Pierre Sage counsels stability and unity after tumultuous time at Lyon
What a difference a few weeks – and a few managerial changes – can make. The Bad Gones, Lyon’s largest ultras group, publicly chastised the players in what was ultimately Laurent Blanc’s final game as manager at the start of September.
Pierre Sage is the third manager to sit in the dugout since Blanc’s departure, and while it would be hyperbolic to state that Olympique Lyonnais are once again becoming a juggernaut of French football, the scenes of jubilation after Wednesday’s 1-0 victory over Nantes showed a cohesion and a communion rediscovered.
The contrast is stark. Forlorn figures accepted the very public, and humiliating, berating from their own fans following a 4-1 thrashing at home to Paris Saint-Germain on 3 September. The Ligue 1 season was only four games old but the sense of crisis was profound.
“You are the ones that wear the OL jersey. Others before you have worn it, glorified it. You have no right to tarnish it,” screamed the Bad Gones capo towards a desolate set of players who, spread apart along the edge of the 18yard box, resembled a collection of individuals rather than a team.
Neither Jean-François Vulliez, who took interim charge in the wake of Blanc’s departure, nor Fabio Grosso, whose historically short tenure reaped just one victory in seven games, could forge a collective from this set of talented yet incoherently-assembled players.
That ungrateful task fell to Sage, promoted from his role as academy manager months after rejoining the club from National 1 side Red Star. “As a spectator or a lover of the game, when I watch a match, I put myself in the manager’s shoes,” said Sage. Given the chance to wear those shoes for the first time, he is doing all he can to keep them on.
Having secured seven points in their first 14 games, Lyon have nine points in their past three; from being rock-bottom and “written off”, in the words of the captain Alexandre Lacazette, they are now clear of the relegation zone; and those images of a seemingly irreparable fracture have been replaced by images of unity.
Wednesday night’s narrow victory against fellow strugglers Nantes saw a much more positive interaction between fans and players. The players, atop each other’s shoulders, celebrated just in front of the fans and that glacial distance was replaced by a warmth sorely lacking recently.
Sage, endearingly but unimaginably nicknamed “Wise Stone”, a direct translation of his name into English, by the Lyon fans, has been central to Les Gones’ revival. The former academy manager quickly struck a tone that resonated with fans, acknowledging the club’s plight while also proposing solutions.
Lacazette and Corentin Tolisso, were both repatriated in the summer of 2022 in the club’s attempts to rediscover its identity. Amid Lyon’s sale to Eagle Football, the ‘bring the band back together’ recruitment strategy was failing to yield fruit, disillusionment reigned, and under Grosso, both played an increasingly peripheral role. There was even talk of Januaryexits, however, Sage has put them back at the heart of the project.
“They have experience, a good reading of the situation and they are aware of that. I will lean on them so that the reaction comes, because it can only come from them,” said Sage. Lacazette, who scored a hat-trick against Toulouse last weekend and the only goal against Nantes, is a benefactor of this shift in focus.
With the experienced players once again valued, there is now a semblance of a team. “There is a group dynamic taking hold,” noted Sage on Friday, alluding to a fragmentation of the dressing room when he arrived. The presence of those senior players is also giving the club’s more promising youth products the confidence to shine.
Rayan Cherki remains an unpolished diamond and his inconsistency has been a source of exasperation for successive managers, but Maxence Caqueret, whose development seemed to have stalled, has been a major beneficiary of the managerial change. He is blending elegance with efficiency to allow Lyon to progress the ball much better through the middle and the partnership he has struck with Tolisso is increasingly symbiotic, an on-pitch manifestation of the stability Sage has brought.
The need for stability permeates all levels of a football club. Eagle Football’s purchase of Lyon, the banishment of former president Jean-Michel Aulas and the high managerial turnover have all created a sub-optimal working environment and the effects, inevitably, filter through to the players. “It is the first time I have had so many managers in such a short period of time. It isn’t a good thing for the team,” said World Cup winner Nicolás Tagliafico earlier this month.
Sage was brought in to be a stepping stone. But as an embodiment of stability and a figure of unity he may represent a long-term solution. In a short time he has proved capable of wearing the managerial shoes and creating a collective. Lyon may not yet be a great team, but they are once again, at least, a team. For a club that remains mired in a relegation battle, despite the recent uptick, that is perhaps just enough.
Talking points
• It was a special evening for the Mbappés at the Parc des Princes. Ethan, younger brother of Kylian, made his Ligue 1 debut as Paris Saint-Germain swept aside Metz. Ethan, who turns 17 later this month, follows in the footsteps of fellow prodigy Warren ZaïreEmery in becoming the latest midfielder to make the step from the academy to the first team. Ethan is stylistically different to his brother Kylian and occupies deeper areas. But like his older sibling, who made his senior debut for Monaco, he has broken on to the scene early.
Kylian, meanwhile, marked his 25th birthday in style, netting a second-half double in the 3-1 victory over Laszlo Boloni’s Metz. The France captain will finish the calendar year having scored 52 goals for club and country. With 18 goals already registered in Ligue 1 this season, he is well-placed to secure his sixth consecutive Golden Boot.
• Just three days after salvaging a last-minute draw against PSG, Lille’s 15-game unbeaten run finally came to an end against Strasbourg. After going eight games without a win between the end of September and mid-December, Patrick Vieira’s side now have three wins on the bounce, and those fears of being sucked into a relegation battle have dissipated. All three wins have been by a scoreline of 2-1; having fallen the wrong side of fine margins on many occasions so far this season, Les Alsaciens are now edging out victories.
Vieira has repeatedly called for patience throughout the first half of this season given his young squad. Players such as Ângelo Gabriel, Junior Mwanga, Dilane Bakwa, Emanuel Emegha and Abakar Sylla, all of whom arrived at Strasbourg over the summer are – crucially – gaining vital experience. The easing of relegation fears should allow these youth products to develop in a more serene environment, much to the benefit of Chelsea, who have been part of the same multi-club ‘family’ since BlueCo’s purchase of the Ligue 1 club in the summer.