Jason Pereira



 



Ask anyone that lives in France and/or watches the French football league (Ligue 1) and they will tell you than Olympique Lyonnais are the dominant force.

 

If you were to compile a checklist of what makes up a big club, an overview of Lyon would tick all the boxes- except one.

 

Lyon are one of the richest clubs in football- as of March 29th, 2007 Forbes has them as the 12th highest club in terms of current value at $343 million. They are the 11th highest club in terms of revenue produced ($163 million).

 

So yes, Lyon are rich- what else?

 

On the domestic stage, not a single club in France matches Lyon for success over the past five years. Lyon has won every single Ligue 1 title since 2002, and just for good measure they have picked up all the Tropheé des Champions cups in that time (a trophy awarded for the match between winners of Ligue 1 and the Coupe de France).

 

Lyon have the players, the fans, a stadium that has hosted World Cup matches- what exactly is missing?

 

Lyon have not yet won the biggest cup competition in European football, and until they do they must accept the fact that they cannot claim a place amongst Europe’s elite.

 

While Olympique Lyonnais have competed seven times in Europe’s biggest club competition (the UEFA Champions League), they have not reached the semi finals or final once. In seven attempts, the furthest the club has ever gone is to the quarterfinals- a shocking statistic.

 

Lyon have not won the UEFA Cup either, and in my eyes are not bigger (but certainly better) than the likes of Celtic and Rangers.

 

As with the two Scottish clubs, Lyon play their football in an inferior league- the standard of play in the French Ligue 1 is far different to the one that can be witnessed in the English Premier League, the Italian Serie A or the Spanish La Liga.

 

This in part has contributed to Lyon’s failures in Europe- after playing year long against substandard opposition; it can often be difficult to make the step up.

 

Unlike Celtic or Rangers, Lyon have the players and are capable of winning the Champions League, so it is a real mystery why they have not done so as yet. Will Lyon do it this year? It is hard to state that they definitely will, but with the squad of players they have I don’t see why not.

 

Lyon are a side that are, to use the common cliché, blessed with quality in all areas of the pitch. Although being in the French league means that they will more often than not be selling players that want to more somewhere more competitive, (Florent Malouda, Tiago Mendes and Eric Abidal all left in the most recent transfer window) a club of Lyon’s stature can always attract good players in the transfer market. Having signed World Cup winner Fabio Grosso from Internazionale, Lyon also moved to pick up two of the most exciting prospects in French football by purchasing Kader Keita and Mathieu Bodmer for a combined €24.5 million. To end their transfer dealings, Lyon brought in Brazilian defender Anderson from Benfica for a shade under €4 million as well as getting in goalkeeper Frederic Roux on a free transfer from AC Ajaccio.

 

Whilst the players coming in are definitely not as good as the players going out, Lyon still have enough quality to win the league for the 7th time running, as long as new manager Alan Perrin does not mess things up.

 

Although Lyon have a collection of very good players- Cris, Francois Clerc and Grosso in defense, Bodmer, Juninho and Toulalan in midfield as well as Fred, Benzema and Govou up front, fans will hope that Perrin’s tinkering has positive effects rather than negative ones.

 

Although Lyon’s standard 4-3-3 formation had worked very well for them in the past, Perrin has decided to opt for the more conventional 4-4-2 formation, bringing about a lot of criticism from the media. This new formation involves the use of Juninho as a defensive midfielder- a position he is not at all comfortable in.

 

Lyon have started the season off poorly- while twelve points off the first six games would have been a decent start for any other Ligue 1 side, for Lyon it has to represent a failure. Luckily for them rivals Marseille have started worse, and should Lyon win their game in hand they will go 2nd in the table. As for their Champions League ambitions, with a bit of luck who knows- Porto and Monaco reached the final a few years back and Lyon are definitely better than those sides.

 

If Perrin sorts it all out and Lyon get some luck along the way, there is no reason Lyon cannot win the trophy that has eluded them for so long.