Champions League Course Charted, Lets Skip to Montpellier Soufflé

Hi guys, new post is up!

anyone have links to today's game? (ol-dijon)

Livescorehunter.com - football streams, i'm sure you'll be able to find a working one there. You can try atdhenet.tv too, and maybe ustream.tv

pied starting today,should be fun to watch

This blog needs a transfer wrap up :(

We need some multi billioner; russian or arab :))))) then we can throw the money in the air for players hehehehe

Oh yeah we do. I'm guessing upcoming and inevitable recessionary environment should get clubs worried about spending soon.

Aulas actually slashed 5mill from the yearly payroll. Next summer will be a busy one: Cris 4.2 mill pr/year, Kallstrom 3.7mill, Ederson 2.8 mill, Bastos 3.4mill, Cissokho 2.4mill, and maybe Briand 1.8mill, will be out. That's over 18mill per year in savings. We'll have alot of room to bring in more young players to surround our big three: Lisandro, Gourcuff and Lloris- if he stays.

Wenger wanted Gourcuff on loan. Should have let him go Aulas. I know he's just coming back from injury and he's recovering from the trauma of the WC and having to play his debut season under Puel, but Pjanic and Grenier taking over the 10 would have been ok.  Maybe YG has a descent season and Arsenal decide to splash some cash and keep him and maybe Pjanic has a break-out year and he goes up in value . We will probably never be able to get anything descent for Gourcuff, no matter what type of season he has, considering what we paid for him.
Anyway, let's hope he has a good recovery from injury, and that he can excel under Garde. I'm getting the strangest feeling that only Luarent Blanc can bring out the best in Gourcuff, but hopefully I'm wrong.

I think Gourcuff will play much better under Garde--he felt stifled under Puel--not the best way to motivate a creative player. Also, Gourcuff is highly motivated to prove himself again and get back with the national team.

So, that's it : OL sold Toulalan and Pjanic, and couldn't extend Delgado. They hired Koné, Dabo and Fofana. 
From a finance perspective, that's a success : +21 M€, -5M€ that's a positive balance of +16 M€.
From a sport perspective, that's quite a bet. Judging from his first appearances, Koné seems to be a pretty good choice (but remember, that's also what we thought of Diakhaté last year after his first games), but we'll have to see what Dabo (and Fofana, if he gets enough playing time) gives on the pitch...

is signing M. diarra out of the picture now? 

lol, and Gourcuff takes the number 8 straight away

Well, I am very happy that we have signed Fofana and I think this the direction the club needs to take - bringing in young, cheap players, that have a bright future ahead of them. However, a DM position is a very sensitive one. Gonalons and Fofana are just not experienced enough to handle this role by themselves. Maybe we should sign M. Diarra after all - we would get lots of experience and a reliable cover for Gonalons. And about our own youth prospects - I think we should use them as much as we can. Tafer, Belfodil, Lacazette, Grenier and Kolo are the future of Lyon, but they definitely haven't played enough under Puel and their lack of experience is a serious drawback. However, I think they should be all given a chance, especially in the CdL and CdF matches, where I feel most of our senior players should have a rest.

 I am sad that we sold Mire but, we should gave him only on loan....but I hope that Gourcuff will start playing as he should.  But a cant hide my satisfacton about  Fofana joining, and only for 1.8 m.
Ndinga was solid but for that price they wanted we cane bye 10 players like him. 
I watched Fofana in 2-3 games and this man is a real beast, a true leader and only 20. A have a good felling abou this player, because he is good in defence and doesnt affraid to go forward, and he was a captain in france U 20 team. Enough said

+1000 I cant believe we considerer paying 10M+ for Ndinga when we can get Fofana at such a bargain.

