Lyon Draw and how THFC is seen from France

[Frenchalex25]

Dear All,
This has been a long time since i haven't posted on here but I think this is time for me again to make a post.
I will speak here about the EL league draw of Spurs vs Lyon.
I have been quite surprised by the reaction of most of you that think that Lyon isn't a easy draw.
This might not be an easy draw but i really can't understand why some of you seem so "scared" of playing Lyon.
As a french Spurs fan, i think i can quite well speak about Lyon.
I'd like to highlight a few facts about Lyon and french league 1.

1 st biggest Budget : PSG 's 2012-2013 budget is about 300 M Euros (250 M £ )
2 nd biggest Budget : Lyon's 2012-2013 budget is about 145 M Euros ( 120 M £)
3 : Marseille . (110 M Euros) (90 M £)
4 : Lille (100 M Euros ) 83 M £)
5 : Bordeaux (75 M Euros) (63 M £)
6 : Montpellier (60M Euros) (50M £)

Full list available here.
http://www.leprogres.fr/football/2012/08/03/l-ol-2e-au-classement-des-budgets

From an european point of view :
PSG has the 5 th biggest budget in Europe for the 2012-2013 season.
Lyon has the 15 th biggest budget in Europe for the 2012-2013 season.

According to the link, Tottenham budget was of 180 M Euros (150 M £)
(for season 2010-2011)

http://www.sportune.fr/sport-business/le-psg-5e-club-europeen-lol-et-lom-retrogradent-69859/2

From an economic point of view:

Lyon have lost money for the last 3 seasons.
35 M Euros deficit at the end of June 2010 (seaon 2009-2010)
28 M Euros deficit at the end of June 2011 (season 2010-2011)
10 M Euros deficit at the end of June 2012 (season 2011-2012).
Please note that this is strictly forbidden by the french Football association to have unbalanced accounts and to get losses.

If a french professional club gets losses, this concerned Club has to manage to balance his accounts to get the possibility to get involved again in his league the next season.
if a french club fails to balance his accounts; it can't take part in the national competitions and can be relegated in lower divisions.
The french organism that controls that football clubs are properly run is called DNCG.
Direction Nationale de Controle et de Gestion.

 

[Frenchalex25]

Lyon has no choice but to manage to find the missing 10 Millions Euros and every chairman in Europe knew that.
Lyon Chairman himself, Jean Michel Aulas told that he needed at least 10 Millions Euros asap and he gets them by selling Hugo Lloris for a "discount price" to us.

He needed money and Levy paid him just a little bit more than that.(15 M Euros).

Lyon 's Board of directors explains that

" 2012-2013 main's objective was to massively reduce the numbers of players under contracts with the Club with massive integration (in the first team) of the best young players from the Football academy".
In order to reduce the salary wages."

Original sentences in french.

« Le conseil d’administration maintient son objectif prioritaire pour la saison 2012-2013 de réduction significative du nombre de contrats joueurs (cession et fins de contrats), couplé à une intégration volontariste de jeunes talentueux issus du centre de formation. Ceci devrait permettre la réduction nécessaire de la masse salariale".
Moreover, a little bit like Spurs, Lyon are planning to build a new stadium but everything takes much more time than scheduled (because of the french administration) and because some people went to Court to prevent Lyon to build their Brand new stadium.

As we all know; building a brand new Stadium requires huge funds.
Even if France will also pay a part of it as Lyon's New stadium will host some matches of the Euro 2016.

Steed Malbranque has also been their best player this season so far.....
Lyon best player so far this season was a good squad player years ago in our Club.
But Steed Malbranque can hardly be called a World Beater, can't he ?

Lets take a look at their squad who have been reduced to only 20 first team players this season ( for financial reasons and to decrease the salary wages budget).

Goalkeepers :
Remy Vercoutre (age 32)

Defenders :
Mouhamadou Dabo (age 26)
Samuel Umtiti (age 19) (comes from the academy)
Milan Bisevac (age 29)
Anthony Reveillère (age 33)
Déjan Lovren (age 23)

Midfielders :
Maxime Gonalons (age 23) (comes from the academy).
Steed Malbranque (age 32)
Yoann Gourcuff (age 26)
Clément Grenier (age 21) (comes from the academy)
Gueida Fofana (age 21)
Michel Bastos (age 29)
Arnold Mvuemba (age 27)

Forwards :
Alexandre Lacazette (age 21) (comes from the academy).
Bafetimbi Gomis (age 27)
Lisandro Lopez (age 29)

 

[OmarsComing]

12. Tottenham Hotspur Angleterre 181 M€​

13. Manchester City Angleterre 169,6 M€​

Quoi?

 

[Frenchalex25]

This squad just shows that you have to stop to think that Lyon's is a CL's squad.
This time is over.
Probably none of these players would be a first teamer in Tottenham squad.

