http://www.paristeam.fr/autour-du-p...nt-de-montpellier-desapprouve-aulas-16913.htm ^ And a really interesting interview with Pierre Ménès: http://www.paristeam.fr/autour-du-p...ste-de-canal-repond-a-nos-questions-16907.htm I found these parts particularly interesting:
the NT's both men's and women's are among the best in the world and very widely covered and followed during the major tournaments, the games are on network TV and they make the front page of l'équipe but that's about all the French basketball the average sports fan watches. the NBA probably has a wider casual following than the LNB. most domestic league fans are involved in the sport on another level as well - I used to go see ASVEL play a lot when my son played (it's a pretty big youth sport). but ASVEL's budget, highest in the league, is only 7M€. by coincidence I just saw them play in Le Mans this week but it was the first time in years.
This is taking too long. I feel like Lacazette is going to win because we had three players nominated so our votes have been split between them. Lacazette has had an excellent season, but he's not been as consistently good as Marco and Javier. He has been underwhelming for a while now. I always feel like the best player should come from the winning team. Fekir winning best young player was fine though. Marqui deserved it too, but Fekir winning is not a problem.
Lacazette wins . He wasn't even the best OL player. Shameful considering how disappointing Lyon has been for a while and how Verratti and Pastore have been flawless ALL season while balancing ALL competitions. But hey, we won the real trophy. Congratulations to Lacazette though. He was certainly impressive this season. I hate this league so much.
I'm not though, I thought even Fekir was better. Lacazette has been immense and I'm so glad to have him on the EDF, but Verratti and Pastore have been on another level. The problem is most PSG fans were split voting between the two (and Ibra) whereas OL fans could focus on Lacazette. It's not a robbery or anything since Lacazette has been excellent (not recently though), but I don't think he has been better than Verratti or Pastore. It's not even about being biased since I will admit that Lacazette deserved it more than Ibra. Same way I think Fekir deserved his award.
In my humble opinion, if it wasn't for his production this season, OL don't even sniff top 3. Aside Fekir, players like NJie, Cornet, Yattara Etc were really inconsistent in attack
http://www.paristeam.fr/autour-du-p...e-reste-un-regret-pour-les-lyonnais-16955.htm ^ I love it when people look for that one moment that supposedly changed everything. The same way Lyon's game against Nice hurt them, our game against Caen (playing with NINE men due to no more subs and multiple injuries), our game with Bastia (with the disgusting non existent penalties), our game against Bordeaux (that we lost due to sheer exhaustion after playing 120 minutes two days before with 10 men against Chelsea)... etc, all those games certainly helped OL. At least he congratulated us, which was very classy of him. I'm happy for him that he's had a good season. http://www.paristeam.fr/autour-du-p...lyonnais-n-a-pas-ete-pris-en-compte-16951.htm Aulas, take away our 3 points for Nantes (though we would have won without Zlatan too) and our 3 points for Lens. Oh wait, you're 8 points behind? So all your bitching and trying to steal points in the most embarrassing and unsportsmanlike way and you still wouldn't win?
Meh. I have more respect for Aulas because hes a fighter. http://www.foot01.com/equipe/ol/l-ol-refuse-de-voir-le-psg-gagner-sept-titres-de-suite,177445 Meanwhile down south, the other guy is just gonna roll over like a b*tch. http://www.foot01.com/equipe/marseille/l-om-ne-peut-plus-defier-le-psg-labrune-l-admet,177449
http://www.paristeam.fr/autour-du-p...sg-la-legende-du-barca-tacle-le-psg-16980.htm What an absolute idiot. Fair play to Juve, I wanted them to knock out Madrid and I want Pogba to do well, but there is no one that can even pretend that they haven't had an easy ride to the semis (which is not their fault, you can obviously only beat who is in front of you). While we faced Barcelona twice, Chelsea with 10 men, Juve came second in a group with Atleti as the strongest team and then they faced a horrific Dortmund side then Monaco! What a dumb, dumb thing to say. I usually agree with a lot with what you say, but this has me perplexed. Even the Lyon fans I know are horrified about Aulas' behavior. There's literally no one in France right now who agrees with his method of trying to win by reducing your opponent's points off the field. Thiago Silva, captaining 10 men at Stamford Bridge, and scoring in the very last few minutes - that's a fighter. A man who cannot get enough points on the field, so he has to go and try to steal points off of a club who hasn't cheated (and also screwing over someone who is supposed to be a friend) is not a fighter, that's just despicable. We won against Lens, we have nothing to do with their financial troubles. Lyon only got three points against Lens and Aulas is trying to cancel Lens' season so that we'd have 6 points reduced and them only 3. How on earth can you respect that? This is honestly the lowest thing I've ever seen from him, period.
By the way, what are people's thoughts about the twitter "hackings"? I don't know much about hacking, but it seems like the tweets were old and buried, not hacked. I hope they were somehow hacked, but obviously that's not possible. Either way, if they truly were hacked (which is clear they were), they are free to ******** off. I have no tolerance for them insulting the club or insulting teammates and the coach (no, it is not the same when we insult Blanc because it is their job to respect him and follow his instructions).
Honestly, the only thing that surprised me is that PSG communicated about it since it gave more attention to what would have stayed on Twitter otherwise. The lame excuse of them being hacked made it even funnier. PSG youngsters being stupid and that girl being nasty (the things she says...seriously...) on twitter to get attention is unfortunately no surprise. As for Cruyff, "you can't buy success" when talking about Juventus is a nice piece of humor.
Aulas's behavior is not good but I respect him for putting his club in the best position to challenge PSG's dominance and by saying we are going to do our best to not let them break our record. I respect that a lot more than OM's response which is basically admitting defeat. OL is the only club that can challenge PSG in the next few years. Monaco its uncertain because no one knows how much the owner is willing to invest with FFP constraints and OM have no shot because they are poorly managed and make bad decisions. So when I say hes a fighter and respect Im not talking about his off field shennenigans Im talking about him not complaining about PSG's money and saying yeah were gonna challenge them instead of talking the lets roll over approach.
Juventus had years and years and years and years to build up their fortune and their brand. Not everyone has that luxury. Its all about not letting new people into the club and excluding them which of course is unjust.