Lyon Are NOT a Factory, So Get Away From Our “New Kaka”
By: Inara | April 10th, 2008
This year, the demand for OL players seems especially high. First, it was Karim Benzema. Then it was Hatem Ben Arfa. But now it’s another Lyon starlet responsible for all scouts orgasming at the Stade de Gerland.
Except it’s someone you probably haven’t heard of before. His name is Clement Grenier, and don’t be embarrassed if you don’t know him from Adam. I didn’t until last week, and I’m die hard OL fan.
I already wrote about how Arsene Wenger wants Grenier, but it looks like he’s no longer alone in his desires. Two other clubs are in the running: Chelsea (who might be interested just to spite Arsenal) and Real Madrid (who are also linked with Henri Saivet and Gabriel Obertan). Additionally, Inter Milan have been sniffing around.
Huh. Grenier hasn’t even appeared for Lyon’s reserve side yet (he plays for Lyon’s U16 teams and France’s U17 team), so I’m wondering about the sudden interest. As I said before, he’s - supposedly - the new Kaka #2396 (and doesn’t he look a little bit like Kaka?). From what I’ve been able to glean from the admittedly very little information about him, he has immense potential and is a great dribbler who is capable of amazing bursts of speed. But his best qualities are his creativity and finishing skills, which is why he’s already been marked as a gem. He’s also tall, at six feet, and with the proper development, he should grow into a strong player.
He hasn’t signed a professional contract with Lyon yet, which is why so many clubs are in a rush to land his signature, but Lyon have no intention of letting him leave, and it looks like Grenier doesn’t either. The media reports that he should soon be signing his first pro contract with Lyon.
Good. It makes my day when clubs keep their greedy hands away from our players. Maybe they could spend five seconds developing their own. Just a thought.
Category: 
Tags: Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, Chelsea, Clement Grenier, Inter Milan, Lyon, Player News and Rumors, Real Madrid, TransfersSubscribe
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Comments
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i dont understand real madrid’s interest in him. they have trouble getting their own youth team players into the full squad. they almost always end up going out on loan which turns into a permanent deal when they realize they’re never gonna get into the team. if i was a young player, madrid would be the last place i would want to go.
Posted from
United States
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I don’t understand why Chelsea, Arsenal, Real M . . . don’t turn to their own youth. Arsenal porduced Wallcot, he is such good player, but insted forced him to play, Wneger try to buy Ben Arfa and now Grenier. Arsene you waste your time. Try for houndred years. Haaa And about Chelsea and Real. They become very boring. Lyon make a new master player ( I think about Benz ) those two of clubs are first who try to buy that player ( Benzema ). But insted Benzema leaves Lyon, he extend his contract and say one big, big no to Real, Chelsea ect. I want to say that that players ( Grenier, Benz, Ben Arfa, Clerc and of course Toulalan ) are future of Lyon and Aulas must do anything to keep them in club. Allez Lyonnais kick but Rennes on saturday — game start at 17:10. Please wrote me likns where are game in live. Thanks
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United States -
Arsenal never produced Walcott. They bought him a hefty price.
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United States -
I think its great that so many young french based stars are staying at their clubs even when the more established european teams come calling which is all the time and i think its time for the other clubs to get there own youth system in order rather than poaching our players
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United States -
France establishment of Clairefontaine has helped raise the level of club youth systems to the extent that they are the envy of Europe. Englands youth setup is a mess, while Italy’s is based around young players getting time in the lower divisions, likewise Spain, although they rely heavily on their international (u15, 17, 18, 19 etc.) setups to get the kids the international time they need. Germany has a decent setup, expect to see more players come from there, the thing is these players want to stay in Germany. This will begin to happen with France as well, as the number of Aliaderes increases every year. But for talented, somewhat under payed players from poor backgrounds, the money of the EPL is hard to turn down, even if they never make it to far in their career.
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United States -
Yes. Evilos right, Walcott was there record transfer of 18 million from Southhampton.
Corbin hit the nail on the head with the Real link. They have lots of great youth players who can’t break the first team and end up getting sold on.
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Actually, Real has been promoting youth team players slowly but surely since last summer. Real’s youth team, Castilla, was playing inthe second division last year, but was demoted after so many of their better players were either in the first team or on loan. Now they play in the third division regional group, and Schuster does not think many of the kids can make a two division step up, which is sensible although I would still like to see him give a few a shot. So the new policy is to loan those who have promise out to La Liga sides to gain competitive experience and if they make the grade bring them back to Real and make room for them. As is the case with Balboa and Soldado last season, and Granero, De la Red and Javi Garcia. Next year, players like Villafane, Mosquera, the Callejon brothers, Parejo and Bueno will all be offered loans to La Liga clubs, and if they impress, they will be back.
It is not the ideal situation of course, but Real, like many other big European teams, simpy cant risk playing youngsters all the time, such is the level of expectation. It must also be said that Castilla is pushing hard for promotion back to the BWIN Liga, and if this is the case, many of the youngsters will stay with Castilla and being given shots at the first team just like Torres, Soldado and De la Red were two years ago. Real’s academy produces great players all the time, but the past 3 years have not seen someone on par with a Benzema or Ben Arfa, but their are a few very interesting 15-17 year olds not to mention Ronaldo and Zidane’s kids.
It takes time to move the team from the Perez era to the Calderon era, but it will happen, and youth team members will be integrated instead of buying lots of players. Lyon does not integrate a large amouunt of youth team players every year, its two or three, and they usually move on after not playing much anyways, its the same at Madrid, its just the past few years the players have not been good enough to break into the first team, but after some La Liga experience elsewhere, they will have a better shot at it.
Real’s interest in Grenier is obvious, why wouldnt a team want to add a promising player that does not have a pro contract to their cantera? Lyon does it all the time, they picked up Stephen Ettien from Clairefontaine that way, and their interest in players like Eden Hazard or Henri Saivet is common knowledge. The problem I see here is that Lyon fans still think they are the victim, they need to understand that if they want to compete with the big boys they should act like one. That means loosing some youngsters to rivals, hell Real looses about 3-4 youth team players a year to rivals in the Premier League, or somewhere else in Spain, namely Barca. If they tied Grenier to a pro contract earlier none of this should have happen, so you have Lyon’s management to blame for not taking steps to protect their youth products.
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United States -
Well it makes sense to only bring through 1 or 2 young players. You can’t just bring through loads because they don’t have the experience and may not be as good at the top level as they were before. You can save alot of money though through a good youth academy.
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Real keeps on producing players…. for other teams.
The real key to France’s success is the law that made impossible for any pro team not to have an academy. That forever changed football in France and why we’re in front by 15 years over countries like England or others.
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United States -
Corey, you make a great point about Lyon needing to understand they’re a big club. I plan to post about this later, but essentially, you’re right, Lyon have to realize they can’t have it both ways. They want the best players right now, but they also want their academy kids. On the current squad, Clerc, Govou, Benzema are all home grown while Ben Arfa spent considerable years also playing in our youth divisions. Lyon may also want to bring back Loic Remy and Sandy Paillot to be part of the squad. That’s already a lot more home grown players than any other top 10 club.
Lyon brought in two new wingers this year and yet didn’t let Anthony Mounier go out on loan this winter. It’s like, if you want to keep producing all these talented kids, you have an obligation to let them play for you. Or they have every right to leave.
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