw every August. Executive gold cards take a hammering at some of the best hotels around Europe each season. Next year, though, Lennart Johansson’s minions could become more familiar with B & B rather than G & T if Guingamp throw a spanner in the works. The top brass at Uefa have a penchant for fine living, which is why Monaco hosts the Champions’ League draw every August. Executive gold cards take a hammering at some of the best hotels around Europe each season.

Next year, though, Lennart Johansson’s minions could become more familiar with B & B rather than G & T if Guingamp throw a spanner in the works.
The surprise team of the French first division are the antithesis of everything the elitist Champions’ League craves. Monaco can offer a glitzy marina, Guingamp is simply a backwater; while Monaco boasts a grand prix, Guingamp only has a Formule One (that’s a motel).Yet if Guy Lacombe’s players maintain their remarkable progress, then the small town in Brittany will gain an invitation to European football’s top table. Every Champions’ League visit will be like Christmas: there will be no room at the inn.There are only 100 hotel beds in Guingamp. Their promotion into the French First Division last summer has given sides such as Paris St-Germain an accommodation headache. Visiting teams stay instead at the resort of Saint-Quay-Portrieux 20 miles away rather than allow stars like Nicolas Anelka to risk rustic charm.Last night, it was Monaco’s turn. No doubt the Monegasques’ patron, Prince Rainier, had an excuse that kept him at home.

A win over the French champions in the Stade de Roudourou – whose 18,000 seats are full for most games – could hoist Guingamp back to the third place they occupied until last week’s 2-1 defeat away to the leaders Nantes.Even France, accustomed to small-scale success stories in the shape of Auxerre, is bewildered at Lacombe’s team. They were expected to be cannon fodder; instead they have been calling the shots, all on a budget of £10m (to cover wages and fees), about one-fifth of what PSG and Lyon operate on.En Avant Guingamp, to give the club their full title, receive only £140,000 from the town itself. Some £5m is provided by French television rights and another £3m from the region, the Cÿtes d’Armor. So, while PSG were spending £21m bringing back Anelka from Real Madrid, Lacombe, 45, was scouring his contacts book trying to find who he could afford and whether they would be interested in moving to the French equivalent of Penrith.”I spent my entire summer holidays on the telephone,” Lacombe recalled, “and it was not easy to get players to come here I knew I couldn’t spend £2.5m on a player. I would like to change it, but that is life.”However, Guingamp is seen as a club where the players can bond. We are on a mission and if that sounds pompous, all I have asked is that the players give me their maximum.”One of the four players recruited by Lacombe was Bruno Rodriguez, a forward who has spent the last two years wandering from PSG to Bradford City and then Lens before joining Guingamp on loan for the season.But the rejuvenative effects of Lacombe’s coaching is paying off: Rodriguez has netted seven league goals this season, a better return than his former club have had from Anelka. “Bruno has come to relaunch his career with us,” said Lacombe “He has superb touch and power.