Monaco and PSG are done winning trophies. The owners of those clubs dont have the money anymore or wont spend it. Its Lyon, Marseilles, and Bordeaux's league right now. They are the new "Big 3." I dont see anyone joining them or taking their spots unless someone gets a large new stadium or new owner or new revenues. A team like Rennes can only go so high because well they are in Rennes. Lille and Nice, large cities but wont win anything because of their lack of revenues/poor stadiums. Who else is there to challenge ? No one. Toulouse ? Uh, rugby town that never sells out their stadium. Try again. The league has changed. Teams from small towns like Auxerre and Lens cant win titles anymore. Lyon changed the game.
Where'd this outburst stem from ? Speaking of Bordeaux, for as much as I criticize Laurent Blanc for employing negative tactics far too often, his team has scored the most goals in the league, and lead it in differential. Go figure.
Just found two pictures illustrating Hugo Lloris, err, specific goaltending style : I don't know if he's best fit for soccer or kung fu.
Bordeaux are flailing and PSG are rising. I really did not expect that. PSG, OM, Bordeaux, one of them will miss out on the top 3 and I have no idea who it will be.
^^^ true, this in turn will make the league more competitive for some time OM and bordeaux have benefited getting 2nd and 3rd spot due to the weakness of other teams. now that PSg, toulouse are stepping up their games, we are seeing different out come to the league. an upset is what this league needs to motivate the teams
Bordeaux are in 5th right now. They should really be in the top 3 if not top 2. PSG are over achieving and who knows if they will keep it up. OM have the most offensive firepower of the current top 5 so I definately expect them to finish top 3. I think PSG and Toulouse will drop and Lyon will hold steady and Bordeaux is in trouble I think because Blanc has terrible offensive tatics.
something i've been meaning to post about for a long time: the eloquence (or lack of) of certain players. i was reminded of it during last night's ASM-OM match by the gulf that separates julien rogriguez (nothing but the most trite and senseless clichés, all run together in an almost unintelligible marseille accent) and boudewijn zenden (who speaks better french than i do and i'm a bac+4 who's been here TWENTY YEARS!) other good ones: zoumana camara - in 30 seconds while going into the locker room he can give better analysis of a first half than you'll hear on "les experts" the next day. sidney govou - doesn't know a word of the langue de bois... always something... interesting to say, no punches pulled but no useless cattiness either. and bad ones: hatem ben arfa - even using banal clichés he gives the impression he wasn't even watching the match. marouane chamakh - sincere and likeable, just not very well spoken.
What about the racial abuse hurled at John Mensah? Anyone want to comment on that? Wonder why it was just him though and not the two Jeans...
here's all i know: a HAC supporter who is already known to the police for this kind of thing yelled insults at mensah. the reason it was him was that the supporters' section at gerland is in front of mensah's area in the first half. the "supporter" was identified and arrested before the match ended. mensah told puel he didn't want to play the second half but claude underestimated his distress... for which he apologized post-game. JMA left the stands in the second half to offer some comfort to mensah. the investigation is continuing.
oh That's not fair, I think the jury is still out on him due to injuries and such. And besides I don't see why the away support would target a player for poor performances for their oppenent.
continuation of #35... savidan is a horrible post-game interviewee. after losing to VAFC: « Ca fait chier!... On prend 2-0 dans le cul! Je crois qu’ils nous ont montré qu’ils avaient plus de couilles que nous » language there's no excuse for in public. i know he was a garbageman but still...
I think OM are headed for big time trouble. Niang has changed agents which is being reported that the reason is he wants to test the waters elsewhere and since he's 30 this would be his last chance at a big contract in a top league. If they lose Niang, Taiwo and Cana next year they are done. You cant keep changing the makeup of the team every year and hope something sticks. I realize they'd get a lot of money for those players plus the sale of Cisse but thats doesnt matter because the replacements of course would just be L1 players and maybe a foreigner no one's heard of like Brandao.
the first two i've heard about, and m'bami too, but cana leaving? i don't believe it. diawara had high praise for him : he didn't cause me any problems at all. in the duels he plays a little dirty but i though he was a lightweight. and when i saw his ballhandling i thought he was right-footed, but they tell me that actually he's a lefty.
he was excellent against rennes, just excellent, thus avoiding the piq effeqt. and he struck again (this time i got a tickle out of his comments though): "Tout le monde connaît Baup dans le milieu. Moi je n'ai qu'une chose à dire, c'est un enculé. Euh, pardon, un monsieur enculé". "everybody in the game knows baup. me, i've got just one thing to say, he's an asshole. uh, excuse me, a mister asshole." i've got someone to put in the zoumana camara category though: jean-alain boumsong. he analysed the first half against rennes better right off the top of his head in 20 seconds than geniuses like pierrot menès could if you gave him two years, a fulbright fellowship and a ghost writer.
