Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: JEFF PACHOUD / AFP 15:41 p.m., November 30, 2023

After another defeat in the league, Olympique Lyonnais has decided to "temporarily" replace its coach Fabio Grosso with the director of the academy Pierre Sage. Arriving on 16 September in place of Laurent Blanc, the Italian has only managed eight matches at Lyon, for only one victory, and leaves the club in last place in Ligue 1.

Olympique Lyonnais has "temporarily" replaced coach Fabio Grosso with academy director Pierre Sage and has started dismissal proceedings against the Italian coach, the French club announced on Thursday. Arriving on 16 September in place of Laurent Blanc, Grosso has only managed eight games at Lyon, for only one victory, and leaves the club in last place in Ligue 1.

Third Coach of the Year

This decision was taken "in view of the results obtained and after an in-depth analysis of the team's situation", OL said in its statement, adding that the "procedure that could lead to the termination of the employment contract" also targets Grosso's four Italian assistants. A press conference is scheduled for 16:30 p.m. at the club. Lyon lost at home to Lille on Sunday (2-0). Grosso's only win was at Rennes (1-0), where his team played eleven against ten for most of the game. On 29 October, the 2006 World Cup winner was hit in the face by shards from the glass of the OL coach that was stoned in Marseille, and the match could not be played.

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Pierre Sage is already OL's third coach this season, and the sixth to be called up to Lyon since the spring of 2019, something never seen before at the club. Aged 45, Grosso was a former left-back for OL for two seasons (2007-2009). Lyon, in serious difficulty, has sunk into a governance crisis, marked by dissension between the former owner Jean-Michel Aulas and the new one, the American John Textor. The accounts for the 2022-23 financial year have returned to the red: as of 30 June, the gross operating surplus is negative, at -1.8 million euros, while the club had managed to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic (15.9 million euros) in 2021-2022.