What On Earth Is Going On At Lyon?

[@lucaslonchampt613]

That scene with the Ultras chewing up the players was so surreal. It's insane how this club used to be the gold standard of French Football and they were in the semi-finals of the UCL just 3 years ago

[@Leosch633]

It kinda reminds me of the downfall of Schalke 04, who got relegated 3 seasons after they were 2nd in the league.

[@ezraezra2928]

@@Leosch633 The 7-0 defeat against Manchester City really started a huge downfall for Schalke 04. They initially sacked the current Belgian coach from Italy, but the crisis really worsened when Covid had been started.

[@shawklan27]

Used to be psg quality now look at them now lol

[@lukealvarez3744]

Reminds me of Leicester decline from being in europa back to back just 2 yrs ago to being relegated this season

[@leafgreene6014]

​@@ezraezra2928Domenico Tedesco is German and Italian, not Belgian

[@lakbirsinghjohal3333]

I don't see their bad form to continue, but Saint Ettienne and Bordaux are a good reminder of what could happen to former Ligue 1 champions

[@ezraezra2928]

You can also include Monaco. They were relegated in 2011, just 7 years after the historic UCL run with the current France national team coach. In 2019, they were almost relegated once more after selling some world stars, including Kylian Mbappe to PSG. This occurred just 2 years after their annus mirabillis, when they won the Ligue 1 and reached the UCL semifinal.

[@TheGrinch_]

@@ezraezra2928But Monaco are first in Ligue 1.

[@Alex-gq4yd]

Well they haven’t won a game yet

[@ezraezra2928]

@@Alex-gq4yd And Luton Town, the worst Premier League team, had just grabbed their first win in Premier League this season!

[@Viserionn_]

Fast forward : no win, a terrible Textor management and a postponed game because of a broken car. Yup, Lyon is defo gonna play a relegation battle.

[@gerjerry99]

Watching the early part of this documentary so far, seeing how they sacked the manager who managed a treble in the 2007/08 (combined with only narrowly losing to Sir Alex's Man Utd in the UCL round of 16) is pretty nuts

[@hugoumero9723]

well Perrin would have been sacked in 2008-2009 season if they lose the title to bordeaux

[@mattjames6349]

it reminds me of leeds when they went down 15? years ago because they got overambitious too fast.

[@kelvinengland3991]

@@mattjames6349 19 and a half years ago

[@ezraezra2928]

Lyon also faced the great Barcelona's Treble team with tiki taka a season later, again in the same stage of the Champions League, yet they showed a good performance at home with a 1-1 draw before getting embarrassed heavily at Camp Nou.

[@finfog4590]

It’s not. They needed to take the next step and become more dominant in Europe.

[@alex.toogood.editor]

Dear Alfie From a Lyon fan living in Lyon Thank you You summed it all up 😭

[@jamaalsjourney]

Its 4am in Detroit, and I'm feeling kinda good cause I'm undefeated at Dream League Soccer in the Legendary Division. Then after smoking a cig and dropping the kids off a the pool, I refreshed my feed and what do you know, a HITC Stevens video. Never disappoints, and more surprisingly our team share the same names

[@Kingstar-jp8pm]

Bro got a chill life

[@roryoconnor2736]

that's some life you've got there damn

[@yannick245]

And nice to see that football, even Ligue 1 is becoming that popular in the States!

[@allisonbrautigam1444]

It certainly is I support a team in every top league not just my local MLS team. Also with so many immigrants from different nations football does wonders for bringing the US together. It gets a foot in the door to realize how much we have in common. And with the way the rest of the world performed at the Basketball World Cup I'd say sports as a whole is growing. It's giving kids more options to find a sport where they thrive. 🇺🇲 🌍

[@gravy3858]

we have the same life. What cigs do you smoke bro?

[@friedrichnietzsche2557]

Lyon was the powerhouse of ligue 1 from 2000- 12. Before the qataris takeover psg. I remember the lyon squad when they had Juninho , tiago benzema govou, coupet, Toulalan, erin abidal that was such a powerful team. Watching lyon in this state is so sad, not forgetting Lyon has one of the best youth academies in europe they produce so many football talents.

[@Tkokat]

may be you wanted to say before, not after

[@para97v]

they still produce so many talents.

[@friedrichnietzsche2557]

@@para97v gourki caqeret koumedi are next

[@massyl25]

how many clubs produced a ballon dor winner

[@tnix80]

I remember all those guys, what a great team!

