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All Aboard the Lorient Express

am_walters

By am_walters,
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am_walters

am_walters

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And after the demise of my Malaga save, it's taken me this long to get that database issue sorted.

All aboard!

Sorry.

Now, it took some time to decide on FC Lorient, but, I'm happy with the choice. I have probably the biggest man-crush on Laurent Koscielny, they're affiliated with Arsenal (as a result of that particular signing) and they've also got former Arsenal boys Jeremie Aliadiere and Gilles Sunu on their books. I've set myself no particular targets other than to push Lorient as far as I possibly can. I've only loaded the French, English, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Turkish and Russian leagues, for the time being.

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Has to be said, with a media prediction of 10th and a quick glance at the squad, I find that a little optimistic! With no wiggle room in the wage department (£312,000 all allocated) and a generous transfer budget of £2.1 million, I think I'll be doing some finance juggling before I start identifying potential transfer targets.

However, there does seem to be some interesting talent at the club, most notably:

  • Bruno Ecuele Manga - Gabon international and captain of FC Lorient. Solid centre half.
  • Maxime Barthelme - French winger with plenty of pace.
  • Yann Jouffre - Industrious French central midfielder.
  • Jeremie Aliadiere - Pacey French forward.
  • Alain Traore - Forward from Burkina Faso, specialises in set pieces.

There we have it, so, wish me luck!

Allez les Merlus!

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am_walters

am_walters

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Best of luck in France, good country to manage in.

Cheers, mate!

As you didn't pick HSV, I won't be following you on this save! Only kidding, I've had a thing for Lorient since FM09, good luck.

What started the Lorient interest?

Best of luck with Lorient,hopefully you can find success with them :thup:

Hopefully. It's going to take some work!

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am_walters

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July - August 2013

To begin, I chopped and changed some of the staff at Lorient. In actual fact, a lot of staff already at the club were better than what was available from elsewhere. However, there have been some key additions such as: Richard Tardy - who joined as a coach for my U19 squad. He's a French coach who is employed by the Rwandan national team. He provides some essential knowledge of Morocco, Lebanon, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and is currently accumulating knowledge of Rwanda. The only other appointment would be everybody's favourite Director of Football - Damien Comolli. Much better than his predecessor and provides some decent understanding of Japan. There were other additions, but, no big names or nothing spectacular, just generally individuals that improved the coaching staff on the whole.

Transfers out:

  • Fabien Robert to SC Bastia on loan for 11k p/m
  • Vincent Aboubakar on loan to OGC Nice for 10k p/m
  • Julien Quercia to Atalanta for £2.1 million
  • Raphael Guerrero to Olhanense on loan with no fee
  • Pedrinho to Havre on loan for 5.5k p/m

Nothing major. With six first team strikers at the club, I knew instantly two had to go. Quercia was probably the weakest striker, so, to pull in that sort of free from Atalanta is a huge accomplishment and Aboubakar offered nothing that Aliadiere didn't, so he found himself shipped out. The other three certainly won't fit in to my plans, so, made sense they found first team football elsewhere. Fortunately, all of those who have left on loan are having their wages paid by the loaning club.

Transfers in:

Under the circumstances, I'm happy with the incoming and outgoings.

However, I'm sorry for signing Frimpong.

But, Lorient have absolutely nobody capable of sitting in front of the back four and defending! I used Lorient's linkage with Arsenal to snap him up on a loan for the season, covering none of his wages and not paying anything, either. Can hardly grumble, can you? With no real width in the midfield, a right winger was a cert and when I saw Serge Gakpe was transfer listed at Nantes it seemed a decent option. I'd exhausted all other targets, but, none had any interest in joining the club. So, we eventually thrashed out a deal with 600k of the £1.2 million being in instalments. With no left back, at all, in the squad, I hunted high and low for an established full back. It boiled down to Boukary Drame of Chievo and David Limbersky of Viktoria Plzen. They joined Sampdoria and Marseille respectively after I was bullied out by the bigger Italian and French clubs. So, I turned to the what seems to be only recognised Montenegrin left back (?!) and thrashed out a deal with Partizan for his services. He looks a decent signing and I may have to exploit that long throw of his, eventually. And to top it off, probably my best bit of business. For this level, Anthony Annan looks to be an absolute steal. Paying Schalke very little for someone of that quality! Sadly, he's injured for a good 7 weeks, how he passed a medical, I'll never know.

Friendlies

Left these to my assistant manager, wasn't overly fussed as I was concentrating on improving the squad.

Ligue 1

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Could I have asked for a better start?! It felt daunting starting off away to Lille with both Frimpong and Annan sidelined. I favoured my 4-5-1 formation with three strikers. Two of the three proved to be the key men as we chopped Lille down to size! I'm sure Deisler26 will be happy to Jeremie Aliadiere score my first Ligue 1 goal! Traore killed them off just after half time after their keeper spilled a long range effort before Balmont grabbed a very late consolation goal. For the home game against Nantes, I decided to switch to a standard 4-4-2, because, with four strikers of similar quality, I'm going to have to at least play two of them in their natural position occasionally. However, neither of the two who started (Aliadiere and Traore) scored as my towering centre half Bourillon set us on our way! Nantes restored parity just before half time before Gilles Sunu came off the bench to win it before loanee Sadio Diallo grabbed an even later third.

