Lyon were once the best-run club in France. Now they look old-fashioned

“Everyone disappointed me. It felt like the ball was burning my players’ feet,” said Lyon coach Laurent Blanc after his team’s drab 1-1 home draw with Nantes this weekend. Blanc also accused his team of “playing backwards” – disappointment and going backwards have become a theme at Lyon of late – with the team who were once PSG’s closest challengers now sitting in mid-table, without direction or impetus. Everyone connected with the club must take some blame, from the fans to the president. While their women’s side remains as strong as ever, their men’s team is floundering.

Picturesque Lyon is not a typical hotbed of footballing talent but Lyon’s first team has become defined by a prolific youth system – their nickname, Les Gones, means “The Kids” in the local dialect. Former alumni include Karim Benzema, Hatem Ben Arfa, Sidney Govou, Nabil Fekir, Corentin Tolisso and Alexandre Lacazette. Other academies in France have advantages – Le Havre are under far less pressure to achieve senior results, the centralised Clairefontaine has broad scope and appeal, and PSG have direct access to perhaps the deepest pool of local talent outside Brazil – but Lyon’s youth system has thrived thanks to good management, elite coaching and intelligent scouting.

Lyon were the first to set up a modern development system in the late 1980s when Jean-Michel Aulas arrived as president, helping the club return to the top flight, and they eventually became the dominant club in France, winning seven consecutive league titles. The best run that PSG have achieved with their huge finances is four. Lyon also made the last 16 of the Champions League nine years running between 2004 and 2012, reaching the quarter-finals four times, matching PSG’s record in the last nine seasons.

Despite winning just one trophy since their most recent league title in 2008 – the Coupe de France in 2012 – Lyon have continued to produce quality players while remaining competitive on all fronts. In recent seasons, however, the mood has changed. The once savvy Aulas, and the club as a whole, have made a series of missteps. Unusually, Lyon’s success hinged on the club’s ingrained processes and considered senior management rather than the ideas of a visionary manager – their seven titles were shared between four coaches.

In the last 15 years, however, successful appointments have been rare. Claude Puel reached the Champions League last four but let the title slip away, finishing third twice. Remi Garde was responsible for the 2012 cup win but his team dropped as low as fifth in Ligue 1. Hubert Fournier, who lasted just 18 months in the job, kept PSG honest in 2015 but failed badly in Europe. Passionate local Bruno Génésio proved wildly inconsistent before fans aggressively turned on him. Sylvinho lasted just 11 games and Rudi Garcia bungled a golden chance to win Ligue 1 in 2021, somehow managing to finish fourth despite playing the best football in France while topping the league for expected goal difference and expected points.

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Now 73, Aulas remains one of French football’s all-time great instigators and leaders, having built a footballing institution out of what was then a second-tier side that had never challenged for the league and had only won the Coupe de France three times ( in 1964, 1967 and 1973). It could be argued that his attempts to slowly step back have resulted in miscalculations – the misguided, crowd-pleasing appointment of Juninho Pernambucano as sporting director, for example, who hired Sylvinho as coach and left under a cloud after a fractious reign.

Lyon are now 10th in the league and adrift. Although the club’s youth system is continuing to produce players such as Chelsea’s new wing-back Malo Gusto and exciting attacker Rayan Cherki, both 19, their recruitment department lacks the scope and depth of their rivals’ scouting networks. Previous head of recruitment Florian Maurice was marginalised before leaving and is now instigating swathes of shrewd business at Rennes; Lyon’s transfer policy became wayward by comparison. As the January deadline approached, reports of failed approaches and refusals were far more common than those of progress.

Aulas appointed Blanc to stabilise the club – in the same way that Garcia was meant to bring calm after the Slyvinho disaster – but his arrival has only accelerated Lyon’s decline. Seven years after leaving PSG, Blanc has been left behind in a league that changed drastically during his sojourn to the Middle East.

Even so, Lyon’s squad remains strong on paper. Lacazette and Tolisso are joined by World Cup winners Nicolás Tagliafico and Jérôme Boateng; Anthony Lopes is still one of France’s most talented goalkeepers; and fellow academy stars Castello Lukeba, Houssem Aouar and Maxence Caqueret join Cherki and Gusto, who has been loaned back to the club by Chelsea.

However, Lacazette’s 17 goals have repeatedly rescued a team that remains horribly one-dimensional. Previous coach Peter Bosz’s open, gung-ho approach was frustrating, but his ideas were progressive and often showed signs of working. If Aulas had given the Dutchman as much support as he did Génésio, Lyon would likely be in better shape. This season, Blanc has only won 1.5 points per game, whereas Bosz managed 1.67 during his reign. Lyon’s non-penalty expected goal difference has dropped to +0.47 per game under Blanc down from +0.8 with Bosz.

Most damning, however, is the perpetual sense of malaise. A club that was once at the forefront of youth development and boardroom professionalism has become old-fashioned. Progressive outfits such as Reims, who boast a vibrant young coach and a modern academy, or Toulouse, whose data-driven approach has unearthed several under-the-radar talents, offer a blueprint Lyon should learn from to maximise their resources as they once did so expertly.

There are some reasons to be positive, though. New American owner John Textor’s belated takeover could lead to a fresh approach, even if fans remain sceptical about his multi-club ownership model, and supporters also have a Coupe de France semi-final to look forward to next month, with Lyon favourites to win what would be their first trophy in more than a decade.

But to beat Nantes and reach the final, they will need to up their game. Speaking after the match at the weekend, Blanc said: “We were disappointing and I emphasise the ‘we’.” His own methods may be a little stale, but he’s right to emphasise his club’s collective failure. The board has made mistakes, coaches have underwhelmed, strong squads have disappointed and recruitment is outdated. Lyon’s academy continues to produce but it’s not immune to the same downturn in an increasingly competitive landscape. Aulas built something from nothing over 30 years, but Lyon’s current trajectory suggests his success is far from permanent and could yet be undone.

Talking points

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Rookie coach Will Still’s glorious unbeaten start at Reims finally came to an end, Alexis Sánchez scoring a brace as Marseille won 2-1 – giving Still the first defeat of his managerial career after 19 games in charge. The 30-year-old former analyst and Football Manager buff was promoted after Óscar García was sacked earlier this season and he quickly turned Reims into a difficult-to-beat, intense, precise team, fired by Arsenal loanee Folarin Balogun’s 17 league goals. The end of the run is disappointing for Reims and Still, but they are here to stay.

Marseille have closed the gap at the top of the table to just seven points after PSG put in a non-performance at home to Rennes and lost 2-0. Playing with a makeshift backline due to a series of injuries,the lethargic league leaders were outsmarted by Génésio’s men, with Karl Toko Ekambi opening the scoring before PSG academy graduate Arnaud Kalimuendo stole in to slam home the second. With games against Lens, Lyon and in-from Nice coming next for PSG, the title race is not over just yet.