[@LoCoAde87]

For me as an 87 guy, I associate Lyon with Juninho, Gouvu, Essien, Ben Afra, Malouda, Carew, Abidal, Cris, and then later Benzema and Lloris (monster vs Liverpool in the home game).. this was Lyon to me. Young, exciting, so close to absolute greatness. Gen Z have no idea how good those noughties teams were. Yes they have several very good players like Cherki, Fekir, etc, but it was never quite the same after the PSG money came in and neutralized the league bar the odd season. I just want to add that Aulas was a bloody tough negotiator too. And that scuppered some deals where they'd have got serious money back. De Laurentiis and Levy like. A detriment at times for sure. Great vid as ever. Laurant Blanc's downfall also he needs speaking on. That Bordeaux title winning team led by Gourcuff, he looked like he'd go from world class player to coach. He is anything but the latter though. Edit - haha you covered Blanc in good depth, fair play. Football has passed him by since Bordeaux days.

[@roryslaine7896]

I'm 1991 so I remember those good times. I'm currently playing a FM 2008 save and Lyon have won the CL twice with Fred also lifting the Balon D'or haha.

[@jmacdon4]

Yeah they were outstanding for a long time. Quite amazing that PSG haven’t been able to match their title winning streak. They were way ahead of the curve in the women’s game too.

[@ysbrandd]

just curious if you saw 2009/2010 inter and what they were like, you always hear stories of them but idk what it was actually like.

[@leonardofonseca1844]

Here in Brazil Textor has garnered immense respect from everyone by making traditional team like Botafogo top of the leguea while spending much less than its rivals. He built a very impressive scouting team here, and I assume he wants to do the same in Lyon, which will take time. His strategy is to spend money smart rather than burn it like Chelsea does. Also, Botafogo hit with lawsuits? That happens every time with every Brazilian team….

[@sondergaard913]

Have you watched the video? Lyon already had a proper management scheme. He sacked the guy that worked there for 35 years, and Lyon went COMPLETETLY downhill. At the moment, lyon is LAST in Ligue 1

[@dvdv8197]

The striker RWDM (a Belgian club who is as poor as it gets when it comes to Belgian first league clubs) 'bought' for 25 m, thus making it the biggest incoming transfer ever in Belgian football, who then immediately got sent 'on loan' to Lyon, a club which accidently has the same owner... That type of bypassing of financial fair play should really be dealt with.

[@yannick245]

As a German I'm a little interested in KAS Eupen. Since Eupen is from the German speaking region of Belgium. Do they still have their Qatari investor? Why didn't they spend more money on the team/club? I mean a little like they do at PSG? Are there restrictions in Belgium that don't make it possible to do the same? Or is Qatar _(or whoever the investor is again)_ just not that interested in the Belgian league/football?

[@nummer3357]

These 'Football Groups' are really concerning. It's like the owner just master plan which entity is going to take which cost each year to make the primary club look sustainable. Also Nuamah, the player in question, was sold from FC Nordsjaelland who is owned by a football academy in Ghana owned by Egyptian billionaires. So while the leagues in Belgium and Denmark often are labeled as talent hotbeds and whatnot they are seriously not much more than proxy leagues for foreign clubs and investors.

[@maciejbala477]

yeah I'm surprised he didn't touch on that. When I saw the Nuamah transfer go through on transfermarkt and the fee involved, I was sure it was an error and actually whoever put it meant 2.5m. But when he got loaned to Lyon, I understood (and learned they have the same owner)

[@milanvermeulen4269]

​@@yannick245as a Belgian i really don't know why the qatari's invest in Eupen beacuse they wil never recoup the money from players sales not wil they ever wij something with euoen

[@Ascalonn88]

Yet PSG, Man city, Chelsea, Newcastle pay 10 times more and there is no financial issue there

[@MillerMighty]

The minute I go on KZbin another HITC documentary, we are spoiled

[@ezraezra2928]

It's so surprising that both Manchester United and Olympique Lyon have fallen into the pieces when Manchester City and Paris Saint Germain took control with an infinite money and sportswashing. They were the dominant forces of European Football back in 2000s with lots of best players.

[@oliverleonard7730]

Hasn't stopped other teams like Liverpool or Lille winning the league.

[@redboyjan]

Not really, unsurprising. It's cheating. Plastic trophies don't feel the same at all but plastic they are

[@ezraezra2928]

@@oliverleonard7730 We could also include Chelsea's 5 Premier League titles during Roman Abramovich's era and Arsenal's Invincibles in 2003/04. Those happened before Manchester City was controlled by Abu Dhabi and even strengthened by the emergence of Pep Guardiola.

[@erikerik3823]

Omg don't even try to compare the French league and the English, premier league has way more competition and money involved no other club can compete with PSG in the French league but even United spends the same as city does

[@aaronkatzen4245]

it's man utd's horible owners as well

[@JoeMercersWay]

When even clubs like Lens can have amazing seasons, but instead of strengthening for a CL season and a new title push their squad gets poached and they end up much weaker, it shows French football is a mess.