Proud that management stuck to their guns and didn't cave in to Auxerre's extortion, as they did in year's past with other clubs. We picked-up three solid, young players all for under 2mill each. I'm very happy, especially since I thought OL were content to just bring in one player- a DM- and take their chances the rest of the season. Thank heavens Cris' injury made that impossible.

true if we were gonna spend that much money we shouldv just got Capoue or keep toulalon and selling pjanic was the worst descion ever that dude plays like xavi if u really watch him carefully u will notice and he was so young too

Sadran would want at least 15mill from OL. He will sell him to any non-L1 team for 10mill or less in the future. Just watch.

i would pay 15mill for capoue anyday rather than pay 12 for Ndinga

im very worried about our lack of depth...everyone was so happy with our extremely tight win against montpelier this weekend becasue we've been playing so many games and the players were tired (and it was pjio that got us that win btw). but thats how many games we are expected to play if we're champs league. if we have to struggle so hard to beat teams and play in champs league i dont see the team lasting very long this season.
reminds me of bordeaux in 09-10 season. get to the quarter finals of champs league but completely run out of juice and finish 6th in the league..
i like garde, and this system, and i understand that we're in a rebuilding phase and all that.. but relying 100% on our youth is a scary investment.
when is gourcuff supposed to be back anyway? and we dont have licha for month either...a nightmare :-(

Gourcuff just started running again, he hasn't yet resumed regular training. It will take weeks I guess.

The difference will be that unlike against Montpellier and the entire beginning of this season for that matter, we'll have our U20's at our disposals+injured players back (Gourcuff should be back in couple of weeks)+couple of recruits we just bought. That can mean a major difference. And I wouldn't be surprised if we don't put that much effort in CL since the goal is to reach the podium.

its been a dark day for me, first we sold toulalan earlier in the summer and now Pjanic.

dont know how to feel.

i guess its nice we a nice youth setup for the future...but pjanic was ready now.

ima go, to a library or something. just to be by myself.

hopefully things will be better when i get back

And yes, Gueida Fofana is in Lyon. Aged 20, he's a promising DM, captain of the French U20 National Team, one of the best French players of last world cup in which he scored two goals and one assist, which is not bad for a DM (that's about the same as Toulalan in 10 years :)  )

And they threw Novillo in on a loan deal to Le Havre to sweeten the deal.

It's very nice that we've signed a youngster like Fofana, but is that what we really need? Is Gonalons now our primary DM for the season? This may work in Ligue 1, but we will get demolished in Europe. Or do you think Gonalons and Fofana could battle the likes of Real's and Barcelona's midfield? Why, oh, why did we sell Toulalan...

We could have the best DM in the world and still get rolled-over by those clubs. The most we can hope for is getting out of the group stages. For me, it's all about finishing top three in the league. Garde will be a huge sucess in my eyes if he can achieve that.

Would we even have a chance to beat RM or Barca with Toulalan? Unless you have petrodollars, it's pretty much useless to think you can compete with Barca, Real, or ManUtd...And this was anyhow never supposed to be a season for us to go for CL glory. Rebuilding season and that's it. Trying to finish on the podium in L1 and if the CL group isn't too tough, try to get to the 1/8 finals.

remember we are a team that is rebuilding. We might have to forego getting far in Europe this year as players gather experience. we might have to take 1 step back to take 3 steps forward. I like how this team is developing and as mad as i am we let pjanic go. I think it can be said we couldn't have Pjanic, Grenier, and Gourcuff they are all more or less the same type of player though Pjanic is slightly more seasoned than Grenier

What Aulas explained is that with Miré gone they still have Ederson,  Gourcuff and especially Clément Grenier who so far didn't want to extend his contract. Now, with Pjanic gone, he will sign. They chose to play the OL youth card with a boy who is in the French U20 squad and who's got plenty of talent. They had to show him they had lots of consideration for him and they'll propose him a long term contract.

Also, Grenier will be happier sitting on the bench than Pjanic. It wasn't easy for him going from a starting position to the bench when Gourcuff arrived.

Seems like we may have signed Fofana from Le Havre.

Seems we may have signed Fofana from Le Havre: http://www.goal.com/en/news/90...

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football...

This stupid man should shut up!

It's official: we have sold Pjanić to Roma. What a disaster! He was always one of my favourite players and his potential is immense. I was looking forward to this season from him after the goal and an assist against Montpellier. Why the hell did we do it? And for such a modest amount of money! I guess the club is in deep financial woes. However, I never approve the sale of such young quality players. Players like Pjanić should be kept at all costs! 

the money must have been REAL REAL desperate and like needed instantly just imagine if Pjanic had a great season, kept up the form hes started the season with, we could have sold him for a minimum of 20 mil. poor piece of business by Lyon.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?... my frend gave mi this; sorry because is facebook link!! Fofana is ours?????!!!!!!

