Lyon (AFP)

Seven games without a win in the league, no identity game and to end a final defeat in the derby Sunday in Saint-Etienne (1-0): Jean-Michel Aulas sliced ​​Monday night and dismissed his coach Sylvinho, arrived in the luggage of new sports director, Juninho.

The former Brazilian star of the Rhone club in his glorious time of the 2000s had chosen a compatriot to succeed Bruno Genesio, May 28, the contract was finally not renewed under the pressure of ultra fan groups.

They criticized him for the low level of play of the team and the disappointing results while with Genesio OL was twice 3rd (2018, 2019), 2nd in 2016, 4th in 2017 with a semi-final of the League Europa.

With Sylvinho, the dream has turned into a nightmare: the team is now completely adrift despite some 94 million euros spent on recruitment.

The two initial victories in Ligue 1 against Monaco (3-0) then Angers (6-0) were only trompe-l'oeil after a period of pre-season already quite catastrophic that did not alert enough the club makers (1 win versus 4 losses).

Like Juninho, who started in his new job ten years after leaving OL and Europe, Sylvinho (45) had never held a N.1 post, either in Brazil or elsewhere.

Even more striking: a former Arsenal and FC Barcelona player, he had never played in the French championship, where no Brazilian technician has yet succeeded, and does not speak French.

- Aulas on the front line, Baticle interim -

While Jean-Michel Aulas (71) had announced his intention to step back to let the management of the sports field in Juninho, the catastrophic sports situation forced him to return to the fore certainly certainly faster than he had considered.

Thus, while Juninho, who had come back through the front door and suffered his first failure, was crossing the mixed zone of the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium without a word and looking in a vacuum, it was Aulas who appeared before the media. Sunday night.

And his words left little doubt about the fatal outcome that awaited his coach.

"We can not do nothing and all the hypotheses are possible," he had let go.

Yet Jean-Michel Aulas is not a fan of radical solutions.

In 32 years of presidency, he had until then dismissed only four technicians in office: Robert Nouzaret (1985-October 1987), already in office when he had taken control of the club and he had not appointed, then his successor Denis Papas (October 1987-March 1988) before dismissing Guy Stéphan (1995-October 1996) and Hubert Fournier (2014-December 2015).

But the situation of the club Rhone, 14th in the standings with only one point ahead of a red lantern duo, Dijon-that Lyon will receive October 19- and Metz, became so urgent that it seemed difficult to wait longer .

Already assistant of Bruno Genesio, Gérald Baticle (50 years old) will lead the training from Tuesday under the direction of Juninho, maintained in his duties and seems untouchable vis-à-vis supporters ultras.

Baticle should only be an interim worker pending the appointment of a technician who will be confirmed this time to complete the upgrade.

It will then be necessary to see what will be Juninho's real power in the new distribution of roles in the sports field.

Sylvinho is the third coach to lose his position in L1 since the beginning of the season, after Vahid Halilhodzic dismissed in Nantes even before the first day in favor of Christian Gourcuff, and Ghislain Printant replaced by Claude Puel in Saint-Etienne.

© 2019 AFP