After a long and successful mercato for LOSC the club’s opening match of the 2009/2010 Ligue 1 season awaits tomorrow at the Stadium Lille Métropole. Here is a short transfer summary before I delve into tomorrow’s match:

Transfers In
Aubameyang (loan-Milan AC)
Butelle (Valencia)
Douaniama (Orléans)
Franquart (return on loan-Le Havre)
Gervinho (Le Mans)
Landreau (PSG)
L.Touré (return on loan-Grenoble)

Transfers Out
Bastos (Lyon)
Lebbihi (Zulte-Waregem)
Makiesse (Zulte-Waregem)
Malicki (fc-Dijon)
Moro (Malines)
Tafforeau (fc-Caen)
Taravel (Zulte-Waregem)
Youla (Eskisehirspor)
Yanes (Cucuta Deportivo)

The home start to the season can potentially garner us an early 3 points in the table. Nevertheless, at the start of a new season we still aren’t exactly sure the power rankings for the league. Players are still adjusting to new managers, clubs, and formations. Kickoff is at 17h local time. The last three encounters between the two clubs have ended in two victories and two draws:

2008/2009 11/29/2008 LOSC 1 – 1 FC Lorient
2007/2008 08/04/2007 LOSC 0 – 0 FC Lorient
2006/2007 10/21/2006 LOSC 1 – 0 FC Lorient
2001/2002 08/04/2001 LOSC 3 – 1 FC Lorient

The line-ups have not been officially announced yet. I predict a narrow victory for Lille of 1-0. I do expect the usual 4-2-3-1 formation used by the club.

LOSC plays their second to last friendly of the season against OGC Nice this Saturday. Kickoff is at 19H local time in Touquet, France. Should be a good match. OGC Nice has picked up better players than we have during this mercato. They signed a promising young Colombian goalkeeper and Rémy from Lyon.

One of Rudi Garcia’s goals for the next season is to finish in Ligue 1 within the top 10 spots of the table. Last season we finished 7th place. Our squad seems weaker this time (Puel is gone and no Sylva, Makoun or Lichtsteiner). I think we can just make it within that area of the table. Certainly, it will be difficult. I still am not fully confident with our new manager.

Another Lillois may move to Turkey. Tony Sylva currently plays there with Trabzonspor. Souleymane Youla may join him in Anatolia. Eskipehirspor wants the LOSC striker. Youla has played in Turkey before for Beşiktaş. Also, Stephan Lichtsteiner has finally transferred to Serie A’s Lazio. He played with Lille for three years.

28 year old Slovakian goalkeeper Lubos Hajduch is another potential replacement for Tony Sylva. Sylva transferred out of Lille to Trabzonspor earlier in this mercato. Saint-Étienne’s Jéremie Janot is still another option.

Kevin Mirallas will play a Belgium olympic squad friendly tonight against the Netherlands to prepare for the upcoming Olympic Games.

Adil Rami extended his contract with Lille to 2012. This secures his spot on Lille’s roster. He was a prospective Olympique Lyonnais.

LOSC played a friendly last Saturday against Belgian Zulte-Waregem. Lille won 2-0 thanks to two goals scored by Balmont (40′, 57′). Match facts:
Squad: Oukidja – Debuchy (Benzerga), Rami (Taravel), Béria (Salibur), Tafforeau (Lebbihi) – Balmont (Yanes), Mavuba (Dumont), Cabaye (Chedjou) – Frau (Touré), Fauvergue, Bastos.
Yellow Cards: Cabaye (32′), Fauvergue (66′, 73′).
Red Cards: Bastos, Fauvergue (73′).

LOSC says that only ticket holders for next season will be able to spectate the club’s friendly match on July 25th against Roulers at 19H. The match will be played at Stadium Nord.

Footlille reports that Grégory Tafforeau could play his 300th career match if he plays in our opening Ligue 1 match. Our first opponent of the upcoming season is AS Nancy.

Franck Béria thoughts on our opening match:
“They aren’t the best club for us to face at the start of the season. We have to learn from our last season’s performance. Nancy is a great first challenge for us and we should try to return to Lille with some points. ”

It looks like Olympique Lyonnais have chosen John Mensah over our defender Adil Rami. According to Football365, Mensah is going to sign a 4 year contract with Lyon worth 8 million euros.