Looks like we have nother transfer here, DMF Fofana from Le Havre, also the captain of France's U20 NT is to sign a 4 years contract.

For those who can read french:

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football...

first Benzema, now, Pjanic! why, oh, why???
and, Why did we bought Dabo? sigh, I hope Garde plans a very well thought out plan.

In other news, Joe Cole sign an agreement (loan) at Lille

My apolgies for the awful spelling....I have discovered a failure in the wireless conncection between my keyboard and computer.

Ok people, lets calm down a bit shall we?
Pjanc leaving makes no sense to us I agree, but what is there that we don't know. I have a theory as follows:-

Pjanic and Gourcuff, in my opinion canot play together - sorry. So, maybe Garde has the same view, pushed by the view JMA spent a sh*t load more money on Gourcuff than Pjanic. Personally, I would keep Pjanic - but may be the cash offe is too good So, run with me here...

Pjanc goes for 10m and Lass or Diarra come in alongside Gourcuff....a good move in my view. Very, very solid. The earlier comment about Lass - sorry my friend, not sure what games you have seen but that's not my view of him in the games for Madrid.
The move for Kone was an excellnt choice so far - lets be honest, to many teams scored on us last year and I think Grade knows that. We all know with Cris and Diakate we were very predictable and that even with Toulalan in the defensive line, we could be beaten, with somewaht ease. arde has taken steps to address that.

If I may, I would lie to quote something I learnt years ago playing Amercian Football. It rings true to football as well: Offense wins games Defense wins champinships.

Apply that to Lyon last year: We could score but we conceded more. So what does Garde need to do: Bolster the defence first, then build the line in front more solidly. We have the attackers although so where were we weak. Central defenders....we all know that. And having no midfield at times (or maybe AWOL would be a bettre way to describe it) needs to be addressed as well.

I agree with you depsite this theory: It would be a loss to see Miralem go, and I hope he stays, but he was indifferent last year and needs consistency...more than anything though he needs games, but who do we have to fill the hole he leaves when he moves up the field?...

Allez Lyonnais!

looks like the deal for Pjanic is done...good luck to him

can't believe we lost 2 of our best midfielders for such ridicules fees, seeing how much teams pay for average players nowadays

It seems there has been an agreement with Roma on Pjanic?!
I will be forever angry with the management for letting Pjanic go this early if there's no buy-back clause in there.

btw lille are on the verge of signing Joe Cole...shocking to say the least but if thats the case great signing for lille. and for anyone who says hes washed up i disagree he's a player with skill and class and will be a hit in france. the physical demands of the english game have caught up with him

without pjanic this year we would be midtable

Pjanic isn't Lloris.

i meant at the moment, not for the entire season lol

maybe selling Pjanic will open doors for clement grenier....even though i don't want to see him go i don't know maybe the club is trying to make room for grenier

This in fact is what JMA said today about letting Pjanic go: that he wanted to persuade Grenier to sign a long term contract, showing that room would be made for him. Though there's no doubt that the money was a big, if not the main factor. Don't forget, OL are going to take a bath on Ederson: they won't get a dime for him as he will walk next summer. Gourcuff can't/won't be sold, and as someone else already mentioned, Pjanic and Gourcuff probably coulsn't play together. So Pjanic is the only one that they can sell and was always the odd man out and it was just a matter of time before he was sold. I was praying that Ederson stayed healthy so that he would be the one sold, but it didn't go that way.  What sucks about this is the timing. If he hadn't exploded the last couple of games and had not Lisandro been injury, making Miralem more important, it wouldn't hurt so much. And for anyone who thinks that we would have made a bunch of more money if he'd has an explosive year, just take a look at our top players and ask yourselves if any would fetch anything more than a little over 15mill. Anyway, here's what JMA had to say:

"Il a fallu expliquer des décisions. Les gens qui l'ont acheté pensent que qu'il va s'exprimer complètement. "Mire" fait aussi une très bonne affaire financière. En l'achetant à Metz (7,5 millions d'euros en 2008, ndlr), on avait sauvé le club de difficultés financières énormes et permis au joueur de bénéficier d'un contrat mirobolant pour son jeune âge. On l'a amené au niveau où il est. Je pense qu'il peut faire plus... Je lui souhaite beaucoup de réussite à la Roma, il en est capable car c'est un garçon très brillant mais aussi très sympathique, a indiqué le président du club rhodanien. On a Ederson, Yohann Gourcuff et surtout Clément Grenier qui ne voulait pas prolonger son contrat. Là, avec le départ de Pjanic, il va resigner. On a fait le choix de la formation à la lyonnaise avec un garçon qui est en équipe de France des moins de 20 ans et qui a un talent fou aussi. Il fallait lui montrer qu'on prenait en compte ses demandes et on va lui proposer un contrat de longue durée." Le jeune Grenier devrait donc avoir l'occasion de se montrer cette saison."

http://www.footmercato.net/off...