[@hugoumero9723]

if only QSI never took over PSG maybe Ligue 1 could have an good league

[@xavier1752]

How is it a mess? That kind of thing happens all the time at every level

[@okocha971]

A mess ?? It’s literally what happens in almost all clubs outside of the Top 4 Leagues… Only a few big clubs like Benfica and Ajax are doing a better job at rebuilding and being competitive again so fast. Majority of clubs are just trying to survive lol, it’s not a mess it’s literally their financial business : develop young talents and sell them short after. At least it favors the national team.

[@jimmyg5102]

​@boris97110 it even happens in top 4 leagues to lol thats the worst thing

[@okocha971]

@@jimmyg5102 yeah you’re right. I should’ve said only clubs with more than, let’s say 150M budget or more usually keep their roster one season to another.

[@eduardoazedo5563]

so grateful to see this one, I commented on an instagram post suggesting the idea, you liked it, I prayed, it happened! another masterpiece

[@SilliusSodus]

What on Earth is going RIGHT for the Japanese men’s national team???

[@luyandzabavukiledlamini4693]

Give Their women's team credit

[@SilliusSodus]

@@luyandzabavukiledlamini4693 The football of the women’s team was beautiful. Proper Total Football.

[@Kingstar-jp8pm]

They are really good right now but let’s also give credit to how shit Germany is

[@soundscape26]

But with another title, "what on earth is going on" is for struggling teams. 😄

[@J-CG]

Yeah sort of mad it's the Euros and not a World Cup next year. Would be exciting to see this current Japan squad at a big tournament

[@GCAbleism158]

At least they have one of the best Women's Teams on the planet that haven't lost a Champions League knockout tie without some sort of tie breaker in a very long time.

[@ezraezra2928]

To be fair, the women's branch of Lyon has been eclipsed more recently with the arrival of Barcelona's huge success, whose squad contained some Spanish female footballers that won the World Cup this year, emulating the same success for the men's branch of the Barcelona team during the 2010s.

[@paquinraino8180]

Lyon women's team is the best team ever, for sure Barcelone is getting big, but don't forget that Germans clubs used to dominate in Europe for years in the 2000's

[@ezraezra2928]

@@paquinraino8180 Don't forget that German clubs is known for the women's national football team success in the same period. They won 2 World Cups in a row, with 2007 being the best result as they became the only national team (both men and women) to win World Cup with a clean sheet in the entire tournament. They also won the Olympics in 2016.

[@sisilafamille7650]

@@ezraezra2928 Lyon have won 2 women's Champions League finals against Barcelona in the last 4 years. They are the real Madrid of women's football. Between 2016 and 2020 they have won 5 Women's Champions Leagues in a row. They won the 2022 final against barca (1-3) and won the 2020 final against barca as well (4-0).

[@ezraezra2928]

@@sisilafamille7650 Corrections: Lyon beat Barcelona 4-1 in the 2019 Final, not 4-0 in the 2020 Final. In addition, Lyon faced Wolfsburg four times (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020) and only lost once, which was in 2013. They also faced Paris Saint Germain in the first (and the only time) an UWCL Finals was between two teams from the same country back in 2017.

[@TheKalaxis]

Please do one of these on Middlesbrough next. There's gotta be something going seriously wrong here

[@kelvinengland3991]

Too long spent in the championship. It's where big clubs go to die.

[@BALHAM69]

Steve Gibson’s fault 😮 No structure at the club

[@fa1509]

@@kelvinengland3991how ?

[@IzzyMann]

Quality video, was very informative listening to it whilst working. Cheers!

[@DolFunDolhpinVtuber]

The Fifa 06 Lyon team was dope as all heck.

[@espy8406]

i am a supporter of Botafogo, one of Textor's club. our club almost stopped existing, textor literally saved us. in just 1 year and a half, we have become the best team in the continent, we made the best first half in history of the brazilian league. textor has already managed to get rid of a LOT of the debt that botafogo had and is making a lot of money.

[@markusninja0218]

10:30 That pic of Leonardo and Nasser is so menacing. It screams "We're here to destroy football"

[@Les.Lyonnais]

100 percent

[@sympa_is_misanthropic]

The full video of the Lyon ultras speaking down on them is crazy because they deserve it one thousand percent and those "twitter nerds" saying other wise clearly haven't seen their record for this year, both in season and pre-season.

[@nikolababic3588]

Back in 2003 I played PES with friend and he picked Chelsea first which I liked at the time. Not knowing what to pick I choose Lyon, 21 years later and I still support them. Back in mid 2000s it was a beast of a team with Juninho, Cris, Malouda, Benzema, Abidal, Wiltord, Essien, Coupet...I'm sure that Lyon will rise again in future, it still have great youth system and produce great players.