Footlille says that their may still be a chance for Lille to sign Sébastien Puygrenier. I disagree, since LOSC leaders think he is too expensive. ASSE seems to think so as well. They aren’t even ready to hand over approx. 5 million euros to Nancy.

Nicolas Fauvergue says that Lille is reaching their top level of play:
“We are working very well. We had a tough week that helped us to progress physically. Already against Calais we were better.”

Grenoble wants Larsen Touré to come back. He was loaned to the club last season. There were rumors that the Isérois would sign him. They might just want to have him on loan again.

Rudi Garcia said that more LOSC players will probably leave this summer. Lichtsteiner looks to be out and Olympique Lyonnais wants Adil Rami. According to Mercato365, Stephan Lichtsteiner transferred to S.S. Lazio for 2 million euros. His contract is for 5 years. Stephan was in Rome today for his physical. Where Lille currently stands transfer wise:
Departures/Potential Departures
Kluivert (let go)
Fauvergue (Ligue 2)
Lichtsteiner (Lazio Rome) COMPLETED
Makoun (Lyon) COMPLETED
Maric
Mirallas (PSG, Marseille, Bordeaux, Saint-Etienne)
Schmitz (Valenciennes) COMPLETED
Sylva (fc – Trabzonspor) COMPLETED
Tahirovic (FC Zurich) COMPLETED
Youla

New Players/Potential Recruits
Balmont (Nice) COMPLETED
Bratu (Dinamo Bucarest)
Dernis (Saint-Etienne)
Desmarets (V.Guimaraes)
Janot (Saint-Etienne)
Juanma (Levante)
Lyng (Aarhus) COMPLETED
Mavuba (Villarreal) COMPLETED
Oulmers (Charleroi)
Piquionne (Monaco)
Tenorio (Al Saad)
L.Touré (May return on loan from Grenoble)

We still need at least one attacker, defender, and goalkeeper (Janot deal is close).

Lille might sign spiderman! Two current goalkeepers that could replace Tony Sylva are Jérémie Janot and Antti Niemi. LOSC is close to signing Janot from ASSE, but Fulham’s Niemi is an alternative if the negotiations don’t pull through.

Rudi Garcia says that the club isn’t rushed for transfers. He said the club still needs a striker and goalkeeper. Garcia also said that the club prefers being patient. I think we also need at least one more defender.

Metz central defender Sébastien Bassong is signing with Newcastle instead of Lille or Lens. Bassong says that it is a great choice for him.

Garcia is trying to keep Kevin Mirallas and Aurélien Chedjou from going to the Olympics. He is afraid that losing both will hurt the club:
“We hope that the club will have a complete squad for the start of Ligue 1, but the Olympic Games complicates things. It isn’t definite, but we might miss Chedjou and Mirallas.”

LOSC played a friendly yesterday 19h at Linselles against Calais. Lille won the match 1-0 thanks to a goal from Fauvergue (39′). Rudi Garcia continues to shuffle around the line-ups. He admits that a starting 11 for next season is coming together. We still don’t know who our new captain is. Tafforeau played in the match, but Cabaye wore the armband. Dumont and Malicki also wore it during this offseason. Match line-ups:
Starting
malicki
beria chedjou franquart tafforeau-
balmont mavuba cabaye (cap)
frau fauvergue obraniak

After 61′
malicki-
van dam rami benzerga bastos
touré debuchy dumont (cap) obraniak (lebbihi 71′)
hazard mirallas

The club’s schedule for the week:
Wednesday: Practice at 9h and 15h, closed to the public.
Thursday: Practice at 9h30 and 16h30, closed to the public.
Friday: Practice at 9h30 and 16h30, closed to the public.
Saturday: Practice at 9h30 (closed to the public), friendly against Waregem at 19h.

Kevin Mirallas was selected for Belgium’s Olympic squad. Lille will have to let him play in the Olympics because of Sepp Blatter’s ruling:
“The freeing of under 23 players is still obligatory for all clubs. For the 2008 Pekin Olympic Games the same principle applies.”
Make Belgium proud Mirallas! Allez Mirallas! Hup Mirallas!