This is a decent squad in a league like Ligue 1 but this team wouldn't even be Top 10 in English Premier League.
And Lyon will probably have to offload some of its best players during january transfert window (Michel Bastos) as they are looking for cash.

I don't say we are sure to beat that team but not going through against such a weak squad would clearly be a failure.
All journalists gave almost no chance to Lyon to beat Spurs (over the 2 matches).

Lyon play some nice football but just take a look at all the teams in french ligue 1 and you'll understand why.
Out of the 20 french Ligue 1 teams, at least 9 or 10 teams are "Championship quality"
(Toulouse, Brest, Ajaccio, Bastia, Evian, Sochaux, Reims, Troyes, Nancy).

If Lyon were to play in the EPL; they would probably be in Mid table with the likes of Fulham, Swansea or
West Ham.
I don't say we will beat Lyon easily but we have the squad to do so.
If AVB plays 2 times his strongest eleven players (+ our bench) is by far more quality than Lyon's one), this should be no problem to go through.

Lyon is not one of the big teams remaining in this competition.
Some stronger teams than Lyon in my opinion :
Napoli, Fenerbahce, Benfica, Leverkusen, Newcastle, Monchengladbach, Lazio, Inter, Atletico Madrid, Zenith, Liverpool, Ajax.Chelsea.

There are 32 teams remaining in the EL at the moment.
I really think THFC is amongst the 5 best teams out of these 32 teams.

I don't say it will be 2 easy games but not going through would be a real failure.
We have the quality to qualify.

All guys in France who knows a little about football think Lyon have very little chance against Spurs.
For the last few years, we have been considered like a"CL quality team".
And our image as a Club in France has dramatically improved.
We are considered as a team at least as good as Arsenal and not very far behind Chelsea.
And more importantly, people in France have a good opinion about Tottenham....(despite the Lloris affair).

And no-one in France considers as a strange thing that Tottenham wants to have regular CL football.

And most of guys who know some football in France are convinced we can get it with the quality of our team (compared to the ones of Arsenal, Everton, WBA or even Liverpool).

To summarize, Tottenham has a good squad to do well in the EPL and Lyon has a good squad to do well in french ligue 1.
And the gap between EPL and Ligue 1 is getting bigger and bigger year after year.

Maybe some of you should attend to some Ligue 1 games ( very cheap ticket and you are always sure to get tickets ) to say that the level of play is pathethic.
(except some big games local derbies or "classics" games between Paris, Lyon and Marseille).

 

[Frenchalex25]

If AVB does what he told and takes the EL seriously, he will field 2 motivated strong 11 and we'll go through.
If AVB thinks Lyon is a very weak team and field an average team; we might be in trouble.
Lyon has a weaker team than us but the winning mentality is still there.

Lyon is a CL quality Club but there Team is not CL quality anymore.
The only thinks that would makes me a little bit afraid is that they don't need 10 chances to score goals.
They have few chances to score but a good finish.
And their striking options with Lisandro Lopez and Bafé Gomis are good + Bastos
These 3 players scores most of the games of the teams and when one of them is injured, they are struggling.

Whereas our strikers are not that efficient but many guys can score for us.
Bale, Lennon, Vertonghen, Dembele, Dempsey, etc....

As far THFC is concerned our squad is much more stronger than their.
Our defense quality (once Kaboul and BAE) will be back is much more qualty than their defense.

And regarding our midfield options; considering our midfield area with players like Sandro, Dembele, Bale, Lennon, Parker and Sigurdsson which is one of the best of the EPL, we will thrash them in the middle park without a doubt.

Mostly because there are trying to save as much money as possible to get their New Stadium on time for Euro 2016.

To make a comparison, many people here in France are convinced that Tottenham is a stronger team than Valencia.
Indeed, people thinks that this would have been more "logical" if Tottenham would have been PSG's opponent in the CL and if Valencia would have been drawed vs Lyon in EL.

We are fucking Tottenham Hotspur.
We all want to have CL football and most of you in England seem to be scared to have been drawed vs Lyon......that is not the Lyon that used to be a few years back.

I can understand that Lyon fans not being to happy to have been drawed vs Tottenham.
But i really can't understand why Tottenham (and its fans)would be too scared about been drawed vs Lyon.
Do not get me wrong but Spurs are hugely favorites for these 2 games.
Spurs are the favorites and Lyon are the underdogs.

One of my best mate is a Lyon fan and he is happy to have been drawed vs Tottenham because
he wants to be eliminated from the EL asap but as Lyon's fans still have this Big Club mentality, they want to lose with pride against a big team and in their minds, we are one the biggest team involved in the EL.

Lyon wants to focus on the french Ligue 1 and most of its players and fans think they can challenge PSG for at least a few more months for the title.
As their quality and quantity of players is not sufficient to play several competitions in the same time, they wouldn't mind being out of the EL by a Big Club.