What I considered to be a very winnable game against En Avant de Guingamp turned out to be quite the contest, end-to-end stuff with both teams finishing with 50% of the possession! It ended 0-0. I was fortunate to get out of the game against Valenciennes with a point. Pujol put the away team 1-0 up from a corner and a very late fortunate penalty from Monnet-Paquet ensured we finished our first month undefeated. Very happy with my opening four games, especially the away win at Lille.

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Not going to grumble with third! However, we're only four games in, I'm not expecting this to last. Especially when your next game is Monaco at Stade Louis II!

Miscellaneous

  • The 18,110 crowd attendance against Valenciennes FC is now a club record
  • Club has formed a partnership with Swiss club FC Lugano for scouting knowledge purposes
  • Appointed Belgian scout Stephane Pauwels who has knowledge of Belgium, Algeria and Holland

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am_walters

am_walters

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Eesh, 14th is shocking for them, especially given how weak the French league is in mid to low table. Throwing your hat in the ring?

Even though it's early in the game, I have. I'd like to stay at Lorient for a while, but, how often will this opportunity come up?

I'm not expecting to get it, considering the names being linked.

They've also just been knocked out of the cup by Angers SCO?!

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am_walters

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September - October 2013

Ligue 1

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I'm not even sure how to sum this up! Granted Monaco have been really poor, but, to run out 3-0 winners away is incredible. I scouted them, they were missing Abidal, Carvalho and Rodriguez to injury, to start. So, when Andrea Raggi was sent off in the first half, I went gung ho and put them to the sword, incredible win. Followed this up with a dramatic win against Bordeaux as my right back Baca found himself in the right place at the right time to score the late winner. My brilliant away form continued against Toulouse as we pretty much dominated the whole game. Sadly, all good things come to an end as we were powerless against Marseille at home, Payet and Khalifa scored the goals and we never really competed.

We looked solid against SC Bastia and Aliadiere continued his good form by scoring after Monnet-Paquet's opener. However, Bastia rallied and scored two goals late on to leave a very sour taste in my mouth. We suffered only our second league defeat away to Saint-Etienne and we didn't ever look like scoring in this one. Both goals came from set pieces and we offered very little going forward. The goals seemed to have dried up by the time Sochaux came to town as we played out a bore 0-0 draw.

Still, I'm happy with our performance in the opening three months.

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Couple de la Ligue

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Fortunately, we found our shooting boots for the cup game. I fielded a fairly changed squad against Ajaccio as we have PSG around the corner. There was a first start for Arsenal misfit Frimpong, who, ironically smacked home the winner from a set piece. Happy on the whole as I managed to give a few minutes for the players who've yet to featured in Ligue 1. Some notable upsets of the round saw managerless Monaco lose at home to Angers whilst Lille were dumped out by Stade Lavallois.

Dare we dream?

Miscellaneous

  • Unsuccessful in my application for the Monaco job.
  • Gilles Sunu complained about lack of football, loaned out to Saint Etienne for 200k p/m

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am_walters

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November - December 2013

Ligue 1

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Well, there was no surprise as PSG inflicted my biggest defeat as Lorient manager. Ibrahimovic was injured, but, that didn't stop the likes of Cavani ripping my team to shreds. However, to grab two goals amidst the drubbing felt like quite the feather in my cap! Stade de Reims at home was to follow, sadly, there was no joy as Aliadiere had to rescue a point after their opener. Could I have got any luckier against bottom of the league Evian?! They took their chances and looked good for the win until Traore rolled in the latest of penalties. We did finally get our first win of November against OGC Nice. Manga popped up at the back post, twice, to put his 2-0 up before Baca fired in a third, late on.

Montpellier chopped us back down to reality by nullifying our attack. This 1-0 loss also came at a cost as we lost Aliadiere for the whole of December through injury. This squad seems to love a late goal, don't they? Late goals from Traore and Barthelme against Rennais (top of the league?!) and Ajaccio gave us two massive wins to propel us up the league. Remi Garde is finding himself in trouble at Lyon, and we took full advantage thanks to an own goal and Gakpe brace for our third 3-2 win in Ligue 1.

On the whole, a pretty solid two months on the field.

To escape with only the two defeats when you've faced the likes of PSG, Nice, Rennais and Lyon is quite the achievement!

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Sitting pretty in 5th, but, we really need to sort that leaky defence out when you look at how much the other teams around us have conceded. Marco van Basten was the man who took the Monaco job and he's done well to drag them up from 14th place. That media prediction of 10th is looking pretty accurate at the moment, but, hopefully we can continue our good form.

