Happy Six for Gerard

By tradition, among all the top European champions, the French Championship was the first to start, in which the last five years have passed under the sign of Lyon. So this time, both in the country itself and abroad, few doubt that the club from the business capital of France will win the championship title for the sixth time in a row.

LION

Head coach Gerard Houlier does not look like a man who is hungry for victories. However, it was under him that last year “Lyon” won the most impressive of all five championships. “Lyon” captured the first place already from round 4 and did not let it go to the finish line, collecting a record 84 points in a piggy bank.

The hyper-ambitious president of Lyon, Jean-Michel Olas, often uses one cliché to communicate with journalists: “If you don’t move forward, you will be overtaken.” Translating this phrase into a literal language, we get a club with a transfer policy that is close to ideal.

Sebastian “Toto” Skilachchi, a player with the experience of the French national team, is called from “Monaco” to strengthen the defense, and the hard worker Jeremy Tulalan and the cunning Kim Chellström, who came from “Nantes” and “Renna”, respectively, according to Olas, are the necessary ingredient that allows “Lyon” to prepare a dish for the Champions League, which will be rated higher than the quarterfinal already boring for the French.

Olas, moving towards his main goal for himself - the Champions League, did the most important thing - he kept last year's squad. Of course, there was some luck, it’s still unknown if Olas could have kept the players if it weren’t for the referee scandal in Italy. Francois Claire's right-back was interested in Juventus, and Milan, a powerful Brazilian defender. Mahamadu Diarra for Sir Alex Ferguson was already seen as the new Roy Keen. Of course, Olas and Ulja managed to convince all the leaders of the team to remain in Lyon, but they understand very well that collecting French champion titles is not so prestigious as to tie class players to Lyon for a rather long time.

Despite the start of the championship, Lyon continues to negotiate with potential newcomers in the hope of strengthening the roster. Since the moment the club left Sonya Anderson, a landmark for Lyon, the club is in constant search of a real scorer, who will not only score, but will also demonstrate leadership qualities. Last season, John Carew did not live up to expectations, scoring just 8 goals for the season. The young Brazilian Fred, who scored 14 goals last season, is showing himself to be quite good, but he still failed to convince, first of all, Olas that he would completely close the scorer problem of Lyon.

For the role of the leader of the attack, “Lyon” perfectly suits David Trezeguet. Given the problems of Juventus, the option with Lyon is not so bad for Trezegol. However, before making a final decision, Olas will have to solve many problems, ranging from the high salary of Trezeguet to the unwillingness of Deschamps to let him go.

Another potential newcomer to Lyon should be Frank Ribery, the new star of French football, who showed himself brightly at the World Cup in Germany. He has already refused to train at his current Marseille club. Now “Lyon” and “Marseilles” will have a month of hard negotiations, because on August 31 the re-bidding company ends, by the end of which Ribery sees herself in a Lyon T-shirt.

MARSEILLES

As for Marcel, he again, 13 years after the scandal with Valenciennes, managed to get involved in problems with not football roots.

Former club coach Jean Fernandez left the most violent club in France, for the sake of quiet work in Auxerre, after unknown bikers threatened him. According to him, local bandits not only threaten the players, but also rob them. Plus, the prosecutor’s office has long been engaged in not-too-lawful club transfers from the time of Kurbis’s coaching, which only means that the situation in the club has not changed much over the past 15 years. All these problems can prevent Marcel from developing last year’s success. Fernandez’s departure seems especially significant. Albert Emon, who came to his place, has to work, rolled up his sleeves. So far, all his hopes are connected with attempts to keep Frank Ribery and unforgettable scorer Djibril Cisse, who is rented from Liverpool.

At the gates at Marseille will not be Fabien Barthez, the club did not pull his salary. He will be replaced by the budding Cedric Corrasso. Among the newcomers to Marseille, one can mention Roland Zubar, whom Marcel intercepted from Cannes, flattered by his future, which is compared with the real William Gallas.

PSG

It seems that the club from the capital of France is starting to come to its senses after years of corruption of the paid Canal + television channel, which was often spent on very mediocre football players. Now the television channel has left the club, and the club has received the real president Alan Kayzak, who has been working in the club for the last 30 years, who a) loves his club very much and b) understands something in football. Kayzak confirmed that the mustachioed Guy Lyakomb will continue to work in the club, despite last year's 9th place. And the recent PSG transfers no longer look like a puzzle of a three-year-old child.

An excellent defender Sami Traore, striker of Strasbourg Amara Diane, creative midfielders David Hellebuyk and Albert Bannin from Switzerland are united, according to Kaisak, one very important factor - they all were rooting for PSG boys.

To unload Pauletta, who last year became the league’s top scorer, scoring about 50% of the team’s goals, Guy Lacombe bought Pierre-Alain Fro, with whom he worked at Sochaux. These two forwards, by the standards of the French championship, with the support of Frenchman Vikas Dorasso, Ivorian Bonaventure Kalu and Colombian Mario Yepes should give PSG hope for the finish in the first two.

BORDEAUX

But the prospects of Bordeaux do not look so optimistic. Bordeaux’s only major purchase was Johan Miku of Werder Bremen. The decision not to extend the rental of promising Bruno Cedar from Liverpool seems a dubious decision.

The main trump card of last year's “silver” “Bordeaux” was a brilliant defense, which missed the least in the league (25 goals), led by veteran goalkeeper Ulrich Rame. Bordeaux fans still have to hope for it, however, now we only have to dream about the second place, the main thing is to stay in the four

LILLE, LANS

Both of these clubs, which took 3rd and 4th place in the last championship, showed their frugality and almost completely retained their last year rosters. Especially worth highlighting is “Lille”, which retained the head coach of Claude Puel, who was hunted by a huge number of clubs, including “Monaco”. In Lance it will be interesting to see how Sidi Keita, who was taken from Strassbourg, will try to replace Aliu Diarra, who already has one foot in the Italian Roma.

MONACO

The vacant vacancy of the head coach of Monaco was filled by Laszlo Bologna, who last year achieved serious success with Rennes. Bologna has a reputation as a very fierce coach, it is not known whether the Romanian will succeed with his sometimes manic demands for discipline in the club of "millionaires", but he will at least try. Christian Vieri, who left the club, has already become a victim of Bologna, he was called to replace Jan Koller.

Losses of “Monaco” look terrifying: Douglas Micon went to Inter, Skilachchi to Lyon, perhaps central Gael Give will go to Juventus. According to rumors, Bologna will try to patch holes in the defense with the help of Bumsong. Mohamed Colon was returned from Qatar, however, as far as it is not clear, is this forward ready to perform again at such a high level.

The final table of the championship of France-2005/06

MAKAROV Ivan

RESULTS OF THE 1st TOUR OF THE FRANCE CHAMPIONSHIP