Sometimes at a club, voices get too familiar, ideas get stale and people get too comfortable. Good change. Hopefully it works out for us.
Lead us to Glory Remi! I have faith in you, Allez L'OL, the new chapter begins. I am legitimately happy with this promotion. I want to see what he can do, inject so new life in this club, maybe help the players play freely and happily again after the 3 year reign of the dour Claude Puel. This is just what this club needs.
Interesting insight on the Toulalan move (from an interview pubished this weekend in L'équipe): "On May 29 president Aulas told me I was free to consider Malaga's proposal. He was sad and disappointed to see me go but I know that for the financial situation of the club my leaving is a good thing. I understood they needed to sell me." explained the former Nantes player whose transfer put 11M€ in the coffers of the septuple champions. The change is above all a new challenge for him: "I need to take a risk. At Lyon, even when I wasn't doing well I was an automatic starter. I need new pressure, I need a change. All the more because these last three years have taken their wear and tear. I was one of the ones that supported Claude Puel. Frankly, that was hard to carry." The international midfielder wanted to thank the staff, especially the little guys at the big club. "I'm sad to leave and there are people I'm going to miss", he said, particularly naming physical trainer Pat Perret, the clubs oldest employéé Albine, equipment men Guy Genet and Jérôme Renaud. "But we'll see each other again and be happy to do so." Practically no comment concerning his ex-teammates: "the atmosphere in the locker room wasn't that bad but we had such a damned tough time of it (...) when we grabbed 3rd place we were just relieved, that's all (...) I think the club wants to go back to what they used to do in their best years, when they bought smart and cheap, but paid more attention to human qualities. I arrived at the same time as Squillaci and Källström and none of us were troublemakers", he ended by wishing good luck to Rémi Garde.
good question, but primo, 11M€ is not necessarily the real figure (which was not disclosed): along with bonuses etc. OL may have negotiated closer to their 13M€ asking price and secondo, i don't know who they will be able to sell for much more than that: the bastos deal doesn't seem to be going through at 15M€, and there's no one else on the block at anywhere near that kind of money. but as you seem to be implying, the real reasion is elsewhere. i've long thought that toulalan supported puel and was weary of the stick being dished out to him both internally... and externally. i saw the disgust on his face once when gomis, after 60 absolutely heroic minutes, got booed off the field and feared something like this may come to pass. j'accuse: the bad gones who yankeefied the VN... laurent blanc for making it clear that anyone and his little brother was going to get picked over toule no matter what so no need to continue playing brave soldier in L1... and possibly robert duverne... if he was the knysa mole there's no way toulalan was going to stand for his coming back to tola.
Toulalan def a classy guy i hope the best for him in spain and i know he will do great and get call ups from blanc
can you expand on this, I read something about it but I didn't fully understand btw, raid on sochaux, oui, non, peut etre? saw some stuff on l'equipe...
What do you guys know about the kid, DM from Porto? Is he good? Is it all press speculation or is there an actual chance we go after him?
I dont see them making big signings like that. They are being liked with Jaroslav Plasil for example and a cheaper guy like that seems to be where they would go.
im pretty sure there is going to be at least 1 big signing(cb perhaps) its not like this club is not known to sign semi big names
Sissoko... http://www.givemefootball.com/premier-league/15m-french-international-confirms-liverpool-talks If only...
I'll take Etienne Capoue over Moussa Sissoko anytime... Enough with the 15m€ ticket for L1 players...
i don't know if classy is the word, but all indications, both in EdF and at OL, seem to show that he's a loyal and unselfish teammate. he didn't have to come to the defense of anelka, evra et al, with whom i doubt he had any personal bonds. his visceral revolt against the fan and press pressure at Lyon was anything but self-serving: he was never under the gun himself, just his coach and teammates, but he couldn't let that pass. it's just my feeling, but even if the reasons laurent blanc gave the first time he left an eligible toulalan off had a certain logic (the temporary change to CB, poor form of both player and team), those faded after jeremy had moved back to MF got his head on straight, and started putting in solid matches. and yet not even a pre-convocation, even though no one else at the position has shown more than a few brief moments of promise lost in an appalling general mediocrity and the qualities most cruelly lacking in the france midfield, hustle and grit, were his almost exclusive stock in trade. paradoxically alou diarra, having an even worse time of it at bordeaux than toulalan at OL, became an automatic choice and even got the armband that not that long before had looked a perfect fit for toulalan. it's seems blanc has a strong distaste for toulalan, and it's probably reciprocal. the year of bordeaux's title there was some needling, and then there was toulalan's remark about France '98 ("ils faisaient chier"... difficile de ne pas être d'accord!) that's blanc's right as selectionneur. i accept it, and toulalan's comments on the subject indicate he does as well. and that means that one of the big negatives to burying himself in mid-table of a foreign league, losing the visibilty that could get him back in bleu, becomes inoperative.
Interesting statement. Was Lisandro Lopez a big name at the time or did casual fans say "who?". I'd say yes, he was a big name, big name in Portugal, not in the world though. A lot of casual fans would be hard pressed to know who Lisandro was prior to arriving for us. That being said, I expect a big signing, not necessarily in name, but certainly in price. We've never flinched at spending big.
but he being a big name in liga sagres and not in the "world" is due to that league's popularity it has nothing to do with the player, in fact the "big" names come from the "big leagues" and that's why i said semi getting a quality cb from a non top 3 league would be cheaper and smarter casual fans are that, casual
the one and perhaps only negative, the guy is 27 how many changes do you get to play abroad at a good level before you start getting "old" I'm sure the money was another incentive as well as the location the other possible negative is possibly not winning anything but no one can really state that, heck they might actually make a decent run...
We are being linked with Boudebouz and Martin of Sochaux, however if we can't land one or both of them, we're chasing Plasil. Additionally, one of our scouts was watching Zelaya and Alas of El Salvador at the Gold Cup. After spending big in 2009 and 2010, unfortunately I think we need to spend big again. Toulalan will be tough to replace, however Moussa Sissoko has been at Toulouse way to long. Lisandro said he will stay until we win titles, but I think we need to re-examine whether Gomis, Briand can do the job. Our midfield, needs some though. Gourcuff is a fixture, Pjanic should be too, but apparently if he can't get playing time, he wants out. Many of our other players (not Kim) are depth players. Perhaps a new CM is in order. Defence needs an overhaul, Cris had a forgettable season except for the 2 goal game at Marseille. Aly is a transfer target, but I'd prefer to keep him. Rev~ can stay too please. However we need to look long and hard at two new CB's. Mensah is not the answer.
Yes to Moussa gomis and briand were inconsistent like the rest of the team, though personally I think Gomis is a good hard worker who works for the team why 2 new CBs Lovren has proven he can hold CB, his young and has potential as well as experience, no need to replace him Mensah is just the cheap answer in case we cant find or afford a quality CB hopefully if we do he can prove to be a better CB than Diahkte
No one mentioning that Juventus arent interested in Bastos anymore and they were planning on selling him before they buy anyone, right ?
sure he's neither usain bolt nor pippo inzaghi but the job he's been doing thrills me to bits. he was POTM twice this season and licha wants to have his babies he loves playing with him so much. the game i loved the most was at home against lille, a damned close run thing: lille pushing furiously in the second half, us down to 10 men... even up 3-1 we were on the back foot and wobbly... things were looking very scary. gomis came on for the last half hour and here's how he saved us: we'd just hoof the ball upfield and every time bafé came up with it. and held it. and held it. and even threatened to break through all by himself. it was heroic and without him the last 30 minutes would have been played exclusively in our last 20-30 meters, a very bad plan against lille.