Mercato365.fr reports that Carlos Tenorio’s chances of transferring to Lille are slim. He is too expensive for LOSC’s and Nice’s budgets. AS Monaco is supposedly the only club that can afford him. AZ Alkmaar also has joined the bargaining.

Lillois midfielder Ludovic Obraniak extended his contract through 2011. He played 35 matches last season. Good news! He plays really well in the midfield.

Today Lille plays a friendly against Stade de Reims at Camphin-en-Pévèle. The match will be a “close doors” match for security reasons. Les Dogues won their first friendly against Cherbourg 2-0.

Vedran Runje was supposed to be a replacement for Tony Sylva. The Lens keeper does not plan on leaving the club to return to Ligue 1. RC Lens was relegated to Ligue 2 last season. After finishing 18th in the table. Although I am still glad to see our rivals relegated, I will miss playing against them next season.

Lille has stopped seeking to sign Yacine Chikhaoui. The Tunisian international does not interest Rudi Garcia like he did Claude Puel. Samuel Robail wants to leave Lille for AC Ajaccio. He may be looking to leave for more playing time. Robail only played one match last season.

Lille’s new ball will be made form Uhlsport since our new outfitter Canterbury only specializes in rugby. Airness used to supply LOSC with kits and footballs.

Rio Mavuba said that the players have not really touched the ball in practices lately. Rudi Garcia’s first practices with the club were mostly physical. Mavuba says he likes his approach. He really is shaping up to be a different manager than Claude Puel. What will Lille look like on the pitch next season? It looks like we may see a very different style.

PLAY NICE! OGC Nice sank their teeth into two of our prospective transfers. They offered Al-Saad 2.5 million euros for Carlos Tenorio and moved forward with Monaco negotiations for Frédéric Piquionne. Foot Transferts reports that former Niçois Florent Balmont cost Lille around 1.5 to 2 million euros.

Sébastien Bassong is going to move to Newcastle not Everton according to Le Parisien. Lille wanted to sign Bassong to replace Nicolas Plestan’s likely transfer. Dutch legend and former LOSC striker Patrick Kluivert could play for AZ Alkmaar. Lille released aging Kluivert after one season. Last season he scored 4 goals in 14 matches.

Lille is interested in relegated Lens’ (I have to rub it in) Vedran Runje. The Croatian played 40 matches last season for our dirty rivals. Runje is 32 years old. He has played in France before for Olympique de Marseille.

Le Progrès reports that AS Nancy valued Puygrenier so high (5 to 6 million euros) to keep him out of France. Supposedly, Nancy does not want to hand him over to one of their Ligue 1 competitors. This is a move that I wish Lille did in the past. Instead of letting players go to Olympique Lyonnais and reinforcing their unstoppable side, I think Makoun should have been transferred outside of Europe. OM blog writer Magnusson reminded me awhile ago that one of Lyon’s investors is Michel Seydoux’s brother, Jérôme Seydoux. Obviously, that has some pull in the close transfer relationship that the two clubs have (Olympique Lillois returns?).

Footlille reports that no discussions have been made between Lille and Saint-Étienne for Geoffrey Dernis. Benfica and Espanyol are more interested in the midfielder than LOSC and AS Nancy.

The LFP has released Lille’s television schedule. It is actually a great reminder that the next season is starting pretty soon. July is already moving fast it seems. Well at least for me it is.
Reminder all times are based on the French time zone!
August 9 (21h00): Nancy-Lille (via the multiplex) on Canal+
August 16 (19h00): Lille-Le Mans on Foot+
August 24 (16h00): Rennes-Lille on Foot+
August 31 (17h00): Lille-Bordeaux on Foot+

The Lille/Reims friendly will be played Friday evening (18 H French time) at Luchin. Surprisingly, it will be a closed match. Meaning no one can spectate this match. Hmm…. Why closed you’re probably asking. I am as confused as you are. On a similar note, Lille’s first open practice is tomorrow at the same location (9:30 French time). I will try to ask one of my cousins to check out the match. Half of my family still lives in France, by the way (just incase you thought I was flying all the way to France for a friendly and with the weak dollar).