[@mismisimognomo101]

AYYYY, Alfie gang, we early, we here, we always waiting for the next ! Love and thanks for keeping me awake to unhealthy hours once again, as always a perfect excuse to keep being a Gargoyle 🖤

[@thenorseguy2495]

Awesome video as always👍 Not sure I would want this😂 But it would be a honor if you made a video about my favorite Norwegian side Rosenborg some time. They are by far the most successful club in Norway. But right now they are rubbish

[@boc8385]

Great video, your videos are superb informative and also the visual draw you in as well.

[@owenobinna1281]

Great documentary as always Alfie, wondering if you'll eventually do a video on the current chaos in Spain women football at the moment, not just the current issues in the FA presidency but also that women in domestic league are going on strike as well, also a video on the rise of both Japan men and women's teams would be great!

[@jtaco4101]

Zzzzzz

[@kostajovanovic3711]

​@@jtaco4101na H

[@bloodypelican]

Lyon fan here: While i think the video is overrall pretty good, there are a few areas that you completely glossed over: 1 - While Juninho completely shat the bed by hiring Sylvinho, it must be said that he was only allowed to hire a coach that could come without a staff, so that the staff currently in place could stay. He also arrived as sporting director, but didn't have time to make targets himself, so all targets that window, our biggest window in decades, were from Florient Maurice: Joachim Andersen, Thiago Mendes, Reine-Adelaide for 25 mill each, all turning out to be complete busts. 2 - Our sporting structure has been a mess for years now. When Juninho arrived, he had to compete with previously mentionned Maurice, which led to internal struggles and dick contests until Maurice left for Rennes. Juni then had to compete with notoriously lazy and incompetent Bruno Cheyrou and with Vincent Ponsot, a man that was very good at negotiating and handling the business side of the club, but pretty bad at the rest. And while Juni struggled at first (see Sylvinho) he then managed to bring us Paqueta and Guimareas, two of our best transfers in a decade, which created resentment and jealousy with the rest of the direction, with Aulas trying to claim later on that he was the one who actually brought them.And when Juni left, Cheyrou was left as de facto sporting director, with terrifying results last season. And when Textor arrived at the helm, and tried to kick him out and add a modern data driven scouting department, Aulas categorically refused, protecting his friend against progress. That's when Textor fired Aulas. 3 - Way before Juni arrived, the club was one that completely lacked ambition and desire to improve itself. When Lyon built it's stadium, it was so expensive that we had to tone down our spending and sell like crazy, while relying heavily on academy graduates. This was our rebuild era, when the likes of Lacazette, Umtiti and Tolisso broke through the ranks. But as the years passed, the stadium payments were underway, the sporting project didn't change. We kept buying low, and selling everything and the kitchen sink anytime we had the chance, even though we didn't really need to anymore.

[@Montfortracing]

Why and how is Lyon's women's team so good though?

[@WmG2004]

​@@MontfortracingThe money in the womens game isn't as big (the current world record fee is $400k) and France also produces lots of good talent there. I imagine those two factors play a huge role.

[@Montfortracing]

@@WmG2004 most of the talent in their women's team come from outside of Lyon though

[@WmG2004]

@@Montfortracing Like I said, France produces lots of great talent. I imagine they're tapping into that because after all they're one of the biggest clubs in the country and the money in the women's game isn't astronomical by any means compared to the men's game.

[@Montfortracing]

@@WmG2004 I understand what you're saying. But are you sure Lyon women's team gets most of it's talent locally? Who from their squad is local from Lyon or France? Renard and Le Sommer are the only two I can think of.

[@J-CG]

I remember being younger and loving the old Lyon squad. Had to always be wary if you drew them in the Champions League. Back when they had Pernambucano, Luyindula, Govou, Diarra, Edmilson etc etc.

[@sacholo-2907]

We will be back 🤝

[@nathanb286]

Lyon got the Chelsea new owner bounce. Down the table

[@thegoodgunner]

they were going downhill way before the new owner came in ,it start with Aulas later year,

[@StephenWong14]

As of 23 October 2023 Lyon: 18th place (18 teams) in French Ligue 1 Ajax: 17th place (18 teams) in Eredivisie Basel: 12th place (12 teams) in Swiss Super League Schalke 04: 16th place (18 teams) in 2-Bundesliga (second tier league of Germany)

[@SportsFan838]

Trust me it's going to be worse than this. Everton were docked with a 10 points deduction. We're fucked.