If we hadn't picked-up Kone, I'd be pretty pissed about this.

Why are we selling Pjanic! This could be his breakout year!!! I will only be satisfied with this if we do decide to bring in Lass, who's top class. Dabo signing is huge though, what a steal! I wonder why Sevilla let him go for so cheap...

Money! This is bad. Especially since Lisandro is out for a month. Don't know how they can contemplate this, especially considering his current form and that he and Bastos are forming quite a relationship.  They should have kept him and let him take Briand's spot on the right, but that amount of money is too tempting to management right now.

seems pretty unwise to me to sell Delgado,Toulalan and Pjanic without another midfielder coming in as yet,all of those players have been important really over the seasons,Toulalan was the consistant one out of them,but both Pjanic and Delgado have their moments-Pjanic against Madrid,Delgado against Marseille,worrying thing is it doesnt look like were even close to signing a Mid,and if its M Diarra thats just uninspiring really.

Delgado didn't want to come back bec of his family, and why do we really need him? The winger position is a tad bit crowded this year. Toulalan was sold for the money and shedding salary, but then there was Toualan himself saying- in his own words- that "he needed a change: that he felt unmotivated at OL because he had no one really challenging him for his position!" First time I've ever heard a player complain about that.

Was the 10M€ for Pjanić that important for Aulas? In just few games, and not even much minutes on the pitch, Pjanić already collected 1 goal and 3 assists. We could've sold CIssokho to Newcastle for 8M€ and from a lot of perspectives that would've been a so much wiser move, especially now that we got Dabo and have an extremely talented Kolodzieczak too. And who do we have in spots Pjanić has played well in? Briand, Pied? That's messed up, both of them aren't even close to Pjanić. Also I believe Ederson will never come good as it was expected of him, and Gourcuff might as well have another flop season. And then what? This transfer is the wtf moment #2 for Lyon this transfer window and I will never understand it.

They actually turned a profit on Pjanic(not that I agree with selling him now). Cissokho will be sold eventually, for a 50% loss minus the 20% we have to give back to Porto on his resale. Newcastle went with Santon for 7mill. What I don't get is why Wenger wasn't interested in Cissoko. I guess he was allergic to the price tag.

fuck is it actually done? is pjanic actually gone?..

If you ask me, Lass is far from being a top class player... seen him a lot in Madrid, and I can tell you this: the guy has zero football brain... he is a headless chicken running around all over the field fouling people, and very often tries to be Zidane with the ball in his feet, who he clearly is not. He would still be very useful to us, as he is a player with great speed, stamina and energy... I think he would do well in a club like Lyon, but never in my life would I be happy if we got him and sold Pjanic. Can't believe the club is even thinking about selling Pjanic... In my eyes this kid has world class potential, and if we are to sell him, then do it in a couple of years for 25+

I disagree about Lass when hes in form hes simply amazing his energy his aggression his pace his ball winning skills and his distribution are on point i can think of quite a few games during his Madrid days where he was simply amazing and was named man of the match for his performances and I certainly believe that he would be the best DM in france if he came back to Lyon and he is surely an upgrade in quality from what we currently have

Yea I agree he would be a huge upgrade for us, and would certainly be one of the best DMs in France

There are reports that he's turned down AC Milan. So what chance do we have? What is his salary anyway? If it's anywhere near 300k pr/mnth, management would never do it. Besides, today there are new reports that the Ndinga deal may not be dead.

It's done, Dabo is in Lyon. He signed for 4 years.
Cost : 1 M€ + up to 0.8 M€ in bonuses

Good signing. Kone for two, Dabo for one, this what I've been talking about!

looks like he might be gone..hope it's not true

http://www.mercato365.com/info...

