Lyon have no wins, little spirit and look destined for relegation
In August 2020, Lyon beat Manchester City to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League. Three years on, they are bottom of Ligue 1. Despite their catastrophic current campaign, the decline has been steady but sure. They are an example of how not to run a top-tier modern football club. The 2-1 home defeat on Sunday to Clermont, who were bottom themselves at kickoff, is the latest sign that one of France’s grandest clubs is now under genuine threat of relegation.
Haphazard transfer business is the most glaring of Lyon’s recent failings. Successful additions since that win over City have been rare. Lucas Paquetá, signed from Milan in September 2020 before moving to West Ham last year, is one of few exceptions along with the €4.2m spent on World Cup winner Nicolás Tagliafico in 2022. Alexandre Lacazette’s 31-goal return last season was also triumphant on an individual level.
With that in mind, the fact that midfielder Maxence Caqueret is the only one of 14 outfield players used in that City match to remain at the club points to declining quality. Admittedly, recruitment is hamstrung by financial issues, which have intensified under the new owner, John Textor. Lyon have made a transfer profit in each of the seasons since 2020, spending around €112m in that period, while bringing in €333m.
Lyon’s famed academy has long been a source of revenue. Although it is frustrating for fans to lose homegrown players, recent sales of young graduates Bradley Barcola (€45m to Paris SaintGermain), Castello Lukeba (€30m to RB Leipzig) and Malo Gusto (€30m to Chelsea) represent solid business. However, the departures of other players have been poorly managed. Houssem Aouar and Moussa Dembélé left for free this summer to join Roma and Al-Ettifaq respectively, despite both once attracting €50m interest. Melvin Bard, a promising left-back who is now starting for top-of-the-table Nice, and the forward Amine Gouiri, who has since moved to Rennes from Nice for €28m, were sold for a combined fee of just €10m.
Although age and circumstances have contributed, the loss of important first-team players for next to nothing has become commonplace. Those 13 outfield players used against Manchester City who have since left were sold for a combined total of just €71m, €42m of which is accounted for by Bruno Guimarães’ move to Newcastle. Memphis Depay’s free transfer to Barcelona is the most egregious case. Of the 23 players in the squad for the City match in Lisbon, only four remain; Lyon have replaced almost an entire squad in a just a few years.
Finances have been difficult to navigate but many rivals, notably Nice and Monaco, have successfully built their models around signing promising players from across the continent and developing them before selling for a profit. Lyon’s attempts to copy their rivals have been disastrous. Most of their signings feel like gambles, few have worked and the quality lost for free has not been replaced.
Attackers Amin Sarr, Romain Faivre and Jeffinho joined for a combined €36m in the last few windows but all failed. Sarr and Faivre have already been sold for minimal or no profit having made little impact, while Jeffinho remains a bench warmer. More experienced additions such as Dejan Lovren, Jérôme Boateng and Duje Ćaleta-Car have had little to no effect either.
Failed managerial appointments have also been a feature of Lyon’s decline. New manager Fabio Grosso is the sixth permanent coach in just over four years and Lyon must look inward for an explanation. The lack of a clear, consistent plan, erratic decision-making and fan pressure have all contributed. Despite finishing second, third (twice) and fourth, Bruno Génésio was effectively hounded out by ultras in 2019 – an ever more ludicrous situation in hindsight.
Sylvinho, an untested coach signed by club legend and then-sporting director Juninho Pernambucano, lasted just nine games. The experienced Rudi Garcia was brought in to stabilise the situation, a common reasoning for Lyon, but frustratingly underperformed. Garcia’s team played France’s best football for long periods of the 2020-21 campaign, his only full season, and perhaps should have won the title but faded to fourth as Lille emerged victorious. Despite that promise, Garcia, also unpopular, was swapped for Peter Bosz in the summer of 2021.
Bosz was a rare appointment for Lyon: a coach with a progressive, modern set of ideals who had an unwavering faith in his philosophy. This type of coach has been successful in Ligue 1 of late – they have contributed to teams such as Reims, Lorient, Nice and Lens usurping Lyon – but Bosz’s gung-ho team were too easily picked off in midfield and disorganised defensively. Lyon slumped to eighth and he was sacked after a poor start to last season. Lyon’s plan was sound but the execution, with Bosz’s similarly ill-fated Borussia Dortmund spell in mind, wasn’t.
However, the Dutchman’s reign, like every Lyon manager since Génésio, has improved with hindsight. Remarkably, the same can now be said of Laurent Blanc’s. Although designed as a typically safe appointment, Blanc’s outdated style was quickly rumbled by a more vibrant cohort of coaches who had emerged since he left PSG in 2016. Sacked last month, he lasted less than a year. The situation has worsened since, however.
Grosso’s appointment, Textor’s first, is another gamble. Despite taking Frosinone back to Serie A earlier this year, the former Lyon defender’s record is patchy and he may not be suited to such a complex role. The increasingly toxic atmosphere at the club has not helped. Textor’s administration and previous president Jean-Michel Aulas have publicly argued over who is to blame for the financial strife, and the aggressive fanbase continues to berate their team. Lyon’s players now look bereft of spirit and completely clueless.
Incoherent tinkering during Grosso’s four games to date have produced just one point, a 3-3 home draw to Lorient, and three losses to Brest, Reims and now Clermont. After nine games, Lyon are bottom of Ligue 1, without a win all season and already six points from safety. Grosso admits he fears relegation. Given the club’s recent downward trajectory, financial restraints and erratic management, those concerns are, incredibly, not unfounded.
Talking points
• Nice remain the only unbeaten team in Ligue 1 thanks to their late 1-0 win against Marseille. The rookie coach Francesco Farioli has produced a wellbalanced team with a clear but effective style and is fast becoming the season’s leading managerial success story as a gap develops between the top three and the rest. With three Champions League group stage places available, Farioli’s team appear on course to take one. It would be a considerable achievement for a club so often in disarray over recent seasons. Farioli is one to watch.
• Marseille have only won one of their four games under new coach Gennaro Gattuso, but they are also showing promise. Despite a tough start, which included the visit of Brighton and a trip to leaders Monaco, Gattuso’s ideas are starting to take hold and Marseille matched Nice for long spells. Although goals may be tough to find (marquee signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has managed just one goal in nine league games) Marseille could yet emerge as a top-four contender after a disastrous start.
• This is an article from Get French Football News• Follow Adam White and GFFN on Twitter