Olympique Lyonnais Cafe II [R]

[lefutur]

govou govou govou...what are we going to do with you?

http://i.sofoot.com/IMG/img-govou-la-joue-comme-beckham_x300_arton115250.jpg

http://medias2.lesdessousdusport.fr/image/article/actualite/foot/ligue-1/lyon-3/1_9964b340fedb40d520262f2868def5e5_475.jpg

[AfrcnHrbMan]

on second thought he's not ready for the armband....

[StarrMatthieu]

govou govou govou...what are we going to do with you?

http://i.sofoot.com/IMG/img-govou-la-joue-comme-beckham_x300_arton115250.jpg

http://medias2.lesdessousdusport.fr/image/article/actualite/foot/ligue-1/lyon-3/1_9964b340fedb40d520262f2868def5e5_475.jpg


MR Govou do you get a armband?? for that? ;)

[guignol]

the pictures look bad but a couple of stills can be very misleading, especially when you don't know the full context. i don't, but i've gathered this much:

1) this was in a little stadium in aix-les-bains where the supporters are very close, and security is minimal. sid's not in the stands in these pictures and probably never was.

2) beside the insults he received himself, his brother (who was in the stands) was getting the treatment and that's even harder to take.

3) the fans you get at these matches are mostly of two types; locals taking the opportutunity to see pros play and real mordus that take the sometimes long trip just to see a friendly. but these were of a third type: "supporters" of a team not even involved in the match just out to make trouble. delving into the reader comments of different articles on the net there are some eyewitness reports who confirm these were OM "fans" of the worst type, real cretins, and there are a couple of anecdotes about bad behavior by same at other friendlies this summer. i don't mean to paint all marseille fans with a broad brush, just a particular stripe of retard who get their jollies doing things they can't at official matches.

4) no statement from OL or from the league has been made, and the articles i've read are generally sympathetic with govou and critical of the troublemakers in the stands.

but beside knowing just how blameworthy sid was, there's the question of whether this should affect his captaincy. well, my feeling is that a captain doesn't have to be a choirboy or an eagle scout. remember when cris came to lyon he was under a 6 month ban in brazil for fighting!

[SportBoy333]

I said Cris should have been captain and looks like Ive been proven right.

[lefutur]

the pictures look bad but a couple of stills can be very misleading, especially when you don't know the full context. i don't, but i've gathered this much:

1) this was in a little stadium in aix-les-bains where the supporters are very close, and security is minimal. sid's not in the stands in these pictures and probably never was.

2) beside the insults he received himself, his brother (who was in the stands) was getting the treatment and that's even harder to take.

3) the fans you get at these matches are mostly of two types; locals taking the opportutunity to see pros play and real mordus that take the sometimes long trip just to see a friendly. but these were of a third type: "supporters" of a team not even involved in the match just out to make trouble. delving into the reader comments of different articles on the net there are some eyewitness reports who confirm these were OM "fans" of the worst type, real cretins, and there are a couple of anecdotes about bad behavior by same at other friendlies this summer. i don't mean to paint all marseille fans with a broad brush, just a particular stripe of retard who get their jollies doing things they can't at official matches.

4) no statement from OL or from the league has been made, and the articles i've read are generally sympathetic with govou and critical of the troublemakers in the stands.

but beside knowing just how blameworthy sid was, there's the question of whether this should affect his captaincy. well, my feeling is that a captain doesn't have to be a choirboy or an eagle scout. remember when cris came to lyon he was under a 6 month ban in brazil for fighting!

Even before this incident Govou's character was already being questioned because of prior incidents that showed he didnt have the maturity or self-control it takes to be a captain, unless of course the definition of a good captain is someone who is a loose cannon.

Although its true that Govou probably didnt make it very far towards these hooligans, and I will call them hooligans, its probably not because Govou showed self-restraint. By all accounts he was prevented from entering the stands by security and by the man pictured next to him in the photo, Mathieu Bodmer (who come to think of it would make a very good captain).

What's funny about all of this is that while the world kind of mocked Beckham for getting all riled up by a bunch of LA Galaxy fans , here Govou comes along and does basically the same thing. He should know better. Period.

For the record....I voted for Toulalan. :)

[Gnafron]

Those OM fans had to be slapped...

Remember : when the seagulls follow the trawler... and what are Marseilles supporters if not sardine eaters... :D

[AfrcnHrbMan]

I voted for Gouvou and proud of it! lol. This is different than the Beckham situtation. They were bringing his family into, and this was really unprovoked and random. It's friggin OM fans going out of their way to be abusive, and their club isn't even on the field!!

[lefutur]

I voted for Gouvou and proud of it! lol. This is different than the Beckham situtation. They were bringing his family into, and this was really unprovoked and random. It's friggin OM fans going out of their way to be abusive, and their club isn't even on the field!!