[@declanfrew6958]

Sad to see Lyon in this state, I've been watching Ligue 1 as a UK native for some years. I fell in love with ASSE (Saint Etienne) at the turn of the century and French football has been in decline since. I have no idea why there isn't more investment in the league as a whole given the natural talent prodcued by it

[@sisilafamille7650]

Because of the tax system. French clubs pay more employers' tax than anyone else in Europe. PSG pays as much employers' tax as ALL THE CLUBS in Serie A, Bundesliga and La Liga combined. Clermont, a very small club, pays more employers' tax than the whole Bundesliga put together. French clubs do not compete on equal terms with the other 4 big nations.

[@jordanbyford2693]

French football used to be great and so competitive before psg bought the league very sad

[@ezraezra2928]

Now English Football did the same thing. City sportswashed a lot with countless amount of Premier League titles. Even Saudi-controlled Newcastle and Todd Boehly's Chelsea still can't stop this Abu Dhabi's domination with Pep.

[@aaronkatzen4245]

newcastle will in a few year once they build up it took man city a few years to build @@ezraezra2928

[@rashidkhalid3970]

The difference is in premier league clubs like arsenal Chelsea united Liverpool Newcastle all can spend big money on top players unlike french league so the money isn't the issue with the other top clubs

[@matteoatigui2411]

Wait what... ? Lyon took 7 titres in a row between 2002 and 2008 how was that competitive ? The qataris came only 3 years later...

[@ezraezra2928]

@@matteoatigui2411 Basically, Ligue 1 has been the Farmers League at that time, while Bundesliga is not because there were so many surprise winners that interrupted Bayern's dominance, including the two seasons where Borussia Dortmund ruled the Bundesliga in 2011 and 2012 under Jurgen Klopp.

[@rodeduivel1000]

Since lyon also has a belgian "sister" or "feeder" club , can you touch also on that situation? Feels like my country is just becoming a feeder for the "bigger" ...just a few examples: Lyon - rwdm Brighton - union sg Man city - lommel sk Sheffield utd - Beerschot And still i don't think thats all

[@Jothamvvw]

Vitesse (not official yet) - Patro Eisden Maasmechelen

[@williamcross210]

Brighton - Royal Union St. Gilloise

[@explainingexplained7526]

Belgium is a great country for work permits, a competitive non top 5 league and pretty tame registration rules. It’s pretty obvious as to why it’s such a sought after league for bigger clubs to hold feeders in.

[@XaloGunner]

On the bright side....as an Arsenal fan, I was really proud of Alexandre Lacazette. 27 goals ain't bad at all yeah? Second only to Mbappe.

[@depekthegreat359]

Olympique Lyon is one of my favourite respective footballing team in my favourite nation since my childhood years and ever but I am extremely so shocked to see them in the bottom of the table for one of the real bigger respective teams at the moment of time because of the failed management team in developing the team well which they must rectify as quick possible,good friends!!!The owner Jean Michael Aulas sir has the recklessness on how to deal with his team at times even during the successful years and he is to be blamed for their disastrous start to the season but I know this team can bounce back for sure and I am hoping for them to see them in top half of the standings and most importantly,the next year's January transfer window with the new ownership,good friends!!!LONG LIVE AND GO FORWARD OLYMPIQUE LYON!!!Disclaimer:Good friend Alfie must have edited the women's team content from the video,good friends!!!

[@yannick245]

I just loved watching Juninho taking free kicks!

[@depekthegreat359]

@@yannick245 Same here as his freekicks swang to the top corners whenever I would watch during my adolescent years,good friend!!!🏋️‍♂️

[@yannick245]

@@depekthegreat359 Yup! Born in 91. And you, bro?

[@depekthegreat359]

@@yannick245 I was born in the year 1993,boss!!!🏋‍♂️

[@yannick245]

@@depekthegreat359 Nice! So you also had the pleasure of growing up with witnessing Ronaldo Fenômeno, Zidane and guys like Juninho playing _(91 is a little advantage though 😉)._ And then the whole careers of Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi. My sister knew straight away that CR was going to be big. She already had a Portugal jersey of him, when he still wore the number 17, because Luís Figo was still active and had a "second spring" of his career at Inter. We can really count us lucky. I always envied my father, because he saw Maradona playing. But we got to witness an even greater era of football! This is the first season since ~20 years without Messi or Ronaldo playing in Europe. But now we got a player like Haaland _(which I as a Dortmund supporter saw playing and scoring live in the stadium)._ He's definitely the hottest candidate for the Ballon d'Or!

[@yungstahotmail]

Besides arsenal , lyon is my favorite team . Its a shame to see ol in the postion their in .hopefully they can bounce back .

