If OL’s sporting season is rather encouraging, behind the scenes, many questions arise while the club has been severely criticized by the DNCG, quite simply threatened with demotion. From then on, the management of the club by John Textor and the Eagle Football Group holding company was called into question. Including a certain Jean-Michel Aulas.
In an interview published on the CARRÉ YouTube channel and conducted by Raphaël Domenach, the former boss of Les Gones does not hide his regret for the sale of his OL. “ Of course, obviously », he answers the question about his possible remorse. And to repeat that John Textor, originally, was not his choice but that of the bank.
“Not really a business leader”
“ The announcement was made on the stock market in such a way that I could not resist. I did all the interviews to sell as best as possible, breathes Jean-Michel Aulas. We had five buyers. I had prioritized the Gillett family (former Liverpool leaders, editor’s note). The bank prioritized John Textor. He didn’t have the football credentials that the Gillett family had… »
Immediately, two subjects separated the two men. The desire expressed by the American to sell the women’s section of the club – “
something unthinkable » according to JMA – and the decision to entrust the bench to Laurent Blanc in October 2022. « John was moderately supportive », Underlines the current vice-president of the French Football Federation. Two disagreements which ultimately got the better of his historic presidency in the spring of 2023.
If he now assures that “ things are almost resolved » between John Textor and him, Jean-Michel Aulas nevertheless describes in his successor a character “ quite elusive in terms of logic, not really a business manager… » « There are times when we don’t resonate in the same waycontinues the Rhone entrepreneur. He has his American habits, which are not French habits. (…) It’s the antithesis of what I did. I had made a family. »
