2023-11-30 17:32:00
When did John Textor believe that Fabio Grosso might save Olympique Lyonnais? Landing at an OL who find themselves 17th in L1 while aiming for Europe requires having thick skin. Being able to weather storms with a precise direction, restoring confidence in your team: these are some of the essential qualities to get a club out of the hole. The suit was never cut out for the Italian whose qualities as a leader of men remain to be demonstrated. The choice of Textor demonstrates the profound disconnection of the new OL boss with the field, Ligue 1 and everything that must fuel Lyon’s day-to-day progress.
How might he believe that recruiting a man whose main achievement was a title in Italian Serie B was going to solve the deep problems that undermined and still undermine the team? A coach away from Ligue 1 for 14 years and his time as a player at OL. Nothing matched between the specifications and the chosen profile. Did Grosso even know where he was going? Was he aware of the scale of the project? Nothing is less sure.
Fabio Grosso during his presentation to OL, September 18, 2023
Credit: Getty Images
Cherki, Lacazette and the mole
Because in Lyon, blinders have been in fashion for months and the refrain “it will be better tomorrow”, intoned by the boss, does not solve anything, quite the contrary. The environment was not favorable, but Grosso did nothing to tame it. Arriving in Lyon with a strict framework, he steered clear when he had to cajole. The 2006 world champion did not choose the right method. Lyon is sick, he had to be cured.
The Italian arrived with his principles and it was up to his men to adapt to him and not the other way around. The problem is that the plan was never clear. Grosso tried a lot, changing elevens and systems almost every weekend. His great mistake is to have added uncertainty to an environment already full of doubts. Three episodes summarize the flaws in his management. First the management of the Rayan Cherki case. The young Lyonnais, who revealed himself with Laurent Blanc, was very quickly left out of the starting eleven even though he continued to shine with the Espoirs.
Rayan Cherki and Lyon are in great danger.
Credit: Getty Images
Alexandre Lacazette, the club’s top scorer last year, also had a taste of the bench before being taken off at half-time last weekend when his team had to overcome a two-goal deficit. Grosso did not put his best elements in conditions favorable to their development. No doubt they also paid a return well below what we have the right to expect of them. But in its situation, with this squad whose value continues to be overvalued, might OL afford the luxury of depriving themselves of Cherki and Lacazette?
Looking for black sheep rather than solutions
The last episode, perhaps the most revealing, remains the psychodrama of the mole. Thirty minutes to flush out the traitor following the revelations of Jérôme Rothen on RMC and, as always in such cases, no head sticking out. Grosso, in rage, canceled training that Tuesday. Looking for black sheep rather than solutions, spreading a climate of suspicion in the locker room rather than uniting everyone in the same direction: the coach exhausted himself in a vain and secondary fight. Even the attack on the bus in Marseille did not trigger a union around the coach, except in the ranks of supporters rather than in the locker room. Unfortunately, songs are worth fewer points than terrain.
OL wasted a lot of time with Grosso. Two months is a short time in the life of a club, it’s endless when it’s not doing well. With seven points a third of the championship, Ligue 2 is a less and less hypothetical horizon. Unless we find the man capable of putting the heads right side up. Textor no longer has the right to make mistakes.
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