[@sklep1105]

Maybe an unpopular request but I would love to see a video explaining the situation of my local club Levski Sofia, who were on the verge of bankruptcy several times in the past decade, had two failed takeovers by foreign millionares in just the past 3 years alone, have an unfinished stadium where not even the main stand has a roof, but managed to play in this year's Conference League playoff just losing to Eintracht Frankfurt

[@olanrewajumartins759]

Could you do a video on why countries seem to have bursts of talent in a particular position? Like the strikers coming from Nigeria after osimhen, and poland for lewandowski or the midfielders that came out after modric in Croatia? I think it's an interesting phenomenon

[@Bluespark-v9x]

My guess would be they are inspired by their biggest stars. More and more Nigerian kids want to be like Osimhen. Croatians who want to be the next Modric etc etc.

[@marcuslavaggi-bowen6539]

FC Basel should have one of these videos done about them. They are bottom of the Swiss Super League on 5 points and only one win after 10 games. This team used to impress in Europe with good results against Premier League teams!.

[@Toxic-Ology]

My main takeaway from this (it’s not a dig at the video as they’re always really good and this is no exception) is that one thing that seems consistent with Lyon is their ability to put out a classy kit every season. I like collecting football shirts and if I can’t get Denmark’s home shirt I’m going to have to settle for a Southampton shirt, but there’s a few from seasons gone by from Lyon that are now on my radar too. This is going to be an expensive year. Hopefully eBay won’t be too unkind price wise for some 😆

[@MrTonycoughlan]

You got a big collection? Is it certain teams shirts or anyones?

[@F_Dot_]

Search for Mine Jerseys

[@chrisguardiano6143]

As an OL Reign supporter in the US, I am glad that you briefly talked about the club in this video. We have actually benefited greatly from Lyon taking ownership of the club because before that we were playing in an aging 10,000 seat stadium & struggling to draw good crowds. Now we are playing matches at Lumen Field (home of Sounders FC in MLS & the Seahawks of the NFL) & drawing some of the largest crowds in NWSL history while also signing top female players like Megan Rapinoe, Jordan Huitema & Rose Lavelle. The only thing the OL Group have messed up on so far during their ownership was hiring Fahid Benstiti as coach in 2021 who only lasted a handful of months & was accused of harassment by the players.

[@sisilafamille7650]

The reason why Lyon and other historic French clubs are falling is simple, and it's not PSG's fault. The problem is the French tax system, a club like Angers pays more in employer's contributions than ALL THE CLUBS in Serie A and La Liga put together. When a French club pays a player a salary of 1 million euros, in reality the club has to pay 2.5 million euros (1 million for the player and 1.5 million in tax). For the same salary, a Bundesliga club has to pay a total of 1.4 million. PSG is surely the only French club that can afford to pay big salaries and keep its players since Marseille in the 90s. Even Lyon in their heyday had to sell Benzema at the age of 19 when Real were interested in him.

[@Topav05]

It seems that most French fans would have a hard time deciding which was worst between Covid, American owners and the Media Pro Deal

[@jacobb.2161]

As a Lyon fan I have to say that this current Lyon squad is really struggling right now. I really missed this club having players like Memphis Depay, Houssem Aouar, Karl Toko Ekambi, Nabil Fekir, Lucas Paqueta, Jason Denayer, Leo Dubois, and others. This club has officially lost the title of being one of the best clubs in France right now. If Lyon didn’t become a selling club to sell their best players to English, Spanish, German, or Italian teams, they maybe wouldn’t have been in this situation in the first place. This current squad’s performance on the pitch is very poor, just like its financial status. In my opinion, Lyon is in a huge crisis and needs a reboot.

[@wiggle-n-wine]

Love your videos, always bangers!

[@WastedxSkillz]

Watched it when it came out and just saw they did sack Blanc! Always quick to it Alfie

[@melanineyedoc]

And they have one of the best Women's Teams in world football.

[@thegoodgunner]

they have a new owner as well, but she is from south korea

[@rstein926]

It's a shame how Lyon, Valencia, Chelsea, Manchester United & Juventus have fallen from grace. Once upon a time they used to powerhouses in European football. Manchester United under Alex Ferguson dominated the PL with only Arsenal and Chelsea the main competitors along with to a lesser extent Liverpool and Newcastle and more recently Man City. Lyon always won Ligue One for most of the 2000s. Valencia were seen as the third force in Spanish football behind Real Madrid & Barcelona and went to two conservative CL finals in 2000 and 2001 with the former iconically against Real Madrid. But sadly Valencia due to dodgy owners are no longer that losing their spot to Athlectio Madrid with fellow Valencian side Villarreal overtaking them. Ever since Roman Abermovich left Chelsea, the club are a shadow of the club they once were and their golden generation is well and truly over at least for now. Juventus will obviously bounce back but at present they are also a shadow of the Italian giants they once were.

