Like A Kick To The Crotch: Lille’s Puel Moves To Lyon

By: Julien | June 18th, 2008

Lille received a huge blow today as our successful manager, Claude Puel, officially signed a four year contract with Olympique Lyonnais. Puel took his assistant, Patrick Collot, with him. Earlier today (14 H french time), he was presented by Lyon to the press. What does Michel Seydoux have to say about this move? He remained tight lipped and said: “What interests me is the future.” A kick to the crotch, a punch in the stomach, a downright disaster for the league and LOSC. Claude Puel had such an influence on the club while he was here. He is such a great tactician. Arguably, he brought us to where we are today. What will we do without him? Well one thing is for certain… this makes the French Ligue 1 less competitive. First, Olympique Lyonnais has every right to build an elite squad. I am not arguing that. What I am saying is that this increases the already huge gap in quality between Lyon and the rest of the league. With the talent they already have combined with Puel’s coaching Lyon will be unstoppable. Olympique de Marseille and Bordeaux really are the league’s only hope and even then the chances are slim to none of overthrowing this Lyon dynasty. It just won’t happen. Yes, Marseille has Eric Gerets and Bordeaux came close last season, but we can’t stop them now. I guess the narrow lead over Bordeaux last season was too much for Aulas. You can expect a reasonable gap in points during this upcoming season. I predict around 18-20. Like people say we might as well call this Le Championnat Lyonnais. Ligue 1’s title race has been boring for awhile. This hits me harder on how it affects Lille. Ten Rudi Garcias (our new manager that I will discuss later) cannot make Lille play the type of football we did under Puel. Footlille did a great job summarizing his stats for the club:

Ligue 1 Stats: 228 matches - 84 victories, 77 ties, 67 defeats, 227 goals scored, 220 goals conceded.

European Competitions: 40 matches - 17 victories, 14 draws, 9 defeats, 42 goals scored, 26 goals conceded.

Coupe de la Ligue stats: 12 matches - 5 victories, 2 draws, 5 defeats, 13 goals scored, 13 goals conceded.

Coupe de France Stats: 17 matches - 11 victories, 1 nul, 5 defeats, 26 goals scored, 13 goals conceded.

Total Stats: 297 matches – 117 victories, 94 draws, 86 defeats, 308 goals scored, 272 goals conceded.

Our new manager, Rudi Garcia, was also unveiled to the press today. Garcia signed a 2 year contract with LOSC. Like Puel’s departure, Le Mans’ president was unhappy seeing his manager leave. Rudi used to play for the club in the midfielder position (1982-1988). He has brought his assistant from his time at Dijon with him (Fréderic Bompard). Some words from our new manager:

“The priority is to keep Rio Mavuba and then to have a competitive for the 2008/2009 season. We have finished an economical transfer agreement with Villareal for Mavuba.” Garcia also said that he wants to develop Lille’s young side that is filled with quality and potential. Maybe he won’t be too bad. Corey, France Offside writer, said “Although garcia is no Puel, he does know how to work on a limited budget and achieve limited results. You wont get relegated with him in charge, thats for sure.” Well avoiding relegation isn’t my main concern. Returning to the UEFA Champions League is. Can Garcia take Lille to the Champions League? Will he be able to develop Lille’s youth with the tenacity and wisdom that Puel did? I doubt it, but I sure as hell hope he can.