OL announced on Thursday the dismissal of their Italian coach, Fabio Grosso, who was appointed head of the team less than three months ago.
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Olympique Lyonnais in turmoil. Still bottom of Ligue 1 with just one victory in 13 games, OL are experiencing a nightmarish season in every way, the worst in their history. After Laurent Blanc, at the start of the year, it is the turn of Fabio Grosso to pay the price for the poor results of the Rhone team, beaten again last weekend by Lille. As revealed by the sports department of Radio France, the Lyon club announced, Thursday, November 30, the dismissal of its Italian coach, replaced by Pierre Sage.
Franceinfo: sport looks back at OL’s catastrophic first part of the season, mired in an unprecedented crisis.
July 18, 2023: the DNCG sanctions OL
The problems started before the season even started for Olympique Lyonnais. The National Directorate of Management Control (DNCG), the financial policeman of French football, is sanctioning the Rhone club, in the middle of the transfer window, with supervision of its payroll and transfer compensation. In other words, the club sees its room for maneuver limited in the transfer market. Enough to infuriate John Textor, the new owner of the club since its takeover in December 2022.
“We were invited to buy one of the true treasures of football in France, he wrote in a press release. We were asked to pay almost 400 million euros in cash to its long-standing shareholders, pay 65 million euros in cash to its public shareholders, reduce bank debt by 50 million euros, and then funding an additional 60 million euros in cash (on short notice) just for good measure… But we are not yet asked to execute a business plan based on our beliefs, with a free hand, for the benefit of the community we serve. Once again, welcome to football in France!”
September 11, 2023: Laurent Blanc sacked
The lesson received at home by PSG (1-4) overcame the fate of the “President”. Laurent Blanc, who arrived at the club in October 2022, arrived a little over a week after Lyon’s rout against the reigning French champion. Third in the return phase of the championship during the previous year, even if he ultimately failed to qualify his team for a European Cup at the end of the 2022-2023 season, the former coach of the Blues n has not been able to confirm.
Above all, Laurent Blanc is paying for the catastrophic results of his troops since the start of the season: after four days, Lyon is bottom with just one point scored and three goals scored. It’s quite simply the worst start in the history of the Rhone club.
October 30, 2023: the Lyon bus stoned before the Olympico, the new coach Fabio Grosso hit in the face
A few days after the ouster of Laurent Blanc, the Italian and former member of the house (2007-2009) Fabio Grosso arrives on the OL bench. The Transalpine player certainly did not expect to have such a difficult start, on and off the field. As Fabio Grosso prepares to play his first Olympic, against OM at the Vélodrome stadium, the bus of Rhone players and staff is violently stoned as it heads towards the Marseille venue. The new Lyon coach was injured in the face, covered in blood, while his assistant, Raffaele Longo, was hit in the eye. Finally, five Gones supporters and five police officers were also affected.
Postponed to a later date, the match will be replayed on December 6. At the same time, Les Gones supporters, already present in the Vélodrome visitor park, stood out with their “racist behavior” as the Lyon leaders condemned a few hours later. The LFP quickly announced the launch of a disciplinary procedure against them (decisions expected on December 6) to “racist behavior”while a judicial investigation is also open for “provocation to racial hatred and racial insults”.
November 5, 2023: worst team in Europe, Lyon still does not win
If the supporters had regained hope after the appointment of Fabio Grosso, from theory to practice, there is a world. The first outings of the former Frosinone technician, in Serie A, are as worrying as those of his predecessor, both in the game and on an accounting level. We first had to wait until the 8th day against Lorient (3-3) to finally see OL lead, the last team in the five major European championships in such a situation.
Above all, by being unable to win at Groupama Stadium against a weak Metz team (1-1) on the 11th day, Lyon officially becomes the worst team in Europe (first and second divisions included in the five major championships). ). It is in fact the only club not to have won a single match this season, in all competitions (friendly matches included). A series which will end on November 12, with the success in Rennes (1-0). The only one so far this season.
November 30, 2023: Fabio Grosso in turn thanked
OL were last in the ranking when he was appointed on September 16, and still are last two and a half months later, when he was laid off, made official on Thursday November 30. With a meager record of five points in seven games on the Lyon bench, Fabio Grosso did not fulfill his mission of straightening out the Rhone club, four points behind Lorient (16th). He is temporarily replaced by Pierre Sage, the director of the Lyon training center.
With only seven matches played and a mandate of two months and 14 days, Fabio Grosso is the coach who has remained on the bench the shortest in the history of the club (excluding interim coaches). A symbol of the lack of stability in this position, since Les Gones have had five different coaches since the departure of Bruno Genesio at the end of the 2018-2019 season. Undoubtedly one of the indicators of the spectacular downgrading of OL, seven times French Ligue 1 champion in the 2000s.