Having a great club in the second division is not exclusively an Italian specialty. France have their own little Juventus in eight-times champions Nantes.

The Canaries had their wings clipped by years of mismanagement and internal squabbling and have started life as a Ligue 2 club for the first time in over four decades.

They did that in style on Monday, thrashing fellow once-great club Stade Reims 5-0. There were 27,000 fans in their Beaujoire stadium for their second division debut and plenty of ‘ola’ rounds to greet an exciting display.

Great teams never die, they say.

“We wanted to show the fans that the team have soul,” said Nantes captain Frederic Da Rocha.

A few months earlier, the same Da Rocha had said he felt ashamed after the team from the Atlantic port were relegated at the end of a record 44-year spell in the top flight.

Last season was a disaster for Nantes, who used three coaches and called former France goalkeeper Fabien Barthez to the rescue just before Christmas. That did not help at all, the bald-headed former world and European champion soon harming the club with embarrassing blunders and eventually leaving in disgrace after getting into a fight with a fan.

Nantes lovers will tell you, however, that the main problem was not Barthez but rather having the wrong people upstairs.

Nurtured for years by unpretentious father figures, the club changed dramatically in 2004 when Serge Dassault, the owner of a powerful aviation and industrial company, took control.

It soon became obvious that the man had more important things to do than looking after a football club. He let others do it and they did it any old how, breaking with those rich schooling traditions, buying the wrong players, picking the wrong coaches and leaving all those who had contributed to making Nantes such a great club over the years on the sidelines.

Things seem to be changing. A Polish-born businessman, Waldemar Kita, bought the club a few days ago and immediately said he was passionate about Nantes and determined to bring back the glory days when the Canaries, relying on homegrown talent, thrilled the crowds with their swift, attacking game.

One of his first moves, Kita said, would be to change the coach. The favourite to replace Michel Der Zakarian is former European Footballer of the Year Jean-Pierre Papin.

Let’s hope he fits in better than Barthez.

Patrick Vignal, Paris