While its recruitment has long been oriented towards promising young players, Olympique Lyonnais has changed its plans. For five years, the Rhone club has also relied on more experienced reinforcements in order to find the right balance. A trend confirmed during the recent winter transfer window.
Olympique Lyonnais is getting older. In addition to the products of its training center, the current tenth in Ligue 1 has long based its recruitment on promising young talents. The Rhone club was thus considered the ideal team for the progression of inexperienced players. This strategy made it possible to attract good picks and realize capital gains. But Les Gones may have come up against the limits of their policy in terms of sporting ambitions. Which could explain the change of plan noted in the latest CIES letter.
OL changes course
According to statistics relayed by the Football Observatory, Olympique Lyonnais recruits had an average age of 23.32 years between July 2014 and June 2019. During this period, the club led by Jean-Michel Aulas made the youngest recruitment in Ligue 1. But priorities have apparently changed in recent years. For five years, Olympique Lyonnais reinforcements have been on average 25.71 years old. This is quite simply the highest average in the championship!
Average age at recruitment of last 5⃣ season first-team signings, #ChampionsLeague quarter-finalists
🥇 #RealMadrid 🇪🇸 23.32
🥈 #BVB 🇩🇪 & #ManCity 24.39#Arsenal 24.61#FC Bayern 24.84#FC Barcelona 25.23#PSG 25.40#Athletes 27.02
Data for 7⃣7⃣7⃣ teams🌏 👉 pic.twitter.com/JXebx4ahHj— CIES Football Obs (@CIES_Football) March 27, 2024
Of course, Lyon continued to welcome young talents. But it is clear that the leaders wanted to rebalance the workforce by bringing experience. Hence the signings of older players like Alexandre Lacazette, Corentin Tolisso, Dejan Lovren, Nicolas Tagliafico or more recently Nemanja Matic. We can see this as a sign of ambition, or a reaction to the decline observed in recent years. In any case, it would not be surprising to see boss John Textor continue this trend during the upcoming summer transfer window.
2024-03-27 19:00:55
#Mercato #entire #strategy #Olympique #Lyonnais
