gloom has reigned for two months at OL

For Ligue 1 clubs, the first weekend of the year is synonymous with the Coupe de France. Last week, Olympique Lyonnais was an exception and witnessed from afar the performances of other elite teams in French football. An unprecedented situation after the club’s exclusion from the Coupe de France, like Paris FC, after the incidents at the Charléty stadium on December 17.

Finally, OL will play their very first match of the year on Sunday January 9 (8.45 p.m.), against Paris Saint-Germain (1st) at Groupama Stadium. A match that promised to be a huge shock at the start of the Championship but which, given the ranking of Olympique Lyonnais (13th) at mid-season, appears unbalanced. The opportunity is however good for the Rhone club to straighten the bar, to start 2022 well and to confirm the laudable intentions of Jean-Michel Aulas.

In a video addressed to Lyon supporters and broadcast on December 25, the OL president was confident in his club’s ability to “to come back to the forefront of the championship. It is our determination, I am convinced of it”. “I wanted to tell you that we have everything in hand to make a success of a second part of the sporting season that meets our ambitions”, Aulas had thus affirmed. But internally, the atmosphere has been more than gloomy at the club for two months. “We are going through a period when everything is bad, but we remain dignified and we work to improve things“, testifies an employee of OL who preferred to remain anonymous.

A disastrous sports record, Peter Bosz on borrowed time

Before the truce, Peter Bosz knew it. “13th is not our place, and it is not our goal”, argued the OL coach. But the Rhone club occupies this disappointing position in the standings, the club’s worst in the 21st century at mid-season (Lyon has one game less). Since his arrival last summer on the Lyon bench, the 58-year-old Dutch coach has failed to imprint his offensive paw on his team and his recent change in tactical system has not had a real impact.

After an encouraging period between late August and mid-October, the Lyon players seemed to be less proactive when it came to responding to the coach’s instructions. Lucas Paqueta has slowed down physically and some executives, like Xherdan Shaqiri who has disappeared from the radar, are far from meeting expectations. The match against PSG on Sunday night is therefore the time to bounce back.

Olympique Lyonnais and its president @JM_Aulas wish you happy holidays!
❤️ pic.twitter.com/kba0MuuiE6

– Olympique Lyonnais (@OL) December 25, 2021

Especially since a difficult sequence awaits OL: after Paris, Lyon will play the derby against AS Saint-Etienne in two weeks (January 21) then against Monaco, Nice, Lens and Lille in February. The period promises to be tense for Peter Bosz. “We are very late in Ligue 1, but it is not prohibitive”, announced Aulas in the columns of The team December 24th.

Aulas did not fail to warn his coach before the holidays: “There is no way Peter won’t be here until the end of February. I’ll give us two months of January and February to return to the Championship.“By then, Bosz may not be OL’s coach anymore. The sporting concerns of the Dutchman and his team started to emerge two months ago, as sporting director Juninho was preparing to make a sensational media release.

An unwelcome restructuring

Since December 31, Juninho is no longer an employee of OL. The Lyon sports director, who arrived in July 2019, left the club at the end of a streak he started and which indirectly hurt his team. On November 17, on the airwaves of RMC, Juninho threw a bomb that his leaders had not anticipated: “There is enormous mental fatigue and I do not want to exceed the limit. (…) Normally, it’s over at the end of the season. I want to rest a little.”

The Brazilian therefore did not go to the end of the 2021-2022 exercise. His announcement coincided with a bad series of results for OL and above all put President Aulas in front of a fait accompli: the return of former glory as a player (2001-2009) to the club was a bitter failure and the end of romance caused internal unrest. “This departure was a blow to morale. He embodied somewhere this last hope of bringing OL back to the forefront.“, regrets an employee of the club.

Lyon therefore decided to anticipate his departure and decided to restructure its sports organization chart. Bruno Cheyrou, who arrived in 2020, has been appointed technical advisor and director of recruitment, with less extensive prerogatives than those of Juninho. Cheyrou can count on Alain Caveglia – who arrived to compensate for the departure of the historic Patrice Girard – and Stéphane Henchoz, both recruiters.

The back-and-forth nerves the supporters, “but we are not fatalistic, the club is working well and the results will eventually follow“, assures the employee of the OL. Despite everything, supporters of the club from a Facebook group with 117,000 members sent an open letter to OL last week to alert on the sporting and institutional slump observed this season While stressing that the image of the club has deteriorated considerably in recent weeks.

The club’s image damaged by incidents

This is the last side of the nightmare that Lyon leaders have been experiencing since the start of the season. A part of French football that they would have liked to avoid, but which ended up catching them twice. On November 21, at Groupama Stadium, a Lyon supporter hit OM player Dimitri Payet in the head with a bottle. Match interrupted between the two teams, withdrawal of a firm point for OL and meeting to be replayed.

The stoppage of the match against Paris FC in the Coupe de France on December 17 did not help matters: while incidents multiply on the lawns, OL have been perceived for more than a month as the troublemaker. “You just have to read the media to see that we rarely talk about OL in good terms at the moment.“, blows the employee of the club. The media campaign led by Pierre Ferracci, the president of the PFC, against the Lyon club, has necessarily played a role.

The image of OL did not come out entirely unscathed from this streak, as did that of Jean-Michel Aulas, whom his counterpart Ferracci found complacent towards a fringe of far-right supporters . “President Aulas’ silence in the face of the attacks has allowed us to be in a dignified position. He could have answered her. And so what ? Yet another war between presidents? On the contrary, OL have moved forward on the post-PFC-OL period.“, analyzes the employee of the club.

Far from responding to the attacks, President Aulas and OL have been discreet and acted behind the scenes to punish the culprits. The club has thus sent letters to supporters to ban them from the stadium, while the movement of Lyon supporters has been prohibited until further notice.

After these two more than complicated months, Lyon therefore hopes to relaunch. A victory against PSG would launch the year of the Lyon club perfectly. But as nothing seems to go in the direction of OL at the moment, the club will have to do without significant ticketing revenues and welcome PSG this Sunday and ASSE in two weeks in front of 5,000 people only. Two games that are usually sold out.