Ligue 1: Olivier Létang unveils the new Losc project, but no figures

For his first face to the press since his assumption of the presidency of Lille (L1) on Friday, Olivier Létang outlined on Monday the outlines of the project of the new shareholder of the club, the investment fund Merlyn Partners, without however revealing the economic details of the operation.

"I have a lot of respect for everything that has happened before, the leaders that there have been, so I will not speak of the past. What interests us is the future of Losc", a indicated at the outset the new leader.

Le Losc was in a very worrying economic situation before the sale

Dressed in a navy blue suit and a white shirt, Olivier Létang, 48, appeared smiling on Monday at noon as he entered the amphitheater at Domaine de Luchin, the training center in Losc.

Alone at the desk, the former general manager Marc Ingla being relegated to the front row of the audience, he unfolded a sheet in front of him which was to group together the main lines of his intervention.

After a speech of a few minutes, he answered questions from journalists, without however disclosing figures long awaited by observers and supporters of the club.

Olivier Létang, however, agreed to refer to a "liquidity contribution to the tune of 50 million euros", confirming an amount mentioned in the press.

The main information to remember from his press conference concerns the very worrying economic situation in which Losc was before the sale, formalized on Friday evening.

"Without keeping a secret, the club would probably have been in default at the beginning of January, which means that there was a problem with the continuity of the activity and for the teams of the club," said Olivier Létang.

"Not in a situation where there is a need to sell a player"

He then detailed his priorities: "One, reduction of the debt; two, provision of liquidity from the beginning of January which will allow us, as we said to the DNCG (the financial policeman of French football, Editor's note), to have economic and financial stability for this second part of the season. "

The former sports director of Paris SG reassured by insisting on the importance of the sporting aspect of the project while Lille, leader of Ligue 1, shines this season on the ground.

"The challenge is sporting above all. We are not in a situation where there is the need or the desire to sell a player (...) The main pillar is to have a club that performs at the level The second pillar is also to have an economic balance (...), develop income and control costs, "he said.

In this regard, he said he wanted to keep Christophe Galtier, who according to him is "one of the best French coaches": "I am very, very, very happy to have him at Losc. He has a contract until 2022 , but we will discuss it in the coming weeks. The will is of course that Christophe continues. "

The trading model called into question

Olivier Létang has also announced a change of course since Losc will rely less on trading, a model which consists of buying young players with high potential in order to achieve significant capital gains on resale and which was the hallmark of the Gérard Lopez era.

"We want to move from a very strong trading model to a more measured model of a more classic football club, with the objective of being very strong sporting. We want to have less (economic) pressure," he said. he argues. 

When a journalist pointed out to him that he gave few details, he defended himself by indicating that he did not yet have all the cards in hand.

"I have just arrived, I am taking as much information as possible and I will be able to be more talkative in three weeks," he promised.