What the future holds for Lyon?

Lyon have been the dominant force in France for seven long years but that domination came to an end last season when Bordeaux lifted Ligue 1 title. This is now a turning point for the club and they need to show everyone how serious they are. Nevertheless, the first signs are not very positive since Claude Puel’s team stayed without two key players and they will definitely have problems finding the right replacements.

Jean-Michelle Aulas, the creator of big Lyon, can certainly be pleased with what his team have achieved during the last decade, although he probably regrets the fact that they never really had a lot of success in Europe. Olympique were always so close to the finals stages of the Champions League, but they never really made that final step. Their domestic domination ended last season, when they finished behind both Bordeaux and Marseille and it was evident that changes were imminent.

It was expected that the team would be reinforced and try to retain the title next season, but that was not to be. First, long serving Brazilian playmaker Juninho decided to leave the club, before Lyon accepted Real’s offer for Karim Benzema and thus Les Gones stayed without two key players from last season. Nobody could stand in Juninho’s way when he decided to look for a new challenge, but Benzema could have been stopped from leaving. However, it seems that Aulas has come to terms with the player’s desire to join Real even though he could have blocked the deal in more ways than one.

This decision to sell Benzema can be the testament of club’s ambition as it seems that Lyon are prepared to sacrifice a year or two in order to build a new team capable of repeating the success of Juninho’s generation. Kader Keita has also left the club, although he was not really indispensable player. On the other hand, Lyon are yet to sign any new players and even though I expect them to reinforce the squad this summer, a couple of years are likely to pass before they’ll be able to challenge for honours. The optimistic view on this would be to see it as a start of an era rather than an end of one, but we are yet to see if Aulas will be able to build a team like the one that dominated France for seven years.

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