[@ivanohemartin]

Deportivo, Schalke, Werder, Leeds...list goes on. Only the biggest clubs can survive and bounce back.

[@tentacion4815]

Chelsea isnt a big club tho. Without finanicial backing they were nothing. And now they are just where they us to be

[@he_football]

2000s Lyon was a beast.

[@thenationalanthemhub3102]

You need to do "what on earth is going on at Ajax?" Twente 3-1 Ajax Excelsior 2-2 Ajax Fortuna Sittard 0-0 Ajax 12th

[@thenationalanthemhub3102]

Feyenoord 3-0 Ajax (fans riot and break stadium) wtf is happening

[@adamwaine1991]

Great video as always Alfie. Could we get a video on Southend United please. As I still don't fully understand how a club like that are in the mess they are. So sad to see. Hope they can get out of it the situation they are in.

[@MrReese]

Still hoping for that Austrian Wunderteam video 😇✌. btw, I had to wait for you to show the shirt of the player you kept calling "Gerke" just to find out you meant "Gourcuff" 😂.

[@StuartBaird-i4l]

I miss benzema i remember watching him in the last 16 against my man utd the year we won it in 2008 they are a great club who had some phenomenal talent i hope they get bk to winning ways

[@lesedi1106]

This is the first time seeing HITC use a video clip

[@NothingToSeeHere32]

Thank you for doing a video on my beloved Lyon - it is a mess there at the moment. Hopefully we can pull through. Allez Les Gones! Though, if you're going to say Aulas that many times, at least pronounce it correctly.

[@ruinsofalf]

Probably my favorite French club so sad to see them decline so much. Hope they can bring it back and get back to trying to claw away the Ligue 1 title from psg

[@shyone8386]

Life is simple, see HITC click HITC

[@arminiuszmazowszanin2670]

Lyon will be relegated. It's fault of Aulas - he was selling young academy players very cheaply to other french clubs and they were winning with them titles. Aulas without Bernard Lacombe was lost.

[@jacopomorini8915]

also, molebeek bought ernest nuamah for 30M, which is the highest transfer fee in belgian football history, just to loan him to lyon right after since lyon got problems with the ffp, which is absolutely disgusting and a slimey way to cheat the sistem

[@RoxChaseDi9]

Im a Marseille fan but its just Honestly sad seeing Lyon in this situation. Growing up watching Players like Benzema. Malouda. Abidal Juninho dude's Free Kicks were absolutely insane Sidney Govou Hugo Lloris Gregory Coupet Bafetimi Kim Kallstrom and so on. Making it to the Deep Waters of the champions League Knocking out Teams Like Real Madrid before eventually getting knocked out By Bayern alongside going against teams like Man U Liverpool That same Barca that won the Treble. Benfica eliminating Madrid A couple of times Not to mention they also were Knocked out in 2012 by the Cinderella story of that Season. APOEL 🇨🇾. Its just sad to see Lyon going from making it to the Semi finals of the champions League 3 years ago. To completely Falling to pieces

[@yungstahotmail]

Hopefully fabio grosso can lift up ol allez lyon !

[@DankBoyy00]

Looking back now at the end of the season they made a good recovery, hopefully this is a sign of good things to come

[@elliotk559]

Please do a vid on Ajax. 13th in the league with 100 mil spent. Match against feyenoord had to be abandoned because of the ultras throwing flares on the pitch and were then booed by the whole stadium every time they tried to chant. Then they tried to storm the owners entrance. I haven’t seen something like this in European football this year and not many people are covering it. Especially everything that happened with van der sar over the summer. It’s crazy to think this is the same club that this is the same club that got to a champions league semi final not long ago

[@arminiuszmazowszanin2670]

I hope Feyenoord will score another 3 goals in wednesday and make it 0-6.

[@DKCttv]

i was really hoping to see a picture of Father Ted when you said 'Financial Irregularities'

[@seand1011]

Oh look, they just sacked Laurent Blanc this morning

[@USC9210]

So when Lyon was dominating in the 2000s, was there a lot of complaint around neutrals that OL was making the French league boring, uncompetitive, had unfair advantages from their academy? Just a newish football fan wondering if OL faced the same carping as Man U of the same era, or Juventus ten years later, or Bayern the past ten years.

[@GergoKovacs24]

As a Lyon fan I can honestly just laugh at how bad we are right now

[@DucciVinci]

"the reigning Bundesliga champions Stuttgart..." 6:22 As a fan, this feels like it must have been a century ago even though it's not.

[@oRange_brOwn]

When I'm writing this comment, Lyon is the only club in the top 5 leagues who haven't been in the lead this season so far.

