Rémi Garde - Lyon's potential new manager
Following their dominant spell through the 2000s, Lyon seem to have stagnated in the past few seasons. Without a trophy in three years, Jean-Michel Aulas will be forced to make some changes this off-season in order to facilitate a push back up the Ligue 1 table including a new manager for the club.
Claude Puel has not been a success as manager of Olympique Lyonnais and all signs point to the former Lille and Monaco manager leaving the club this summer. There can be no excuses for Puel as the team and club in general have the necessary quality, depth and infrastructure to continue to be successful in France. Both he and Olympique Lyonnais have now met at a tribunal in order to negotiate his pay-off, with coach Rémi Garde looking like he will be the one to take the reins once Puel has departed. Some have voiced their concerns at Garde being given the opportunity to manage the club, preferring a move for a more experienced or higher profile name in the role. The former Lyon defender turned down the opportunity once before but now appears to be looking forward to managing the club.
Delve deeper into this possible appointment and you can see why Garde may be the clear candidate in spite of some of the criticism. With him being current director of le Centre Tola Vologe, the training centre and academy, he knows the current talent pool well, even those with the potential to be big players for the team in the near or distant future. This academy has produced a number of stars over the years and Lyon have a decent current crop of youngsters biding their time for a crack at the first-team whip. Rémi Garde may look to use some players à la maison for some squad depth with a view to bringing them through for the future.
Finding the ideal mélange of youth and experience in the squad may be a task for Garde though talent like Alexandre Lacazette, Clément Grenier, Timothée Kolodziejczak and the slightly more experienced Maxime Gonalons all available, there are options present. Young players who have not seen as much first-team football such as Harry Novillo and Ishak Belfodil also look set to be given opportunities under Garde’s guidance.
Garde may have little experience in outright management of a football club but he is a man who knows the ins and outs of Olympique Lyonnais, spending eleven years at the club as a player, six of which he played as a professional, and several more years in roles as assistant manager and coach upon retirement. This will almost certainly work in his favour as he turns his experience at the club to management.
There may be some potential problems facing Rémi Garde if or when he becomes manager of Olympique Lyonnais. Finding some stability in the midfield will be one such problem. With the club set to lose an array of talent in the midfield area including Jérémy Toulalan, Michel Bastos, Éderson and Kim Källström, all of whom are linked elsewhere. It would appear that some depth is certainly needed though the club do still have Yoann Gourcuff and Miralem Pjanić on the books, two players who have the clear ability to assist in driving Lyon forward.
Several names have been mentioned as possible replacements for Jérémy Toulalan, who will soon join La Liga side Málaga CF. The fans appear to have their favourites as to who they would like to see joining the club but what actually transpires may be another matter altogether. Given the creativity of Gourcuff and Pjanić, finding the ideal candidate to sit behind one or both of these players and play more of a midfield general role may prove fruitful for Lyon in the coming season.
Losing Toulalan in itself may be a blow to the team. The tough tackler battled with some personal demons last year in the hangover from France’s disappointing World Cup campaign in South Africa and saw his overall productivity decrease as a result. With this being said, it could be the ideal opportunity for Lyon to sell, though it could prove risky if the perfect replacement cannot be found. Some of the names being linked so far as potential replacements to Toulalan, such as Nancy’s Landry N’Guemo, have failed to whet the appetite of Lyon fans.
Lyon’s defence last season did not seem to gel all too well at all. Pape Diakhaté, on loan from Dynamo Kyiv, appeared to have problems in communicating with captain Cris and suffered from a lack of discipline at times. Diakhaté will not be playing with Olympique Lyonnais next season which could mean some more regular playing time for 21 year-old Croatian Dejan Lovren. This does still leave a vacancy at the back and the decision could be made that the club invest in a defender who is ready to start at the back for Lyon rather than add some depth to a potential Cris-Lovren partnership at the heart of the defence.
At the age of 34, Cris will be looking to wind down in his career and Lyon should begin to look for a replacement for the loyal club captain, who has played over 200 matches for the club. Lyon will sign defenders in this window as not enough depth exists at present in order to last the season, though exactly who these may be remains to be seen.
The competition in Ligue 1 overall has certainly heated up since Lyon lost their title to Bordeaux back in the 2008-09 season, with battles for position at both ends of the table making the league more competitive. This competitiveness will continue next season but this may present another problem to OL as their main rivals at the top of the table have already been making headlines with their transfer dealings whilst Lyon deal with the Claude Puel affair.
Paris Saint-Germain have been using their Qatari money to good effect, making an already-scary attack even more terrifying with the addition of Lorient’s Kévin Gameiro and being linked with a whole host of impressive names. Olympique de Marseille have also been making some moves, going away from their norm of splashing cash in favour of signing some comparably modestly-priced but still very capable players. Lille could go down the same route but would prefer to keep some of their main talents instead of seeing them preyed upon by clubs in England and Spain.
Jean-Michel Aulas will be hoping that any of Lyon’s incoming transfers do add something to the team as some sections of the fans have been calling for his head, with “Aulas Démission” groups appearing on the internet, replicating the “Puel Démission” banners seen in the stands at the Stade de Gerland and in several places across the city of Lyon over the past year. The Lyon fans have been critical of Aulas for not dealing with Puel’s failings as manager sooner even in spite of the fact that the club have soared under Aulas’ guidance over the years with his business expertise helping the club reach the heights of the consecutive Ligue 1 titles, domestic cups and appearances in the Champions League.
Jean-Michel Aulas will not view another season of failure as an option and the fans will surely not accept it either. Rémi Garde will have a baptism of fire should he be appointed in the Lyonnais hot-seat, though transfer activity should pick up soon after Puel’s departure from the club. Depth and quality are definitely needed in some areas of the pitch but rest assured that it could be a tough season for Lyon unless the correct decisions are made over the summer by the board and manager.
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