http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Olympique-Lyonnais-c40130 satisfied with the season so far – Ligue 1 news
President of seven-time French Ligue 1 champions Olympique Lyonnais, Jean-Michel Aulas has expressed his satisfaction at how things have transpired at the club so far in the 2011/2012 Ligue 1 season.
Les Gones are currently in third place in the league standings with 17 points from nine games and despite the 2-0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes, Les Gones are still in a strong position to contest for the Championelle which they haven’t
won in the last four years.
Olympique Lyonnais were discrete in the summer transfer window which is something the club is not used to. Only 5 million Euros were spent on three new players but the policy of the club to put more faith on the youth academy has started paying off.
The likes of Clement Grenier and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Max-c24993 Gonalons have rose up to the occasion and are becoming regular fixtures in Remi Garde’s starting XI.
While talking to the media, Aulas said that the recruitment this summer was very peculiar in contrast to the transfer windows of yesteryears when Les Gones paid heavy sums for the likes of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Michel-Bastos-c25461.
“We had too many players who were preventing the development of the young players. The goal is to go the distance while keeping in touch with the Financial Fair Play rule by getting more out of the academy players,” the Lyon supremo said.
Lyon did receive a lot of criticism for the 2-0 loss at the hands of PSG but Aulas is not too worried about it. Though the Frenchman admits that the manner of the defeat was demoralising, he also admitted that the club is going through a transitional phase.
“It was a young group that played (against PSG). Perhaps too young for the occasion,” the Lyon president said. The recent defeat at the hands of PSG shows that Lyon will have a hard time when they are up against the best sides in Europe.
Though the project is not foolproof, Lyon are definitely better off by giving youth a chance to shine rather than splashing cash on players who might consider the club as a mere rest-stop for a big move.
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