French Ligue 1

Lisandro Lopez and Dejan Lovren?

I'd like both of them. Still, I would much rather gamble on Gourcuff, if he is available at a decent price. He's had a poor first season at Lyon, mostly because he has suffered a couple of injuries. Still, he is a top class player, and only 25 years old. Considering that he is their top earner at €80,000 per week, they might get tempted to sell him.

It's difficult to comprehend that they are in a financial mess theyve won the league something like 7 times the last decade and been a regular participant in the CL plus made a number of high profile sales over the years?

Seems very similar to the PSV situation. They dominated Dutch football the last decade, also won the title 7 times, and always played CL football. Yet last season they would've went bankrupt if their city council wouldn't have stepped in and gave them 48 million euros, tax payer's money.

Many clubs don't have a very smart financial policy, their yearly budget is based on their season expectations. I think Olympique Lyon's budget is or has generally been based on the assumption of a league win and a quarter final finish in the CL. And PSV's were based on a league win and CL group stage. And every year of their decade of succes these clubs kept reinvesting all of their money back into their club, not leaving any type of buffer. Ofcourse wages kept increasing too. And then comes the time that they don't meet their expectations. Stupidly the first reaction often is to invest more money into new players, to regain success, which brings even more financial risk. And the high wages isn't something you can just change. So if things go wrong, they go really wrong.

I'd like both of them. Still, I would much rather gamble on Gourcuff, if he is available at a decent price. He's had a poor first season at Lyon, mostly because he has suffered a couple of injuries. Still, he is a top class player, and only 25 years old. Considering that he is their top earner at €80,000 per week, they might get tempted to sell him.

Do you watch him? He's terribly average. He's only played well for Bordeaux and that's ever it. Rather we keep our current quartet.

Do you watch him? He's terribly average. He's only played well for Bordeaux and that's ever it. Rather we keep our current quartet.

Actually, he has been brilliant for Bordeaux, and the main reason why they have ended Lyon's 7-year dominance, and won the league title after so many years. Lyon's system clearly doesn't suits him, and he has also been injured. Superbly talented player, with great court vision, and awesome set-pieces. Since Lyon clearly want to cut their wage bill, he could be available at half the price they have bought him. At £10 million, he would be the perfect Moneyball signing.

I hope Neitsab comes on this thread. Would love to see you debate Gourcuff with someone from France and a Lyon fan no less.

I hope Neitsab comes on this thread. Would love to see you debate Gourcuff with someone from France and a Lyon fan no less.

Mac_Red is far superior than anybody else and supports every club so therefore he knows everything.

Back on topic, I would gladly take a lot of Lyon's players to be honest as I rate their squad.

I always liked Gourcuff he has creativity would add technical balance to the side.

I think he made a massive mistake in moving to a massive club like Milan too early in his career and I think mentally that has had an impact on him and persistent injury problems have not helped his cause either.

Fair enough Bier did not know PSV was in a similar mess.

Is Gourcuff back ? I hope so. He scored a beautiful goal during the derby vs Saint-Etienne yesterday (2-0).
He went through a very difficult and long period, mainly because of the world cup, but also because of injuries. Yesterday was his 2nd match of the season for Lyon. He will need some time to come back with a good level but I keep hope. He's a talentuous player. I'm sure he can be back at the same level he was at Bordeaux when they won the title. We bought him 25M€. President Aulas will not sell him 2 years after. He wants this transfer to be profitable for Lyon on the pitch, not only by selling shirts.


Talking about it, what a fu*king derby !!!! A 2-0 victory, Lyon played with 10 players from the 52nd minute (red card for Dabo). Briand scored the first goal at the 81st minute, followed by Gourcuff 10 minutes later.

The goals :
Olympique Lyonnais 2-0 AS Saint Etienne - 29/10/2011- Highlights

Last Wednesday Lyon also beat Saint-Etienne for the League Cup (2-1). Goals by Briand and Bastos for Lyon, Aubameyang for Saint-Etienne. But bad news for us, Bastos, surely one of our best players of the season is injured for 5 weeks. And we'll play Real Madrid this week.

Always liked Gourcuff, haven't seen much of him since he moved to Lyon though.

I'm not Ligue 1's biggest fan, but PSG games are very interesting this season, their attacking force is great to watch. When they're on tv I usually watch a bit of them.

I agree, offensive players of Paris are great. Pastore, Nene, Menez and Gameiro.
Paris is the main pretendant for the champion title.

I really like Gameiro, wouldn't mind him at LFC. PSG will never sell him though, it's just a thought.

Results Day 12 :

Lyon 2 - 0 Saint-Etienne
Paris 4 - 2 Caen
Dijon 2 - 3 Marseille
Valenciennes 0 - 0 Lille
Brest 3 - 1 Lorient
Evian 3 - 1 Auxerre
Montpellier 2 - 0 Nancy
Nice 1 - 1 Sochaux
Toulouse 1 - 0 Rennes
Ajaccio 0 - 2 Bordeaux

About a month without posting here, I see you enjoy Ligue 1 as you talk a lot here

Anyway, here are the last results.

Results Day 15 :

Marseille 3 - 0 Paris
Auxerre 0 - 3 Lyon
Bordeaux 2 - 0 Caen
Nancy 1 - 2 Dijon
Rennes 3 - 2 Evian
Saint-Etienne 3 - 1 Ajaccio
Sochaux 1 - 3 Montpellier
Toulouse 2 - 0 Valenciennes
Lille 2 - 0 Brest
Lorient 1 - 0 Nice


Lisandro, back in the starting 11 of Lyon for the first time since 3 months. He scored twice.

Toulouse!

Credit to Evian there. They've made a splash this season.

Wish we signed Menez

I remember a former member lil cisse and i used to talk about him while a lot.

Here in France opinions about Menez aren't really positives. He often plays for himself, not for the rest of the team.


Last results :

Lyon 3 - 2 Toulouse
Paris 3 - 2 Auxerre
Caen 1 - 2 Marseille
Brest 2 - 2 Saint-Etienne
Nice 2 - 0 Rennes
Bordeaux 2 - 0 Nancy
Ajaccio 2 - 3 Lille
Dijon 0 - 0 Sochaux
Montpellier 4 - 0 Lorient
Evian 2 - 1 Valenciennes


Montpellier as a strong leader of the Ligue 1. They have Giroud, best scorer this season (12 goals). Against Lorient, one goal and three assists for him.


Goal of the week, no discussions possible, Umut Bulut for Toulouse, fantastic strike :

Umut Bulut bombardon

Neitsab, any rumours over there about Rafa taking over at PSG? I think only Al Jazeera have mentioned it so far.

Neitsab, any rumours over there about Rafa taking over at PSG? I think only Al Jazeera have mentioned it so far.

In case you didn't know mate, one of the PSG suit and tie dudes who bought the club also holds a position of power at Al Jazeera Sport, good chance he'll use that as the mouthpiece of the club.  I'd say this has some legs.

edit: This be the man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasser_Al-Khela%C3%AFfi.

He's the director of Al Jazeera Sport and the president of PSG.

I see, thanks for that.

Most of the french medias have talked about the information from Al Jazeera about Rafa. But it's just a rumour, nothing more. There's no contact between Rafa and PSG. However the situation of the actual coach is not stable, so things may evolve.

Montpellier having a good season.

How is Moussa Sow doing this year?

He's not doing as well as the last season. 17 matches for him and only 6 goals.


Last results :

Montpellier 1 - 1 Toulouse
Paris 0 - 0 Lille
Lyon 2 - 1 Evian
Marseille 2 - 1 Lorient
Dijon 1 - 2 Saint-Etienne
Brest 1 - 0 Auxerre
Caen 1 - 2 Nancy
Nice 2 - 0 Valenciennes
Ajaccio 1 - 0 Rennes
Bordeaux 1 - 0 Sochaux





As you can see the table, the four top teams hold in 2 pts, Lyon being the only one who won this week end.