OL has made its best start to the season since 1981, but not everyone shares the ambient euphoria. A respected voice from French football decided to play the spoilsports.
Three games, three victories, no goal collected. Olympique Lyonnais is on a cloud. League 1 leader, Paulo Fonseca's team impresses with its youth and carefree. But this fanfare departure does not convince everyone. On RMC waves,
Christophe Dugarry threw a huge pavement in the pond.
“OL? It won't last, for sure “did he drop, pointing to an overly young workforce and, above all,
The absence of a real center forward after the sale of Georges Mikautadze.
OL in the footsteps of the Grand Fiasco of RC Lens? Dugarry's warning
This prediction, as brutal as it is, is not just a simple opinion. It is based on a relentless form of football, and the recent history of Ligue 1 proves her right. To find the proof of what Dugarry advances, it is enough to go back in time, until the season 1996-1997. That year, another club ignited the start of the championship: RC Lens.
The Lensois, carried by a talented youth, had won their first four games. Leaders, “summer tube”, they seemed unstoppable. The rest was a terrible tumble. The team collapsed, chained the counter-performance, given their coach (Savo Muslin) being dismissed during the season, and only maintained its maintenance in extremis to finish a modest 13th place. A beginning of dream that had turned into a nightmare.
The same evils, the same fate?
The parallel with OL today is disturbing. A very young team, a canon start, and a glaring lack at the forefront of the attack. Like the Lens of the time, Lyon has talent to resell, but perhaps not the shoulders wide enough to bear the pressure of an entire season, especially with the European Cup. Dugarry sums it perfectly : “These are young players who are there to make their ranges. »»
Of course, the context has changed a little. Ligue 1 to 18 clubs and with only two direct relegations offers a safety net that Lens did not have. But the substance of the problem remains the same. A good start is one thing, consistency is another. OL has the right to savor its excellent start to the season, but it would be well inspired to keep in mind the previous Lensois. Because as Dugarry says, a season is long. And the beautiful summer stories do not always make beautiful winter champions.
