For someone who cannot stand losing, being known as the Olympique Lyonnais coach who surrendered the French title after seven years of dominance is hard to take. Perhaps that is why Claude Puel's Lyon have started so strongly in their bid to reclaim it.
New faces
Lyon are joint top of Ligue 1 after four games and Puel will want to carry that momentum into the UEFA Champions League where they kick off their Group E campaign at ACF Fiorentina on Wednesday. Les Gones, group-stage contestants for a tenth successive season, are being tipped to go far as Puel's new-look side quickly hit their stride. "We recruited really well this summer," Puel told uefa.com. "Many players left, a few came, but they were the players we wanted. We recruited players of good quality, but it is never easy and you don't know how things will work out. That they have done is mainly due to the quality of the players we signed."
'Great spirit'
Lyon appear to have made the most of the €35m windfall from Karim Benzema's sale to Real Madrid CF. They have never spent so much in one summer, €72m attracting the likes of Lisandro, Aly Cissokho, Bafétimbi Gomis and Michel Bastos to Stade de Gerland, with Bastos arriving from LOSC Lille Métropole, the club Puel left in June 2008 to take charge of the then champions. "They have joined a squad with a great team spirit," Puel said. "You have to see the whole picture. A squad is composed of many details, a team is quite fragile, like a puzzle. It has been a good first month, but we will see about the rest."
High ambitions
What price, then, a first UEFA Champions League semi-final? Lyon have come close before, losing their 2005 quarter-final to PSV Eindhoven on penalties before a late AC Milan turnaround in 2006. "We don't look that far ahead," the 48-year-old said. "We aren't 100 per cent yet, we need to improve. We have an interesting squad but we might not have enough players. It seems like an impossible dream and it would be a lack of humility to think that far ahead."
'New era'
Motivation, though, is not lacking at Lyon's Tola Vologe training ground, even without the departed Benzema and Juninho Pernambucano, symbols of the club's recent supremacy. "When you have been champions seven times running, it is frustrating [to lose]," Puel said. "It was the end of an era, the last season for some players. That is why we are starting this season with new players who have not been champions. We want to do well in the Champions League without neglecting the domestic league, which is our benchmark throughout the season."
No nonsense
Puel made almost 600 appearances as a no-nonsense holding midfielder for AS Monaco FC and says he never could accept defeat. "When I was playing and when I started coaching, I could go days without speaking to my wife after a loss." If he has mellowed "with the years", his fighting spirit remains intact and he beat his players in their pre-season endurance tests, both running and on the bike. "I could destroy my opponent mentally as I never surrendered," he explained.
Mental strength
Sacked as Monaco boss during the 2001/02 campaign before twice guiding Lille into the UEFA Champions League, Puel eventually landed in Lyon in place of Alain Perrin to spread that winning mentality and build the foundations for long-term success. It is a task he relishes. "You have to be strong psychologically and have a great capacity for work," he said. "Most of all, you have to be confident. Even in bad times, you have to follow your path and have courage in your convictions." With the UEFA Champions set to begin, this is exactly how L'Entraineur général – his official job title – is squaring up to the challenge.
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