The Special One Doesn’t Think Lyon Is That Special…

By: Inara | February 29th, 2008

France Football magazine, Lyon’s #1 enemy, recently revealed the fact that Jean-Michel Aulas had offered Jose Mourinho the coaching position at Lyon.

Apparently, Aulas approached the Special One with the offer of heading Lyon’s long term project, which is to win the Champions League within two to three years. Unsurprisingly, Mourinho said, “No thanks, I’m actually going to Barca.”

France Football goes on to state that part of his reason for refusing was that he’d already come to an agreement with Barcelona, who gave him “dossiers’ containing lists of players the club hopes to sign.”

Give me just a second. I have to wipe away my tears.

Are any of you guys surprised by this news? Or even disappointed?

We all know that attracting Mourinho to Lyon just isn’t possible. I mean, here’s a guy who - despite having tons of money to spend at Chelsea (I’m being literal here), had no oversight on how he used that money, was bringing home the fattest wages by a mile, was running a club that actually had potential to be the best in Europe, and was in a league big enough for his ego - gave it all up because he couldn’t handle having a control freak as a boss.

And believe me when I say that Roman Abramovich has got nothing on Jean-Michel Aulas, who goes so far as to select what his coaches wear on the touchline (again, I’m being very literal here), criticizes his manager’s player selections and tactics in the press when things go wrong, won’t allow him the final say in transfers, makes unreasonable demands of him, and - gasp - imposes financial restrictions on him.

Yeah. Basically, the only managers who would ever come to Lyon are those who are content to be muppets.

Anyway…

France Football also claims that Alain Perrin’s position at the club is in danger and that Lyon don’t have faith in their current manager to bring to life those dreams of “European grandeur.”

In response, the club has issued a press release that “clarifies” certain things brought up by France Football. First of all, while Lyon don’t deny having contacted Mourinho, they point out that this “discussion” took place last season through Mourinho’s agent, right after Gerard Houllier stepped down and before they had hired Alain Perrin. The statement also refers to the fortuitous timing of this article - despite this being an event that took place months ago, it was published only a few days before Lyon’s game against Manchester United.

Lyon would also like to state that France Football’s marketing strategy of publishing sensational and misguided information to boost flagging sales is not nice.