The Lyon coach, Laurent Blanc, made very harsh remarks towards his proteges.
Laurent Blanc is currently entering his second season at Olympique Lyonnais. The first, which ended in a 7e place in the Ligue 1 standings, had almost not gone all the way for him. The “President” was close to throwing in the towel after only two months in office.
Laurent Blanc was not having fun
In a long interview with L’Equipe, Blanc explained that when he arrived in the Rhône the situation was very alarming and that he was very skeptical about the idea of working in these conditions: “When I arrived, when I saw the squad, I said to myself: ‘I understand the situation better.’ It was more than complicated, whether in the locker room, with the players… As I sincerely told my staff: ‘I’m going to leave if we don’t change things. »
If the 98 world champion was not comfortable it was because he noticed that the group was not living well, that the attitude of the players was not at the top and that clans were corrupting the locker room. . “There is too much work, players not in the spirit of the club, he added. There were far too many players, clans (he breathes)… When you are a coach, you have to have fun, especially at my age (smile). I didn’t feel able to do it with this group. And when you don’t have fun anymore, neither do the players… There was a deleterious atmosphere. (…) There were confirmed guys but maybe they didn’t have the necessary motivation to be in Lyon”.
What were the main disturbing elements in the Rhone group. If we judge the rest of Laurent Blanc’s interview, it is mainly Karl-Toko Ekambi, Tête and Romain Faivre. “There were good players, but they weren’t playing. And there were confirmed guys who didn’t have the necessary motivation to be in Lyon. So we tried to please everyone, to include the young people and to lend the old ones.