TRANSFER RUMORS: Roma offering 10mill or 8mill+Fabio Simplicio for Pjanic. Also, OL are supposedly negotiating for M. Dabo of Sevilla.

I hate even a thought of Pjanić leaving Lyon :/
Lacombe said they are negotiating with Roma and didn't sound keen to keep Pjanić >:o

it says dabo's supposed to sign with lyon today...so sudden, also there's rumors of getting gabo or L diarra on loan from madrid.
and if we sign M. diarra too we'd be in for a pretty exciting season. although i wouldnt like to see pjanic leave either.

I always read that OL are concerned about M. Diarra's fitness/physical "issues." Anyone have any insight into this?

Dabo is a huuuge upgrade over Cissokho. Can't believe we're gonna sign him for about 2M€. Amazing transfer. And with it I also hope Cissokho goes and Pjanić stays. And he must stay. If Toulalan's transfer crushed me, Pjanić's will even more. And he has a great start of the season.

Quote of the day from JMA, he had this to say about his counterpart at AJA after the N'dinga deal seems to have fallen through after a reported 12mill offer by Lyon was refused: "For me, this matter is closed because I think that when you offer what I offered Auxerre, either you have Qatari finances or no sense of responsibility," he is quoted by France Football as saying.
I LOVE THIS MAN! I guess it's on to Diakhite, but it will probably be M. Diarra in the end. Why haven't we been looking at Kevin Anin of Sochaux? Maybe Sochaux's president is asking a delisuional price like what he wants for Martin and Boudebouz.

It regularly becomes a big ask to get players from within the league now. Lyon should look at the Dutch, Czech, Croatian leagues to get cheaper players; I doubt any Ligue 1 team wants to see one of their youth players play against them for peanuts.

Like Boz, i have been really impressed with what Garde has done with a team that in my opinion, isnt 100%.

Although Michel Bastos and Cissokho seem to check on and off, Pjanic being too good to be on the bench, Changing the Formation and sticking with it for this long...Garde still makes the team function.

What i believe will be the defining moment of the season is when we get our injured players back. Does Cris start ? Does Gourcuff automatically slot into the midfield ? will Ederson play any role for Lyon ? what about the young guns ?

Lyon are going to be a very interesting Team to watch in the coming weeks

P.S. i wish a speedy recovery for Capt. Lisandro

Megame -I hope you're okay? Nothing too serious in the crash?

In my opinion, I think this game was a big step foward.The first half I though we played very well, but couldn't seem to score. I think this was due to the fact that Lisandro seemed to be more concerned supporting Gomis. Defensively, Kone was excellent, and to be fair, I thought we had moments where we looked very defensively.

However, of concern should be the lack of finishing in the first half. We should have had a good few goals, but we appeared to tire in the second.

Great news on Lisandro! Lacazette should be given the chance to show what he can do - he looks lively when he plays and to be fair, I thought Pied did well as well.

Garde seems to have got some confidence back in the squad after the fiasco of the last few years, and with time, I think we could have a major manager on our hands. I shall confess to be sceptical when the announcement was made, but I see things in this team (which to be fair is pretty much unchanged remember from the Puel team) in the short period of time to date that Puel could not have got from them if he had been in charge for 20 years. God forbid....!!

As an aside - what is the news on him and employment? Is he tied until he resolves the dispute with us or does no one want him (snigger, snigger!!)

I'm OK now, thanks for asking.

As for Puel, he had been linked with Genk in Belgium, but someone else has just been chosen finally.

Hello everyone... at last. A car crash issue kept me away from the blog for a few days, hence the silence.

Now let's give another -and more interesting- piece of medical news : Lisandro had an MRI today, which confirmed there is no fracture. He'll get a cast - à la John ;) - and should be away for one month.... Crap, we'll have to face Ajax without him.

Arghhh, then he'll have to do rehab and that takes a while too.

Well now Licha is off; it's time to Lacazette to shine :)))); and we all see how simply Lyon can play! We score two beautifull, easy goals! That means we must just go to attack :D

Lyon are still adapting to a new system of play and have had some defenders injured, so its understandable that Remi Garde hasnt allowed the team to go full throttle in attack just yet. But the team is learning to defend as a unit and will only get better going forward as time progresses. I agree that this will give Lacazette more playing time and this could be a blessing in disguise. I seem to remember Benzema coming on the scene when Fred was badly injured as well. Hopefully Lacazette will be able to make a similar contribution.

