What a difference a few weeks – and a few managerial changes – can make. The Bad Gones, Lyon’s largest ultras group, publicly chastised the players in what was ultimately Laurent Blanc’s final game as manager at the start of September.
Pierre Sage is the third manager to sit in the dugout since Blanc’s departure, and while it would be hyperbolic to state that Olympique Lyonnais are once again becoming a juggernaut of French football, the scenes of jubilation after Wednesday’s 1-0 victory over Nantes showed a cohesion and a communion rediscovered.
The contrast is stark. Forlorn figures accepted the very public, and humiliating, berating from their own fans following a 4-1 thrashing at home to Paris Saint-…