Sheffield United loanee Benie Traore's uncertain Nantes spell continues amid relegation scrap

Benie Traore's uncertain time on loan at Nantes has continued after the Ligue 1 side sacked their second manager of the season amid their survival scrap. The Sheffield United striker moved to France on loan in January, with La Maison Jaune holding the option to make his move permanent in the summer.

It has hardly been the most promising start to life in France for the Ivorian striker, who was sent off on his Nantes debut and is yet to find the net in his seven games for them so far. His latest appearance came as a substitute in Saturday's 3-1 home defeat to Strasbourg, which saw manager Jocelyn Gourvennec - the man in charge when Traore signed - sacked, with Nantes 16th and in the relegation play-off spot.

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In a bid to arrest their decline owner Waldemar Kita has brought back Antoine Kombouaré, who he sacked last May because he felt Kombouaré was not capable of keeping Nantes in the division, in a bid to do just that this time around. A total of 13 different people have now managed Nantes since 2016, with four of them coming in 2020/21 alone, and it is yet more uncertainty for Traore as he starts life under technically his fifth manager of the season - Per-Mathias Høgmo at Hacken, whose Allsvenskan season overlapped with the Blades'; Paul Heckingbottom and Chris Wilder at United and now Gourvennec and Kombouaré at the Stade de la Beaujoire.

Speaking after sealing his move to France Traore, who struggled to acclimatise to the pace and power of the Premier League and made just three league starts for the Blades following his £4m move from Sweden, said: "I am very happy to come here, to change environment.

"“I am a fast, technical player and I feel the shots offensively. To improve I think I can get in even more good areas, score more. But I think I'm on the right track. I was waiting for something because it was getting complicated for me on the Sheffield side. For a young player like me, I had to have playing time. With FC Nantes, it happened very quickly."