Tignes: The Deal So Far + Pictures

By: Inara | July 10th, 2008

As most of you probably know, Lyon have started their pre-season training at Tignes, a ski resort in the Alps on the Italian border. Lyon go there every year for high altitude workouts, which is supposed to make them really fit.

Both Lyon and the France NT train at Tignes yearly.

Right now, half the squad is missing because they took part in Euro 2008 or World Cup qualifiers, and they aren’t due back from vacation until July 15th. They’re missing pre-season at Tignes, but Puel will have a second training camp from July 27 to August 1st at Divonne les Bains.

There has also been some revisions to Lyon’s original schedule of summer friendlies. The club has dug up some other opponents, so this is what to expect:

7/12: Lyon vs. Nimes @ Albertville, France
7/19: Lyon vs. Rapid Bucaresti @ Bucharest, Romania
7/23: Lyon vs. Partizan Belgrade @ Belgrade, Serbia
7/24: Lyon vs. Nancy @ Villefranche-sur-Saône, France
7/29: Lyon vs. Monaco @ Annecy, France

I’m slightly confused as to how Lyon will play in Serbia on the 23rd and then play in Villefranche one day later, but what do I know? Anyway, these games are meant to be a nice transition into Lyon’s first “real” match of the season, the Trophée des Champions (French Supercup), where they will face off against Bordeaux.

So what have the boys been up to so far?

Well, they’ve been spending a lot of time biking. Rather infamous among the players, the Mountain of Iseran trail is an eight mile course up to the peak. People have been known to break down and cry, it’s that grueling. And when fitness coach Robert Duverne isn’t putting them through hell, they are doing the usual workouts, plus fun activities like rafting, rugby, handball, basketball, etc – basically, a bunch of team building activities. When they have time, they also play football. Only sometimes though.

Unfortunately, there are some injuries to report. Anthony Reveillere has a strained calf muscle, Kader Keita hurt his arm when he was away playing for the Ivory Coast, and Juninho right thigh was sore (the MRI came back all clear), so those three are taking it easy.

More seriously, Fabio Santos picked up a pretty bad ankle sprain yesterday and will probably be out for six to eight weeks. Hugo Lloris is still at least a month away from playing competitively, so it’s possible he’ll miss the start of the season.

Fred has tendinitis of the knee (raise your hand if you’re surprised), and though no one is overly concerned, he has a history of being injury prone, so he’s being monitored constantly.

Finally, a word on Puel: It’s too early to say anything about his coaching techniques, but I’ve been impressed by his willingness to participate in the physical workouts with the players, everything from the running to the biking to even the rugby and rafting. The players seem to appreciate the fact that their coach is toiling alongside of them as opposed to watching from the sidelines, so hopefully they will respect him more for that.

Perhaps a bit controversially, he’s banned headphones from practices and workouts (other than in long distance singular activities like terrain biking). I’m guessing he noticed the total communication breakdown amongst the players and staff last season, so he wants everyone to talk to each other more. On one hand, this is great news because the players really need to work on their team building skills, but I’ll be honest, I’m slightly worried about how Karim Benzema will take this new rule – that kid is always glued to his iPod.

Puel’s also been paying close attention to the youth, not just in Lyon’s CFA but also in the U16 and U18 teams. The kids who were lucky enough to get invited along make up nearly half the group at Tignes, and judging from the information on the website, they’re having a blast. Unlike Houllier and Perrin, who had little to no interest in academy players, Puel wants to work with them as much as possible. This doesn’t mean that Lyon will be more of a homegrown team, but these guys will at least be given a chance to fight for a spot on the senior team.

Suffering with his players.

Another thing I like about Puel is that even though he has more authority than any OL manager before him, it isn’t getting to his head. He could just as easily have disbanded Lyon’s technical staff (something that Le Guen, Houllier, and Perrin wanted to do) with his new powers, but instead he not only chose to keep them, he also promoted Sonny Anderson (who before had an unofficial role at the club) to his staff. One of Perrin’s biggest problems was that he didn’t get along with the technical staff, but it looks like Puel is taking all the right steps in earning their regard.

He’s also not going crazy with the transfers despite Aulas promising lots of funds. So far, he hasn’t requested any new players – in fact, he wants to trim down the squad. He said that he’ll only bring in a defender if Sebastien Squillaci leaves, and he actually wants to keep Sidney Govou.

His first official game as coach will be next Saturday when Lyon face off against Nimes in a friendly. It’ll be interesting to see who he names as captain (Juninho hasn’t done himself any favors by criticizing Puel’s appointment). And it’ll be even more interesting to see what happens when the internationals show up next Monday as well.

I’m going to keep my fingers crossed for Puel. He’s a keeper.

Pictures: