Random Nuggets

By: Inara | October 9th, 2008

It’s international week, so things are rather quiet on the Lyon front. Here’s what’s been going on:

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Fabio Grosso is back in training and is expected to play against Lille on October 18th. This is good news because if he does well, he play against Steaua a few days later. Kader Keita is also training normally, and Cesar Delgado (remember him?) is starting light training.

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Our beloved Jean-mimi has threatened to leave Lyon if stadium plans continue to stall. Originally, construction on OL Land was supposed to begin June 2008 – which was almost five months ago. Now it’s looking like the earliest construction can start would be June 2010 – which was when the stadium was scheduled for completion.

The reason for the delay is due to a few upstart groups who don’t want a stadium near their neighborhood for fear of extra traffic and noise. Unfortunately, this handful of people have the support of some obnoxious city officials, who are holding up the paperwork.

I for one don’t think Aulas is making an idle threat. He’s right in that Lyon have peaked as much as they can under current conditions, and the next logical step is a new stadium. Every year that there is a delay, Aulas will be forced to sell off players to make up for the increased revenue he could potentionally be earning from increased ticketing and marketing, and that in turn pushes back Lyon’s entrance into the Big Boyz Club.

If Aulas does leave, it would be catastrophic, not just for OL, but for the whole of French Football and even for the city of Lyon. People hate him outside of OL, but he is responsible for helping modernize French football and raising the standards across the entire league. Any other club would be damn lucky to have him.

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Laurie has already covered this on the main page, but matters between the UNFP (the players union) and the UCPF (the club management union) are threatening to boil over. What has their knickers in a twist is the proposed makeup of the LFP’s management board, which currently features 12 club presidents amongst the 25 members. The UCFP, backed by the LFP, is demanding that the number of club presidents on the board be increased to 14, which is something that UNFP doesn’t want because that might mean further changes to the season’s calendar and the clubs’ payroll.

The UNFP is threatening to go on strike the weekend of October 24th if the LFP continues to push this matter, so things could get ugly. Remy Vercoutre, who is the representative of the Lyon players to the UNFP, has confirmed that all the players have unanimously agreed that they would go on strike if necessary.

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OL Féminines have gotten to a fantastic start, both domestically and in Europe. They are currently topping Division 1 (the women’s topflight) with five wins and one draw and 25 goals scored and only two conceded. However, their rivals Montpellier are right on their heels with only one less point.

Today the ladies started their UEFA Women’s Cup campaign (they were seeded directly into the second qualifying phase) with an 8-0 victory over Austrian side Neulengbach. Goals were scored by Camille Abily (8, 77), Louisa Necib (10, 43), Lotta Schelin (12), Sonia Bompastor (18), Laura Georges (37), and Elodie Thomis (40).

Their next opponents will be FC Zurich on Saturday and then Arsenal on Tuesday. If Lyon win their next match, which they are likely to do, they will pretty much be qualified for the quarterfinals, though they will want to win all three matches so that they can win the group and therefore be paired with another group’s runner up for the next round.

All games in Lyon’s group for this stage of the competition are taking place in Lyon. OL Féminines are playing all their matches at the Gerland, and the other group matches are taking place in one of the smaller Lyon stadiums.

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Chelsea’s website posted an interview of Florent Malouda, who had some nice things to say about Lyon and the future of the club, so check it out here.

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And speaking of interviews, the LFP also posted a selection of interviews from the various clubs interested in Karim Benzema, among them Manchester United, Inter Milan and Barcelona, who recently admitted that their bid for him this summer had been rejected.

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Anthony Mounier – who some of us predicted would have his breakout year this season – is currently the latest media darling. In fact, he’s been getting more attention than Karim Benzema in recent weeks! Claude Puel says that if he continues to improve, he may earn a starting spot (thereby making Lyon’s entire forward line homegrown). Mounier has even caught the attention of Raymond Domenech, who told Mounier that if he could play more regularly, he might even find himself on the way to South Africa in two years.

Mounier on the other hand isn’t letting this get to his head. He’s aware that he’s only started a couple of games and isn’t anywhere near as consistent. But he would like to extend his contract with Lyon (it expires in 2010), so hopefully that will be taken care of soon.

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Fred has been granted leave until Friday to go to Brazil and visit his daughter. You can read the interview John posted here about the troubles in Fred’s personal life and why he often acts like he’s bipolar.

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Finally, here is the list of players away on international duty this week.

France (vs. Romania – 10/11/08, vs. Tunisia – 10/14/08): Karim Benzema, Hugo Lloris, Jeremy Toulalan, Jean-Alain Boumsong

France U21 (vs. Germany – 10/10/08, vs. Germany 10/15/08 – yes, they are playing the Germans twice): Anthony Mounier

Bosnia-Herzegovina (vs. Turkey – 10/11/08): Miralem Pjanic

Ghana (vs. Lesotho – 10/11/08): John Mensah

Cameroon (vs. Mauritius – 10/11/08): Jean II Makoun

Sweden (vs. Portugal – 10/11/08): Kim Kallstrom