Le Havre: A primer on Bob Bradley's new gig and France's oldest club

One rung down the French football ladder from Ligue 1 sits Le Havre AC, a Haute-Normandie side steeped in tradition whose 1872 founding as a multi-sport association makes it France's oldest club.

Known as much for their academy as for their history of accomplishments, the club affectionately known as Le Club Doyen has long been emblematic of France's penchant for turning unknown commodities into world-class talents.

To understand the roots of Le Havre is to grasp the reality of the current state of French football, where one nouveau-riche capital club dominates, while other try in vain to keep pace with Paris Saint-Germain by unearthing unheralded prospects, only to turn them into transfer fodder for other clubs.

And the cycle continues, funding the clubs, both large and small, so they remain competitive. This phenomenon explains the funding behind Le Havre's 2012 move from Stade Jules Deschaseaux to the modern Stade Oceane.

It also bankrolls the club's ambitions, as they currently sit fourth in Ligue 2, with one eye on promotion, the other on the feasibility of a new owner's intentions.

On Tuesday, the Ligue 2 outfit named former U.S. National Team manager Bob Bradley as their new manager, joining fellow American Vincent Volpe, who this summer bought the club and was subsequently appointed chairman.

Volpe's arrival was a welcome one, as the American businessman immediately invested €10 million for a 90-percent stake in the club, and named an international and well-varied board to assist him. Unlike previous instances of American interests buying European clubs with nary a clue of the nuances of the game, Volpe has lived in Le Havre for 25 years and is married to a woman from Dieppe, a little more than a 100kms on the coast northeast of Le Havre.

The introduction of Bradley on Tuesday was received with the same tempered elation to that of Volpe's arrival in the summer, and the locals appear poised to again return to top-flight football for the first time since a yo-yo flirtation with Ligue 1 in 2008-09.

(Photo of Vincent Volpe, courtesy of @HAC_Officiel)

Le Havre are a club whose rich tradition is partly owed to its original English owners, who chose the kit colour scheme as a nod to their alma maters of Oxford and Cambridge, who created the still-standing club anthem to the melody of God Save The Queen with the lyrics: "The first ever of all French clubs The H.A.C Proud of your roots Son of Oxford and Cambridge two colors make our prestige (the colors of the) sky and the seal."

Known for their youth investment program, with names like Ibrahim Ba, Benjamin Mendy, Vikash Dhorasoo, Jean-Alain Boumsong, and Lassana Diarra, Les Ciel et Marine have been a launching pad for some of France's best.

Current Aston Villa midfielder Charles N'Zogbia and Juventus star Paul Pogba cut their teeth on the pitch at Stade Jules Deschaseaux, moving on to clubs of higher profile once they outgrew the modest confines of the coastal side.

Leicester City's star winger Riyad Mahrez was bought from Le Havre for a meager € 500,000 in 2013 after joining their reserve side as an unknown 18-year-old in 2010. Marseille's shot-stopping captain Steve Mandanda enjoyed a spell as a member of Le Havre's academy before making the jump to the first-team in 2005. Before joining the Haute-Normandie side, he was an angular kid from Zaire with nothing more than unfulfilled potential.

(Courtesy: BBC Sport)

The same can be said for names like Pascal Chimbonda, Florent Sinama-Pongolle, and Pierre Aubameyang, whose son Pierre-Emerick is doing a decent job of continuing the family legacy for Borussia Dortmund.

Once a stop on the way to stardom, the club's new brass and management looking to change that.

Much like the Haute-Normandie region they call home, Le Havre AC's history is deeply rooted in tradition and outside influences. With a 143 years of sporting heritage to their name, Le Club Doyen is on the up, and if there is a football club that deserves top-flight exposure, it's this one.