On October 22, Olympique Lyonnais lost at home to Clermont (1-2). It was the evening of the 9th day of the League and the Rhone club was already dead last in the standings. An unreal situation for an institution that was seven times champion of France not that long ago. But at the time, John Textor did not hesitate to laugh in the face of Prime Video journalists asking him if he was worried about seeing his team in a relegation position.
“I know you had to ask this question, but it’s funny. This team is not at risk of relegation. In no championship, in no country, does a relegated team play like we played tonight. You don’t have that kind of quality with people going down. (…) We do not look down, but up in the ranking. We are in danger by giving credence to your question and having a very poor season. Everyone who wants to talk about relegation stirs up fear, stories… It’s good for conversations. But it’s a bit of a joke. I don’t take this seriously although I respect your question, because you had to ask it. But this is nonsense. Nobody worries about relegation. It’s just talking about it for fun. That’s all. Nobody in this locker room is thinking about relegation. »
OL has no fallback solution
Five days later, OL have not moved away from 18th and last place in the ranking. The situation is serious, even if Les Gones can come back to within two points of the play-off (Lorient) in the event of a victory tomorrow evening in Marseille. In addition, the Lyonnais still have twenty tricks to try to save themselves. But at OL, yesterday’s buzz about Taylor Swift is not taken lightly. Progress has in fact revealed that if OL had to play a play-off for its survival in L1, it would not be able to play the return match at Groupama Stadium because of the North American singer Taylor Swift.
The latter gives two concerts in the Lyon den (June 2 and 3). However, the return play-off is scheduled for June 2 at the L1 club. Difficult to criticize OL in this matter. The two concerts must have been completed several months ago and at that time, no one could predict that Les Gones would continue this season. But in this 2023/2024 season where nothing is going well for OL, this funny event is bound to make people talk. And it doesn’t make the Rhone leaders laugh. Indeed, if OL cannot extricate themselves from this situation, they have no fallback solutions. RMC Sport tells us in fact that the two Taylor Swift concerts (which will be sold out) cannot be moved and that the Gerland stadium solution cannot be retained, because the LOU hosts Toulouse the same weekend. When nothing goes right…
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