[@kadenyungkwok3653]

Alfie having moving images in his videos is a W

[@edwardkelly3280]

I remember them being the team in France during my generation

[@victorterheege5462]

Juninho was such class.

[@explainingexplained7526]

Actually very average beyond his set pieces. Then again, he is one of the best set piece takers of all time 😂

[@__dane__]

Really didn’t expect the Crystal Palace bit

[@Misanthropist-s8i]

Saint Etienne and now Lyon

[@chloesmith2980]

great video but OL Reign didn't win the NWSL last season, they won the shield for having the best regular season performance but the Portland Thorns won the NWSL title when they won the play offs

[@samuelschonenberger]

I didn't realize until this point that there is a Moussa Dembélé and a Mousa Dembélé

[@THEDR3]

French football can be interesting at times…it’s cool seeing teams like Lens competing in the CL but also seeing Nice, Brest, and Reims playing well meanwhile the downfall of Saint Etienne was remarkable considering they are one of the most successful all time teams in French football. Lyon joining that same fate potentially…I dread to think what could happen if they are relegated. French football doesn’t exactly have a great reputation when it comes to fans’ reaction and unrest.

[@tumpasarkar2370]

Do a video on IFK Göteborg.

[@nummer3357]

About their hostile takeover of classic club Västra Frölunda IF.

[@TheShowStoppperr]

Do a video on What on earth is going on with the Bulgarian national football team.

[@amarettohd]

OLYMPIQUE LYON IS CRAZY

[@jackmalcolm6092]

Gopd video alfie could you do a videos on rangers downfall in recent years

[@ivanmunoz22]

Alfie make a video on what on earth is going on at Everton FC. I think they are favorites to be relegated this season

[@yaheardme111]

Neen thinking about doing a save with lyon on fm for a while now

[@Nifava]

Are you kidding me? Notoriously strict financial regulations in France? Most clubs operate at a loss and PSG is a bottomless pit of money.

[@idfk8268]

I took a soft spot to Leon after 2 great FM saves I did on them last year and I guess I couldn’t have picked a worse time

[@plkrtn]

Always blows me away that you can't get an intro done in under 4 minutes when most of KZbin has done the intro and are half way to finishing 😂

[@Dagpar]

I renew my petition for you to include international subtitles for your videos. I volunteer for Spanish, but just having them would be great for me and my football loving non-English speaking family.

[@ajanimcintosh2937]

Blanc has been fired as I’m watching this for the first time 😭

[@ryomawashere4032]

Personally Juninho is a disaster football director at Lyon. He asked too much for the interest of Lyon's players. Club lost interest and some of them, were their best asset, left for free. He failed Lyon so much that even the Ultras are turning on the club and players.

[@dronesclubhighjinks]

14:17 what is this picture? 😱

[@chuninho3179]

Since Textor also owns Bota fogo doesn't it become easier to get Brazil talents to come to Europe, develop and be sold for large sums hence bringing in money and talent to help the clubs? I always wonder if there is co-operation between the Belgium, Brazilian, French and English clubs in making transfers easier and getting players to get sales or loans easier?If they were all working together in harmony, it could be beneficial to all the clubs and their players but I know once money is involved, everyone looks out for their own interest!Shame though!

[@ononsoorizu6556]

As a Chelsea fan, we need to get hold of that loud speaker

[@kelvinengland3991]

As a human with ears no you don't.

[@tokysobukanla]

Although I am a PSG fan, I do not like seeing such a club in dire straits... 😒

[@bentn13]

On the note of trying to buy Benfica, I think you'd enjoy finding out why he wasn't able to buy the club, and the whole situation around the club president who was in charge at the time

[@PaganMin-1966]

Hope you can talk about the rise and fall of Sevilla

[@hippolyte09]

Time for a part 2

[@danielkarmy4893]

The first scene is just another item in the ever-expanding list of things that are so, so wrong with football today. For supporters of a football club to feel they are entitled to literally abuse the players, while those players feel an obligation to stand and take it, is just ludicrous.

[@stephensmith4952]

Ultras are normally just criminals... not the type of people you'd say no to

[@DaSleepiest]

This is timely. Laurent Blanc just left as coach.

[@chairmanalf7856]

I was present at the Lyon v West Ham match in the Europa League a couple of seasons ago. West Ham won 3-0 and knocked them out. Their supporters were so incensed that, at the final whistle, they proceeded to smash up their own stadium and throw broken crowd barriers at the police.

[@AntoniusTyas]

Take a shot every single time MediaPro catastrophic deal collapse is mentioned every time a video about problems in French football is mentioned. I'd probably need to sign up for liver transplant afterwards.

[@carltonleboss]

That would have caused a lot of problems, like how the ITV Digital collapse badly affected many lower-league English clubs.