Laurent Blanc almost made only a quick stint at Olympique Lyonnais. Arrived in the Rhône on October 9, 2022, in place of an outdated Peter Bosz, the “President” quickly considered resigning due to the deleterious atmosphere which reigned within the club. “When I arrived, when I saw the squad, I said to myself: ‘I understand the situation better.’ It was more than complicated whether it was in the locker room, with the players… I said sincerely to my staff: ‘I’m going to leave if we don’t change things.'”, he explained in an interview with L’Équipe. Before specifying: “There were too many players, clans (he blows) … When you are a coach, you have to have fun, especially at my age (smile). I didn’t feel able to do it with this group.”
Fortunately for him, but also for Olympique Lyonnais, the 1998 World champion took advantage of the truce linked to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to “upgrade everything, like in a car”. To do this, he notably made “strong choices”. “There were good young people but they weren’t playing. There were confirmed guys but they perhaps did not have the necessary motivation to be in Lyon […] We made the right choices in January and I thank the management for having followed me, ”t-t – he told the sports daily. And thanks to this in-depth work, Les Gones have had a good second half of the season which has allowed them to get close to European places.
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