Comments on: Stunning Coup! Loïc Rémy to Lens…..

By: Jay

Jay — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 18:51:11 +0000

Inara,

There is no doubting your beauty or the excellence of the footballing blog you publish, however, I simply must disagree with your treatment of the Lyon management. The Belhadj fiasco is being seen as such in the French press as well as the suspect judgment regarding these recent mediocre signings. You don’t lose the French football player of the year and an Eric Abidal and subsequently sign Mexican league and Spanish league castoffs as reenforcements. This is simply not done in championship football. I am a French League fan and I doubt anyone would fancy seeing Lyon or any other Ligue 1 side win the Champions league more than I, however this is not the way to move forward I should think. We as fans need to be highly critical of such suspect management from our top sides.

By: Inara

Inara — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:54:58 +0000

Jay, I’m not exactly sure why you seem to love Belhadj so much since he isn’t that great. He’s an L1 player and that’s it. Not what Lyon need in the CL. Neither is Grosso, which I freely admit, but you’ll see him sold this summer to. Or at the very least pushed to the bench for a better signing. Neither Grosso nor Belhadj were suitably defensive enough to compensate for weakness of Lyon’s CBs. That’s why I said they can’t hack it – as in, to be in their long term plans. Obviously Belhadj was doing something wrong somewhere – either in training, tactics, or maybe it was his personality, but Lyon would have kept him and benched Grosso if they thought his presence vital to the growth of the club. You can’t accuse Perrin of being afraid to bench players – he dumped an 18 million euro signing to the bench for Govou, so I doubt he would have done so to Grosso as well. I won’t deny that Belhadj is slightly better than Grosso, but he didn’t offer what Lyon were looking for – good defensive skills. His offensive abilities were not as much needed at Lyon. Lyon sold him because he wanted to leave, not because they didn’t want him. And since Lyon knew they would have to restructure that LB spot anyway, it seemed prudent to let him leave now, while the club wouldn’t make a loss from his transfer, which they could not do from Grosso.

I hope Belhadj does well for you guys, and he’ll offer the offensive spark Lens need.

By: Corey

Corey — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:22:28 +0000

Hahah, how wrong you are Jay, Belhadj is good on the surface but he will never lead you to a title. Remy is not as promising as you make him out to be, but thanks for letting us see if he will cut it or not. And we refused to loan out Ben Arfa and Benzema the previous two years because they had potential that was immediate, Remy is not co certain, he may come good by 26, but thats why he is at Lens, he isnt a finished product yet.

By: Jay

Jay — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:25:53 +0000

Loan Benzema and Ben Arfa? Lens doing well? Belhadj couldn’t hack it at Lyon? Where in training? On the bench? Grosso not hack it at Lyon? Doesn’t he start? I simply have no response for these sagacious observations.

By: Inara

Inara — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:53:02 +0000

“If it weren’t for the Benzema/BenArfa combo I see a middle of the table side.”

Umm, if you take away any of the best players from most top of the table clubs, they would be midtable sides. The difference between a top club and a midtable club is having those special players. Last year, people said the same thing about Lyon after losing Diarra. Frankly, it’s getting tiring, and I wish people would wait until Lyon lose the title before saying the team sucks.

It’s that attitude that disappoints me about French football. True, Lyon seem to be struggling this year, but that doesn’t mean their team is weaker. It’s just that the other clubs are playing better. It’s sad that supporters of other French clubs don’t credit their own teams for playing well and instead chalk up their success to Lyon losing. For example, Lens’s victory over Lyon is perceived more as Lyon’s failure than Lens’s success. And that’s how it’s going to be as long as people keep denigrating their own championship.

As for Lyon’s suspect moves, neither Belhadj nor Grosso had what it takes to hack it at Lyon, but we chose to keep Grosso and let Belhadj go for several reasons, most of them contractual. And if you want to believe Remy is better than he is, go for it. But if he had that much potential to be revealed in the short term (the duration of the loan is only four months), we wouldn’t have allowed the buyout option (for example, we refused to loan out Ben Arfa and Benzema). Remy just extended his contract until 2012, so he’ll be coming back and hopefully become Govou-esque.

By: Jay

Jay — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:03:18 +0000

Well, we shall see. I think Remy is more than just “good” as you state and your point about the transfer record is a good indicator. Indeed, Lens’ management has been very careful in terms of financial streamlining throughout the years whilst still fielding one of France and indeed Europe’s top clubs, particularly during the mid to late 90s. The fact is that Jean Michel Aulas has made very suspect moves of late and all one has to do is look at the Lyon roster this year and compare it to the last couple of squads. If it weren’t for the Benzema/BenArfa combo I see a middle of the table side. The Belhadj debachle was also further proof of the recnt run of poor descions and the latest crop of Lyon recruits, I dare say, leaves much to be desired. Cheers!

By: Inara

Inara — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:45:08 +0000

Remy is good, but I don’t know if he’s worth Lens breaking their transfer record, and as far as I’m aware, Lens have never spent “an excess of 10 million euros” on a single player.

Plus I think Aulas made Remy extend his contract until 2012 to fatten his buyout clause – that was the condition for him to go out on loan.