Yeah, but you aren't explaining why he said that. That's because Baup insulted him and his teammates during the whole game. Everyone knows that his sayings about Baup are true since it's not the first time he is acting like that. At least, he's honest. His reaction wasn't senseless since he reacted to Baup pathetic behavior. The blame should go to Baup. About the "on prend 2-0 dans le cul etc", I'm far from being shocked. It's showing his will, that he cares about the situation of Caen and franckly speaking if his teammates were as concerned as him by that situation or as talented as him, Caen wouldn't be in trouble as they are now. Even Dumas said "couille" anyway. As for the garbage man, I know a president who said "casse-toi, pauvre con" I'm shocked when I heard, Lagarde saying that the French should star doing bycicle if oil is too expensive or that the crisis won't affect France and not really by Savidan.
nico, i thought i made it clear that anyone who calls elie baup an enculé is a friend of mine. perhaps that's also the reason i far prefer antonetti to dumas (who is well along to being a pôv'con in my book)... the 2-0 in ze oignon remarks wouldn't shock me in other circumstances, but in front of paga, god and everybody it's just not called for. i never read anything in lagarde et michard about bicycling, but it's a good idea, so hats off to whoever said it!
I saw this and I really hope its not true. Report Suggests Mass Overhaul For France’s Ligue 1 http://www.goal.com/en/news/90/fran...rt-suggests-mass-overhaul-for-frances-ligue-1 16 teams and playoffs is not the answer. We all know the problem is the DNCG and the high employment taxes. How about trying to remedy that ? Reducing the number of teams and adding playoffs sounds like cheap gimmick and is not a legitimate solution. A 24 team Ligue 2 is another dumb idea. How about making the National fully professional for christ sakes ? If this stuff happens I will lose interest.
i'm not sure if this reported was actually ordered by the LFP but if so they would have done better not to address themselves to consultants who don't seem to understand football either as a sport or a business, nor france as a country. let's start with the two insoluble paradoxes in their suggestion: just how many dates is a 30 game regular season plus "american style playoffs" going to trim from the schedule? and if moving to a 16 team league is good for L1, how is going to 24 teams good for L2? the idea of going to 18 teams has been discussed, and was even once implemented. but going to 16 puts france in a perceived class with scotland and the netherlands rather than lift it to german levels (where it already is). new scoring system? nebulous, but different conjectural analyses have shown such would have no effect on standings. sunday afternoon kickoffs? if they looked at the real statistics that are on hand for just that they'd probably find this would have the opposite effect both at the stadium and on TV. with the Coupe de la Ligue they're on a right track but come to the wrong conclusion. the answer is? get rid of it!
I would like to see Ligue 1, 2, and National all with 18 teams each and National fully professional. 54 professional clubs. The Dutch already tried playoffs and they realized it was bad and they already scrapped it. Here's why playoffs is so bad. Lets say you have a larger budget team vs a smaller budget team and the smaller budget team beats the larger budget team in a playoff and gets the European spot. Then you dont have your best teams respenting you in Europe and thus you have very little chance of succeeding. The teams with the more money and those who finish higher have a greater chance of winning. If OM play Toulouse in a playoff for example and Toulouse win then they go into Europe and get massacred while at least OM could compete and respesent a lot better. Get rid of the league cup makes sense but thats how PSG got into Europe this year and they are doing well so getting rid of it doesnt make something like that possible.
They've already decided to move the league start date into august to coincide with the other leagues and so the big french clubs can do summer tours and grow the brand. http://www.eurosport.fr/football/ligue-1/2008-2009/reprise-le-8-aout_sto1873846/story.shtml I'm trying to imagine seeing Lyon versus Juventus at Giants stadium this summer.