FM 08 : Olympique Lyon

Olympique Lyonnais (popularly known as OL, or simply Lyon, or Les Gones) is a French football club based in Lyon. They play in Ligue 1 and are the reigning champions of France, for the sixth time running. Olympique Lyonnais play their home matches at the 43,051 seater Stade de Gerland, Lyon. OL are also a member of the...

G14 group of leading European football clubs. Lyon was formed as Lyon Olympique Universitaire in 1899, according to many supporters and sport historians but was nationally established as a club on August 3, 1950.

Full name : Olympique Lyonnais
Nickname : Les Gones or OL
Founded : 1899 (i'll take this date because its way Cool than 1950)
Ground : Stade Gerland (43.051 seats)
Chairman : Jean-Michel Aulas
Manager : that would be you Wink

Jean-Michel Aulas took control of the club in 1987 and invested in the club with the objective of European qualification and become an established Ligue 1 side, within fifteen years. European qualification was achieved after a mere two years at the top level (only four years of Aulas' control). After that they achieved - almost every year - european qualification. And with the beginning of the millenium they began their total domination of the french league. Lyon's European ambitions have meanwhile never been realised beyond the quarter-finals, however.

Olympique Lyonnais has a highly-active and loyal fan-base, in Lyon . The supporters have gained a strong reputation in Europe, due to their control of Ligue 1 as well as their appearances in the Champions League. The Stade de Gerland is frequently a sell-out in the majority of their home European and League matches.

Lyon has a healthy rivalry with fellow side Saint-Étienne, which is one of the highlights in Ligue 1. AS Monaco, Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain have been OL's secondary rivals, and in recent years Lille and RC Lens have posed threats.

Ligue 1 Championship: 6
2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007

Trophée des Champions: 7
1973, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007

Coupe de France: 3
1964, 1967, 1973

Ligue 2 Championship: 3
1951, 1954, 1989

Coupe de la Ligue: 1
2001

CURRENT SQUAD :

No. Position Player

1 GK Grégory Coupet (vice-captain)
2 DF François Clerc
3 DF Cris (vice-captain)
4 DF Patrick Müller
5 MF Mathieu Bodmer
6 MF Kim Källström
7 FW Milan Baroš
8 MF Juninho (captain)
9 FW Fred
10 FW Karim Benzema
11 DF Fabio Grosso
14 FW Sidney Govou
18 FW Hatem Ben Arfa
20 DF Anthony Réveillère
21 DF Nadir Belhadj
22 DF Anderson
23 FW Kader Keïta
24 MF Romain Beynié
26 MF Fábio Santos
28 MF Jérémy Toulalan
29 DF Sébastien Squillaci
30 GK Rémy Vercoutre
40 GK Frédéric Roux

Transfers In :

5 MF Mathieu Bodmer (€6.5m from Lille)
11 DF Fabio Grosso (€7m from Inter Milan)
21 DF Nadir Belhadj (loan return from Sedan)
22 DF Anderson (€4m from S.L. Benfica)
23 FW Kader Keïta (€18m from Lille)
40 GK Frederic Roux (free agent from Ajaccio)

Transfers Out : (there were more but these are the most important imo)

5 DF Claudio Caçapa (Free Agent to Newcastle United)
10 MF Florent Malouda (€21m to Chelsea)
15 MF Alou Diarra (€7.75m to Bordeaux)
20 DF Éric Abidal (€15m to Barcelona)
21 MF Tiago Mendes (€13m to Juventus)
23 DF Jérémy Berthod (€2m to AS Monaco)
22 FW Sylvain Wiltord (€1.5m to Rennes)


Little something on the coachingstaff, scouts, physio. They are all great imho. I'd suggest you give the majority of them new (bigger) contracts, esp. youthcoaches are great give them a contract as "coach", they demand a lot more money but trust me they are worth it. (otherwise other teams will go for them)

Transferbudget : if i remember correctly it was about 20 mil euro but after asking for more the board gave me 45 mil euro which isn't to bad Big Grin.

Squad improvement (well imo) :

Coupet injured for 4 months, Cris injured for 7 months, Fred injured for 2 months, the 3 most important players for the team are out so they need replacement. You need a better GK (Kameni relaese clause), a defender (Ignashevich will cost nothing) and a striker (Adriano in first week, Martins, Owen, Pazzini, ...).
You also need to strengthen your midfield. VDV and Modric come to mind. But be aware of Ben Arfa he starts complaining if you buy even one midfielder. So see that you give him a new lengthy and with a big buy-out clause contract before you buy any midfielders.

Hope i didn't make any mistakes and enjoy this marvellous game.