I'm negative because we play poor yesterday and I almost he 7 heart attack hehehe; sorry for that! I just love OL, I'm OL fan for 16 years, and I cannot look that team like Ajaccio, Brest and even Montpellier hurt OL

 yes but at the same time you need to be patient with the new coach. Things are already looking better than they were under Puel because the players are more motivated and playing as a tighter unit but Garde hasn't had enough time to fully implement his changes to the team dynamic yet. Give him time to learn what works and what doesnt.

The ol site says that intial exams found no sign of a fracture. I believe this was just an xray and he will have to have an MRI or CT scan to see if there is ligament damage later during the week.

according to the lyon site. Lisandro just has a severe sprain and no break. if that's true we are lucky

I had someone role on my ankle from the outside once, and the outside of my foot touched my ankle, tearing a bunch of ligaments. It looked like Hilton did the same to Lilo.

Not pretending to have pshycic powers, but the entire game, all I could think about was when the hell was Lisandro going to get a rest?  And after I saw Pied come in as the last sub, and Lilo stayed on, all I could think about was him getting hurt.

i read the same thing. the initial medical exam didnt show a fracture to the ankle. great news.  :)

Pjanic needs to be inserted into the starting 11, hes been sensational off the bench all season. However, we cannot afford to sacrifice briand in his place bc this leaves us with absolutely no midfield options off the bench. Plus, can we really afford to partner pjanic with either gonalons or kallstrom in the center? Our defensive frailties will really be exposed if we do this, so Garde has a tough decision as what to do with pjanic. If you ask me we are in desperate need of another central midfielder. 

I would like to see Pjanic as a secondary striker behing Gomis in the next match, since Lisandro will surely be rested. I think that will allow him to be in a more comfortable i.e., a little further upfield than the #10, though he's looking pretty darn comfortable on the wing.

yea i love pjanic on the wing as well bc Gardes giving him the freedom to come inside whenever there is space to deliver the killer pass that we know he possesses but yea I agree with Licha out Pjanic behind Gomis is probably the best option up front

I don't know. Actually I'd give Lacazette a chance to play alongside Gomis, he seems exactly like the complement Lisandro is for Gomis. While Pjanić can take Briand's place anytime. I'm still puzzled why is Garde giving Briand so much playing time at the expense of Pjanić when it's clear Miralem is such a better player.

I think Laca will be inserted slowly i.e., come of the bench instead of starting. It seems to me that Pjanic is much better coming off the bench and seems more hungry to play in that role; he's like a stick of dynamite lately. Pjanic or Briand  will probably start next to Gomis for a while, until Laca eventually wins the starting spot. Anyway, hope none of this comes to pass, as I'm praying Lisandro just has a severe sprain. Wishful thinking as I had the same injury when I was young, and wasn't in the agony that Lilo was in, yet I had to wear a caste for a couple of months with torn ligaments. Hope I'm really wrong.

thats a fair comment im really excited to see what Laca can bring to our attack I love his energy and his enthusiasm and as far as briands concerned i feel like pjanic would be playing in his place if garde had some extra midfield cover off the bench...but i wouldnt be surprised if pjanic took briands place the next game. especially if we do sign ndinga

I'm soooo sad for Licha,God damit,he even got a national team call for those 2 games and now this :((
Bullshit :(

Thank god... three important points against tough opposition. We clearly need to improve, at times we looked nervous and shaky, but we also played some good posession fotball. Our passing game has improved immensely this season. Fantastic job from Pjanic, and great goal by Pied. Lacazette also got some minutes, and from the little he had the ball, I see great potential from him. He is very strong and robust, and also looks calm on the ball, waiting for the right solution... I think he will be ready to start and maybe even become an important player very soon. 

Lyon didnt deserve win plus Licha looks very bad, I mean his injury

 Remi Garde made the right substitutions at the right time. We have a good coach...something to be happy about plus Lisandro isn't badly injured, so stop your moaning.

who talk about coach and subs??? I just say we didnt deserve win; all statistic are on Montpellier side; we didnt deserve that win; prove me wrong

 just thinking you are being a bit overdramatic with all your gloom and doom. we won and things are looking better at lyon than they have in a long time. stop being so negative.