Indeed, PSG don't play well as a team but they have so much quality in their team that this is more than enough to thrash any Ligue 1 side.
Lyon have a younger and several players that come from the football academy and with less quality, they play more as a squad.
Lyon would deserve more to win the league than Paris who have tried to "buy the league" as Chelsea did a few years back.

Lyon' main goal is to be back in CL football next year and to do so, they will mainly focus on the League.
But the main reason for Lyon to be involved in CL football is not to display great football matches and win the CL but only to get more money.

This is probably a too long and boring post but i feel this was important to give an other point of view.
The view from a frenchman who knows about french football and who is a Spurs fan.

 

[Frenchalex25]

12. Tottenham Hotspur Angleterre 181 M€​

13. Manchester City Angleterre 169,6 M€​

Quoi?

If you had read the table carefully, you would have seen that for
french clubs figures are for the 2012-2013 season whereas
for foreign clubs ( so City and Spurs), figures were the ones of 2010 -2011 season.

 

[Wheeler Dealer]

Dear All,
.

If a french professional club gets losses, this concerned Club has to manage to balance his accounts to get the possibility to get involved again in his league the next season.
if a french club fails to balance his accounts; it can't take part in the national competitions and can be relegated in lower divisions.
The french organism that controls that football clubs are properly run is called DNCG.
Direction Nationale de Controle et de Gestion.

This rule in Premier league would currently wipe out all teams with the exception of us, Arsenal, Newcastle, Norwich, and Swansea.

How do PSG get around it?

 

[Frenchalex25]

PSG have had a massive injection of cash from the Qatar and can afford to buy any player available.
They have sugar daddies and no problem.

 

[wozzahotspurs]

Sorry but did you get as bored as me typing this as I attempted to read it? I think a summary might have been better

 

[lillywhites61]

Thanks you for your post Alex, although a little long winded

I happen to agree though, if we do field our strongest team we have a great chance and Lyon live a little on their reputation now rather than their actual one.

I am quietly confident the same as you.

 

[Nocando]

Thanks for your post alex I enjoyed reading your point of view.

 

[whitelightwhiteheat]

I enjoyed reading it too Alex. Good work, my friend!

Also, I now feel 100% more confident than I did when the draw was made! I really fancy us to progress in this competition. Quarter Finals and beyond, for me.

 

[Frenchalex25]

Thanks guys.
I don't post very often but when I do so, I 'd like my posts to be facts rather than only opinions.
I tried to get facts and figures to explain my point of view.
I know my posts are very long (and boring possibly also) but whenever i get the feeling i can "share" something interesting, I am very happy to do so.
And THFC drawing Lyon in the EL gave me this possibility.

 

[guiltyparty]

Be good to get some Lyon forum feedback to the draw in 'what our opponents are saying' thread, Alex. Thanks for this though

 

[nightgoat]

Steeeeeeeeeeeeeed's coming back to the Lane? Awww yeah.

Anyway, where's SpursKing to come and tell us that Bafetimbi Gomis is the most dangerous striker in the world who we should have signed as a bargain five years ago?

 

[Nocando]

Thanks guys.
I don't post very often but when I do so, I 'd like my posts to be facts rather than only opinions.
I tried to get facts and figures to explain my point of view.
I know my posts are very long (and boring possibly also) but whenever i get the feeling i can "share" something interesting, I am very happy to do so.
And THFC drawing Lyon in the EL gave me this possibility.

You should post more often. Its refreshing to read both opinion and fact and so much better than a lot of the stuff I read on here.

So who is their main danger? Ive read a lot about lopez but never paid that much attention to him. Is he the one to watch?

 

[SugarRay]

Good posts. It's nice too hear how we are viewed in different countries and being seen as better than the likes of Valencia is very positive.

I also liked it when you said 'we are fucking Tottenham Hotspur'!

Bring it on Lyon!!!!!

 

[Frenchalex25]

You should post more often. Its refreshing to read both opinion and fact and so much better than a lot of the stuff I read on here.

So who is their main danger? Ive read a lot about lopez but never paid that much attention to him. Is he the one to watch?

Yes Nocando.
I would say that Lyon will leave us create the game both for the home and away leg and counter attack us.y

Their main danger is their strikers that contrary to ours .... score goals.

Bafe Gomis is a good striker and Lisandro Lopez is very intelligent and doesnt' 10 balls to score 1.
Lisandro Lopez reminds me very much of players like Pippo Inzaghi or David Trezeget in the way he plays.
Stays in the penalty box very often during the whole match without running and create goals out of nothing.

 

[guiltyparty]

Lopez is wicked in FIFA on the Vita

 

[benski]

Great post alex. Look forward to more posts from you relaying french opinion of spurs leading up to the Lyon game!