Probably more sighing to come
Olympique Lyonnais is currently going through the first real crisis of its young history, and needless to say, there are causes for worry. Head coach Claude Puel has never been as contested as he is today ; players are feeling the heat ; the supporters are angry ; and the president is desperately picking up the pieces.
All this begs the question : can OL exist without results? I am inclined to say no.
Lyon faced Boulogne at Stade Gerland last night, in a match they had no choice but that of winning. The sights at the stadium were breathtaking. The stands were empty – attendance was under 30 000 for the first time in ages – and the supporters were angry and cranky, and not only because of the biting cold.
A real discontent can be felt within all components of the club with Puel’s hadling of affairs. Lyon supporters, except for the die-hard ones that were there before 2001, have come to support OL because of the success the club had at the beginning of the decade. All these “jump on the bandwagon” type of fans have been used to victory and come to the stadium to see Lyon win, and expect nothing less than that.
I am a firm believer that you can judge a club by the way the fans behave when the club is faring poorly. Lyon supporters have proved that the club is not yet a true big club. The atmosphere at the stadium last night was obnoxious and deleterious. Players were booed as they were presented. The supporters went on a supporting strike last night : no singing, no flags, no drums. Cries of “Puel démission” (“Puel resign”) were heard every other minute. Some sang the names of successful coach Gérard Houllier, and of iconic club figures Juninho Pernambucano and Sonny Anderson.
My immediate reaction to this is, when supporters claim they want the club to do better and are complaining in order to make that happen, are they actually achieving their goals? I am inclined to say that they are doing it wrong. What good does it do to boo Jean II Makoun every time he touches the ball? Admittedmy, he is not the best defensive midfielder Lyon has ever had, but how will reserving him that kind of treatment make him want to fight even more for the sake of the club?
I therefore only see reactions of spoiled brats who are not able to support the club when it needs it the most. Which is why I say that if Lyon’s results keep on being mediocre, the supporters will purely and simply leave ; and that is not good news for the emblematic club that Lyon wants to become. Liverpool is having a terrible season, and yet Anfield is still jam-packed at every game. Even closer to us, at Saint-Etienne, where the situation is much worse than in Lyon (the club is 19th and the coach was just fired), there are still 30 000 supporters at every game, who provide never-ending support to their team.
What some short-sighted Lyon supporters fail to see is that there are reasons to hope for the club. We might be 8 points behind Bordeaux but the season is young. The squad has been diminished by injuries all season, which forced some players to play out of position (I’m thinking of Toulalan here). The team is rebuilding on solid basis, with a promising backbone of young players like Hugo Lloris, Jérémy Toulalan, Miralem Pjanic and Lisandro Lopez. The challenge we will be facing in Champion’s League will be tough but not impossible (the draw is tomorrow, by the way). President Jean-Michel Aulas has been very supportive of his coach and players and knows how to take pressure of them by putting the spotlight on himself.
If anything, I think Lyon can learn a lot from the crisis they are going through. They can come out a bigger and better club. Of course everything is not perfect -yes I’m thinking of the defense here – but the staff is competent, and if the need is felt to reinforce the squad, then it will be done. The future is bright for Lyon and the club cannot afford to listen to its spoiled supporters, because they will be back when the team wins two games in a row.
Sights from Gerland :"Move your asses - Respect us"
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I think the supporters are expceting too much after winning seven titles in a row, which is unheard of in any sport. And when you just ‘expect’ to win, your supporters get cranky when they don’t, which is what you are saying.
The future is bright in Lyon, and the examples of St. Etienne and Liverpool are geat. I just think Lyon fans expect way too much this season, which they won’t get.
They aren’t far off of where they need to be, and injuries have hurt them, but they aren’t Bordeaux. Nobody is Bordeaux this season. That doesn’t mean that Lyon can’t be exactly like Bordeaux in two seasons from now, which is something I can say about Marseille as well.
I think this is a little bit harsh on the Lyon supporters. I’ve seen Marseille, PSG, and St. Etienne fans come down just as hard on their players (in fact, they can be a lot worse). The supporters are upset, as they have a right to be, given the absolutely craptastic way that Lyon have been playing. Of course, it’s not right that they are booing players like that, but the kind of fans that go to watch a team play week in and week out tend to be more passionate and emotional than most, so I would expect them to react this illogically.
I do agree that OL fans have high expectations, but they are reasonable expectations given the amount of money spent and amount of hype spewed from the club. I personally feel that many of those expectations can still become a reality, as I don’t think that Bordeaux will have enough steam to keep up their pace for second half of the season.
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[...] maintain a positive facade, even when expressing regret at being treated in such a way, something I have also touched on to. Therefore his scorcher last night was a relief and even if he denied it in post-match [...]