Houllier to Leave Lyon?

By: Inara | April 10th, 2007

Houllier This is a rumor, mind you. Idle gossip. Tribal Football-esque information. But I’m going to write about it anyway because I love gossip.

Houllier might leave Lyon this summer.

Shocked? Don’t be. This isn’t exactly out of left-field.

President Jean-Michel Aulas has been repeatedly stressing that he doesn’t want Houllier to leave. According to him, Lyon is having its “best season ever” despite being kicked out of three cup competitions in one month. He has “absolute trust” in Gerard, and he knows that after rebuilding the team this summer, next year’s European endeavors will be “more successful.”

It’s not the dreaded vote of confidence since technically, Houllier did lead Lyon to two consecutive titles (well, he will in a few weeks), and of his 100 matches so far, he’s won 65 of them, with only 22 ties and 13 losses. But at Lyon, you can still be a loser while being a winner.

After all, Houllier was not brought in to lead Lyon to another domestic title. Even a comatose baboon could do that given how much better Lyon’s squad is to the rest of France. Instead, he was hired to bring Lyon the one trophy it does not have: the Champions League. I suppose Aulas thought that since Houllier had won with the UEFA Cup with a grossly mismatched Liverpool squad in 2000, he could win the CL with a team that has talents like Juninho, Cris, and Malouda. Or at least get past the quarter-final stage. And Houllier is a Frenchman, which is tres tres important to Aulas.

But two years later, not only did Houllier fail to get past the quarterfinals, this year he didn’t even get past the Round of 16! That was a really hard failure to swallow, especially given Lyon’s dominance in the group stages.

Houllier has said that he’s happy at Lyon and that he will stay unless he’s forced out. And to be fair to him, he has done some really good things at Lyon. He’s superb at bringing out the best in players. Under his tenure, players like Malouda, Benzema, Tiago, Clerc, Fred, and Toulalan have blossomed – literally! And despite not progressing further in the CL, Houllier has enhanced Lyon’s reputation as Europe’s dark horses and instilled a genuine fear in other European clubs.

But we Lyonnais are too jaded to take the words of Aulas and Houllier at face value. After all, Essien and Diarra went from pledging their undying loyalty to leaving for another club within the space of a week. And it’s not like Houllier is unwanted either. He’s been linked with some pretty sweet jobs, among them the position of France Football Federation’s technical director (thus making him Domenech’s boss – hahaha), a position at UEFA as part of Platini’s staff, as well as with the open managerial posts for both the Australian and American football teams. He was also strongly linked with Bayern Munich (though Hitzfield has now agreed to stay on). So yes, it is entirely possible that Houllier will resign this summer.

However, an even bigger questions looms: who will replace him? After all, the easy part of the job would be to win a seventh consecutive title. So I thought I’d post the “To Do” list for any incoming Lyon manager.

10 things to do at Lyon:

1. Speak French.

2. Develop Lyon’s youth players.

3. Adore Juninho (but then again, who doesn’t?)

4. Manage all the egos since Lyon is a firm believer in squad rotation and team spirit.

5. Understand that Lyon managers have very little say in player transfers. Their job is only on the pitch. Not off it.

6. Never lose to St. Etienne.

7. Be a really bad loser.

8. Get along with Bernard Lacombe (Aulas’s right hand man, who has a considerable amount of power and sway despite being an unofficial adviser). Houllier does not get along with him.

9. Lead Lyon to its first ever domestic double.

10. Oh, and win the Champions League.

Lyon has quite a long list of distinguished (but French) managers, featuring Aimé Jacquet, Raymond Domenech, Jean Tigana, Bernard Lacombe, Jacques Santini, and Paul Le Guen. But because of the pressure to succeed in Europe, Lyon can’t hang onto a coach for more than a few years. Even the much loved Paul Le Guen had enough after three consecutive domestic titles.

So who are the alternatives to Houllier? Lyon may try to pilfer Ligue 1 for talent as they always do. PSG’s Paul Le Guen is untouchable as he just took over at PSG (plus there might be death threats involved if Aulas so much as approaches him). But the press has some suggestions.

1. Claude Puel. This man has done a tremendous job at Lille with only a tenth of Lyon’s budget. He’s taken a backwater team and propelled them into the knockout rounds of European competition. Despite their exit, they gave Manchester United a really hard time. But Puel has signed a contract extension with Lille, and he said he wants to continue Lille’s European adventure. However, in the event that Lille doesn’t qualify for the Champions League (there are like fifty teams within a hairsbreadth of snagging the second and third CL spots in France), perhaps his opinion might change. And the president of Lille is the brother of Lyon’s principal shareholder, so Aulas is going to have to be unusually subtle.

2. Alain Perrin. Former Portsmouth manager who disappointed during his tenure in England. But he’s been nothing short of remarkable at Sochaux this year, lifting a club whose original goal was to avoid relegation and making them genuine contenders for a CL spot. But he might be a little too inexperienced for Lyon.

3. Remi Garde. Former Arsenal player and current assistant coach at Lyon. He’s young, has a good relationship with all the players (this is so key), plus he recently qualified for his coaching license. Aulas loves to promote from within, and he might prefer to go with one of his own rather than risking an “outsider.” However, Garde doesn’t have a lot of experience either, so he might be a riskier choice than the others, unless he is co-manager with Bernard Lacombe.

4. Didier Deschamps. He’s doing a good job at Juventus, but again, I don’t see how anyone couldn’t do a good job at that club this year. Juventus in Serie B is like Lyon in Ligue 1 – miles ahead compared to the rest of the competition. Because of the rumors that he hasn’t been getting along with club management, Deschamps will especially get Aulas’s attention because he’s a) French, and b) a CL finalist.

5. Marcello Lippi. Now I don’t know how viable this rumor is, but it’s such a sweet rumor that I’m going to write about it anyway. Lippi’s accolades speak for themselves, but while he may enjoy the challenge of Lyon, his arrival may not be very feasible. First of all, Lippi doesn’t want to leave Italy because he’s worried about the language barrier. And in any event, he’ll also be offered jobs at higher profile clubs that would be able to pay a lot more money than Lyon. So of all the people I listed, he’s the least likely.

But I can keep dreaming, right? Hell, I’d learn Italian just to translate for him at Lyon, I like him that much.