Just Shut Up, Please

By: Inara | May 16th, 2007

As the transfer window approaches, Lyon is quite possibly the only club, with the exception of Chelsea, where the speculation surrounding the manager is greater than that of the players.

houllier

This poor guy is tired of the endless uncertainty regarding his future at Lyon.

Gerard Houllier has been linked with half a dozen other management positions (DTN, Socceroos, USNT, Bayern Munich, Newcastle United, Manchester City, and most recently, Dynamo Kiev). But he still has another year left on his contract at Lyon, and he says that he intends to honor that.

He was very pissed this morning when he woke up to Le Parisien claiming that he had signed a two year contract with Dynamo Kiev for a salary of 5 million euros per year - two million more than what he earns at Lyon.

Before practice today, he emphatically denied that he would be in Kiev next year and that he was thinking only of Lyon “at this moment.” Lyon also refuted the report on their website and issued a hands-off warning to other clubs looking for a manager.

How many times has Aulas assured the world that Houllier would be at Lyon next year? Like everyday since Lyon started their crap streak in January. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a club try so hard to convince people that their manager still has a job for next season.

And therein lies the rub.

While it’s completely normal for a rumor to pop up every once in a while - what manager this season hasn’t suffered the slightest bit of speculation? - there are too many in Houllier’s case for the situation to be ignored.

Circumstances at the Stade de Gerland have certainly not been ideal for him. Though he has one more year on his Lyon contract, amidst all the chaos that Lyon have been going through, with players wanting to leave, players about to be laid off, Aulas being made G-14 president, and the continuing cockfight with Lyon adviser Bernard Lacombe, perhaps Houllier has had enough.

It also doesn’t help that since January, the club has endured its worse run of form since 1983, back when they were playing in Ligue 2.

And while Houllier is being linked away from the club on a daily basis, other potential managers are being linked with Lyon almost as frequently - also not normal.

The list already includes Remi Garde, Claude Puel, Alain Perrin, and Didier Deschamps. But just today, Giovanni Trappattoni announced that he would like the challenge of managing a club in Ligue 1, and according to the rumors, Aulas has already contacted him.

The conspiracy theorist in me believes that this is part of Aulas’s diabolical summer plans, in which he wants to use Houllier to divert media attention over Lyon’s impending player transfers, which are supposed to be rather drastic. But as things appear now, it seems more likely that Houllier will leave the club before Florent Malouda does.