After LOSC, which he announced he wanted to leave on Tuesday, Christophe Galtier could take charge of OL. A club he already knows perfectly well, where he left a very good impression during his time as an assistant.
Diplomat, winner, unifier, very good at comm ’, smart, tactician, enthusiastic about the idea of coming to Lyon, where he left fond memories. Christophe Galtier, who has just announced his departure from Lille on Tuesday, ticks a lot of boxes to one day be the coach of OL, where he has a certain taste of unfinished business since 2008, when the club had separated from him, then deputy, and Alain Perrin. What if the robot portrait of the 30th OL coach resumed its features? What if it was written down?
Do not go looking for any “media” penknife in the history between Christophe Galtier and OL. Don’t waste time: you won’t find any! And yet, of his 16 derbies with ASSE disputed between December 2009 and May 2017, duration of his lease in Forez, there could have been some “slag” in the post-match statements, on the one hand. like the other. Notably after the “famous” 100th derby in September 2010, the first won by the Greens since April 6, 1994 (23 games in a row). He still has on his CV, the last derby won at Gerland, in March 2014, the 5th of 16 disputed with him at the head of the “best enemy”.
But paradoxically, even with such green lines on his CV, to make fans blush, Galtier does not have the “ASSE” label on the costume: surely the effect of time (four years since his departure from Saint- Etienne) and a form of magic of this clever comm ‘! Thus, his past at St-Etienne will never be an “initial problem” with the supporters, as was the case for Rudi Garcia, who went from one Olympique (from Marseille) to another (from Lyon).
Aulas and Galtier kept in touch
He will also always support, against all odds, Bruno Genesio, caught in a daily and recurring bashing. He will also take care never to add fuel to the fire when certain electric derbies make actors trip (Tolisso-Ghezzal against Lemoine…). When he talks about OL, even with the green clothes, he talks about “the OL institution”. A very “JMA” vocabulary!
And when his sporting history is written with the LOSC logo, even as he becomes a form of OL’s pet peeve, he will not change his media DNA of modest triumph without an ounce of smugness. In 7 games, he has never lost since taking command of LOSC (December 2017). Better still: in three oppositions at Groupama Stadium, he has never lost (two wins and one draw), including the famous 3-2 on April 25. This Groupama Stadium where his eyes light up a little more than elsewhere when he enters … A sign that he has always felt at home there?
CQFD: as a tactician also in his comm, Christophe Galtier has never “insulted” the future, especially the one who would take him again one day between the Rhône and the Saône. And Jean-Michel Aulas returns it to him well. The president has kept a link with him, direct, indirect and even via social networks. The OL boss had for example retweeted the article RMC Sport in the fall on Christophe Galtier after the Celtic game, where he spoke of the Nice attack. JMA also congratulated him by tweeting the day after LOSC’s victory in Milan in 2020 …
This link with “Mr. Aulas”, as Galtier presents it, with a form of recognition, was born in this famous (and last) year of glory at OL, that of the (only) double in 2008, Ligue 1 and Cup of France. From that time, he left a good mark, in addition to having kept all the contacts within the famous management committee, this aeropage of local VIPs and unwavering lovers of their OL. Some have their “Galette” fan club card for life, so much so that each time they search for a coach, they whisper the name of the current LOSC coach.
From this year 2008, he also kept “good contacts” with the influential player of the time, a certain Juninho, who became sporting director two years ago. So much so that Galtier was well in the short-list, along with Sabri Lamouchi, favorite technicians to take the post left vacant by the upheaval of 2019 at the departure of Bruno Genesio. And it was Sylvinho who won.
Galtier’s experience and track record swelled
This common thread linking Galtier to OL has never been broken, to such an extent that the rumor even indicates that once the non-renewal of Rudi Garcia beyond June 2021 has been recorded, in the fall, his name had been checked at the top of the list of desired technicians. But it was an opportunity for the OL board to “probe” its desire to return to Lyon. And it’s not a will, it’s an enthusiasm. LOSC’s successful 2020-2021 season did not dampen Lyon’s desire to see him as a very capable tenant of the bench.
Because his track record has only grown thicker since his winning stint at OL, as assistant to Alain Perrin. It is already common knowledge that this double of 2008 owes a lot to the interpersonal skills of n ° 2 who had to compose between his mentor (Alain Perrin) and the rest of the “Lyon” staff (Robert Duverne, Joel Bats …), who did not facilitate the work by weakening at will the position of the technical boss, quickly labeled “PPH” (will not survive the winter). The strength of a group in which Hatem Ben Arfa and Karim Benzema emerged, along with the temple guardians (Cris, Juninho, Govou, Coupet…) framed them, did the rest. OL’s “historic” leaders know this. They do not have short memories on the “paw” of “Galette”. It’s etched in people’s heads.
However, Christophe Galtier would have liked to continue in June 2008. But he quickly understood that going from n ° 2 to n ° 1 in Lyon came too early in his career. And the then fashionable manager, a certain Claude Puel, had said yes by obtaining for the first and last time in the history of the club, full powers. Puel already came from… Lille. Galtier therefore followed in his “retirement” Alain Perrin, to better return a few months later with the latter to the bedside of the dying ASSE one evening in November 2008. He will take the reins 13 months later, when Alain Perrin will be fired. and that he will initially take over the interim. This will last 7 and a half years!
Enough time not to lose the link with Lyon. And it’s not just a question of kilometers: 65 between the two cities “number 1 enemies of French football”. As an observer, the decision-makers in Lyon noticed the work of Galtier at ASSE, where he saved the club from the descent then built it little by little to bring it back to Europe on a long-term basis with in addition, a trophy, that of the Coupe de la Ligue. in 2013, the first for the Greens since the 1981 title!
The urge to focus on the pitch
Builder and winner. These qualities, he also refined them in the North, where he had to take over a club on the edge of the precipice at the end of 2017 and where he had to work with a staff he did not know and a scouting working method that l ‘bluffed. Another sign of his never-denied compatibility with OL is his unwavering love for Europe, which he has never overused. Whether in St-Etienne or Lille. Jean-Michel Aulas noted it in the back of his mind …
In his internal and intimate management of a group, Christophe Galtier polished his role in a club – ASSSE – where he had to deal with a duo of presidents not necessarily on the same wavelength. It wore him out but shaped him too. He has thus worked on his “diplomatic” side, which is very useful in a big club like OL, where you also have to deal with strong men (Lyon, moreover).
For a long time, Christophe Galtier has been very motivated in private by a possible project at OL. Because beyond the internal links, it is the “size” of the club that attracts him. He who “drooled” in St-Etienne to manage the club on a small weekly basis, in the heart of permanent battles with the two strong men. The fact of having to take on everything, “from floor to ceiling” (especially the links with the agents who undermine him …), tired him. He knows that in Lyon he would have a big machine around him to help him do his job.
And even if the season ends well in Lille, Galtier still has a difficult relationship deep down in the summer of 2020. In short, he found himself “like in St-Etienne having to do everything”, and he does not want to. He aspires to be nothing but a coach. And in Lyon, in a big club, with Juninho, he thinks he has the framework to do what he likes to do: be just a coach and not a handyman … Will this 2021 offseason be the right one?