And look what those Marseillais fans accomplished. They knew Govou would fall victim to their trap and be able to destabilize the whole team. Why would they go out of their way to attend this particular game if they didnt have a plan?

Fortunately it didnt work. People held him back and he didnt end up in court like Stevie G.

[guignol]

i voted govou and stand by that even if this goes in the opposite direction from showing he's gained the maturity one usually sees in a captain.

still, this incident is not going to destabilize the team or undermine his authority with his teammates, probably the opposite.

sidney is a bit of a loose cannon, but if you remember the great oakland A's baseball teams of the 70's, they were all loose cannons. when they weren't in the non-sports headlines they were at fisticuffs in the locker room and probably would never have won 3 straight WS if they had been good boys.

juni was a great captain, as sidney attested in an intelligent and heartfelt interview, but perhaps his style was a bit too tout le monde est beau tout le monde est gentil... a bit more fire and who knows?

[lefutur]

Remember this incident?:

http://lyon.theoffside.com/people/juninho/govou-juninho-has-a-big-ego.html

[guignol]

not only do i remember it but had it distictly in mind when i posted yesterday, and even when i voted for govou for captain.

note that inara's impression and the fine translation she makes of certain excerpts seem to condemn juninho than govou... but if you read the whole lyonmag article and govou's subsequent comments, he was not lay the blame on the person as much the situation juninho found himself in. to intelligent anti-lambda fans, of which lefutur is decidedly one, i don't see how this whole incident can do anything but strengthen govou's position as a team leader.

a bit prior to this a series of interviews croisés was aired on TV (canal football club?) where we see clear consensus on several points: best dresser? boumsong. fastest player in sprints? grosso. JMA's pet? juninho... all bon enfant of course. ;)

clearly these two don't vacation together; juni is a very pious evangelical christian, the closest sid has come to that was his one-time religious attendance at the FISH, a barge-cum-discotheque on the rhone. but the respect and admiration they have for each other is very deep and real.

[AfrcnHrbMan]

I don't know, I see alot of myself in Govou (which is probably a bad thing lol). I just like the guy.

[lefutur]

Yeah, re-reading Inara's post she seems much more critical of Juni than Govou, which is a bit surprising seeing on how she pretty much shares my opinion of Govou's qualities (or lack thereof) for being a captain. She even sites his bashing of other Lyon players as a main reason for disliking him as a player, although there's no denying that he would be a great guy to share a night out on the town with. ;)

[SportBoy333]

Marseille got Morientes on a free. There has to be someone like that OL can get instead of paying 10m + for a forward off the bench.

[guignol]

Yeah, re-reading Inara's post she seems much more critical of Juni than Govou, which is a bit surprising seeing on how she pretty much shares my opinion of Govou's qualities (or lack thereof) for being a captain...but sidney never meant to bash juni; he was talking about a state of affairs and not a person. and the fact that his analysis seems to have been spot on and not some elucubration of his own mind like lots of players spout off in the press makes a difference.

[AfrcnHrbMan]

Lyon draws Anderlecht in the group stages. Could be much worse. It will be a good challenge though.

[guignol]

a gratifying article on olweb brought a book to my attention called why england lose. the main interest of the book for us is that it holds up OL as a model! from a review:

There are also some fascinating stories, of which the most tantalising is a brief account of the rise of Olympique Lyonnais from relative obscurity to total dominance of French football, under their innovative owner, Jean-Michel Aulas. The success of Lyon and Aulas is probably the closest football has to the story of Oakland and Billy Beane, but Kuper and Szymanski are so keen to touch base with everything that they don't give it the space it deserves.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/aug/09/why-england-lose-simon-kuper

there are some excerpts in the olweb article, unfortunately not carried over to the english version of the site, and i don't have time to translate, but if you read french: http://www.olweb.fr/fr/Actualites-sportives/100005/En-bref/50913/L-OL-un-exemple-en-Angleterre (http://www.olweb.fr/fr/Actualites-sportives/100005/En-bref/50913/L-OL-un-exemple-en-Angleterre)

[AfrcnHrbMan]

Hey i'm interested in picking up a european jersey for this season (Toulalan) :). We do you guys get your jerseys from? The official site, or is there some place cheaper, you know of?


P.S. the official site doesn't even list Toulalan as one of the players you can get, but they have Gassama?! Travesty.

[lefutur]

Hey i'm interested in picking up a european jersey for this season (Toulalan) :). We do you guys get your jerseys from? The official site, or is there some place cheaper, you know of?


P.S. the official site doesn't even list Toulalan as one of the players you can get, but they have Gassama?! Travesty.

I bought my CL jersey in France during my vacation. (no name)

good luck