Couple de la Ligue

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So, we drew the conquerors of Monaco in the 4th round. Used this opportunity to field some fringe players (Wenger's been complaining about Frimpong's lack of football) against Angers and we narrowly escaped with (another) the 3-2 away win. A little fortunate, as they dominated the majority of the match before Traore (leading the line in Aliadere's absence) finally rolled his socks up to grab the brace.

Miscellaneous

  • Drawn USBCO in the Coupe de France 9th round.
  • Drawn En Avant de Guingamp in the Coupe de la Ligue quarter final.
  • Offered a new contract by the board, requested a training upgrade, declined, no further talks.
  • Maxime Barthelme's goal against Ajaccio won goal of the month for December.

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Deisler26

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Went for the interview, agreed to my policies.

Appointed Ruud Gullit.

Lost out to a Dutchman, again.

I had that with Juventus. They interviewed me, I went along for the funs. They agreed to youth investment, then said they weren't willing to take me on that a few days later.

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am_walters

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January - February 2014

January transfer window

With only a budget of £60k, it was always going to be difficult to improve the squad any further, in January. Midfielder Enzo Reale complained about a lack of first team football, we discussed it, he disagreed and requested a transfer, which I accepted. He was set to move on loan to ESTAC Troyes, but, sustained a hip injury and was ruled out for 4 months and the deal was subsequently off. However, there was to be some transfer activity. Arsenal contacted me and informed me taking Abou Diaby on loan was a possibility, which, I took advantage of. Paying no fee and no wages, seemed like a no brainer. Providing he can stay injury-free and fit, I'm sure he'll be a big presence in the middle for Lorient.

More on that to follow.

Ligue 1

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Well, I actually can't believe some of these results. Since moving Alain Traore centrally, he has been absolutely sensational. And, when you look at the times we've actually scored the goals, you'll see that this time actually doesn't stop. There's a high percentage of goals scored beyond the 80th minute to effectively win games, really solid stuff. To finish a busy January and February without a single defeat is huge, considering we've faced the likes of Monaco, Bordeaux and Marseille.

It began with a fairly routine win against Nantes, who are struggling in the league. All set for a 1-1 draw, until both Frimpong and Monnet-Paquet scored very late on. We followed that up with another late goal, against Valenciennes. This Alain Traore winner was to be the start of his incredible patch of form. I moved the Burkinabe stiker centrally to cover for the injured Aliadiere.

And so, the grudge match with Monaco came. Bitter over not even being offered an interview, I just had to win this. And what a performance from Alain Traore, again. Mame Diouf put them 1-0 up, before Monnet-Paquet had a goal ruled out for offside. I upped the tempo and Traore scrambled one in to peg them back. I switched Traore out to the left to utilise his trickery against the poor Fabinho. This proved to be, tactically, brilliant as Fabinho gave Traore enough space to thump home a late 25 yard winner!

We've only gone and done the double over Monaco!?

I had to get my feet back on the ground as Bordeaux was to be no easy task. However, with Alain Traore in great form and an own goal from Lamine Sane and another late goal from Barthelme, the result was academic, really. They offered absolutely no threat and I was chuffed to actually get a clean sheet. We've been quite poor in goal, and we've actually suffered with injuries, ideally, if I am to stay with Lorient longer, I'm going to need to bring in a new goalkeeper. The Alain Traore show continued against Toulouse as he scored one and assisted Bourillon late on to complete a fairly routine win over the opposition. We completed the month against 2nd placed Marseille. I fielded a fairly conservative formation, and, we were very fortunate to escape with a point. Marseille dominated and Ibrahima Traore even put them 1-0 up in the first minute! However, we prevented any further damage and was fortunate to get a helping hand from NKoulou who steered one past his own keeper.

What an absolutely fantastic two months, in Ligue 1, on the pitch!

Really impressive stuff.

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I actually can't believe where were sat in the table?! Third?! 3rd?! Mind you, as you've all seen, the bigger sides have been just so poor which has helped me massively. Check out Lyon in 9th and Monaco, back in 14th! Overlooked for both of those vacancies, karma, ladies and gentlemen. I'm ecstatic with our league form, we've been excellent. Manga and Traore have been solid. Ideally, I'd like to see us keep a few more clean sheets, but, when you have the scoring ability of this squad, who needs to defend?

Coupe de France

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Evidently, by looking at these pictures, I've been very lucky with the Coupe de France draw! Whilst the bigger Ligue 1 teams have been eliminating themselves, and, losing to lower league opposition, I've been edging my way quietly through the smaller teams. However, we needed an extra time winner from (yep, that man, again) Alain Traore against USBCO. I really didn't want extra time, as we are still competing in the Coupe de la Ligue and Ligue 1. However, we won, bottom line. We followed this up with a fairly convincing win against Stade Lavallois. I used this opportunity to field some of the fringe players in the squad, and was happy with this gamble as we ran out the much stronger team and importantly, in to the next round. In the 11th round, we visited ESTAC Troyes, who, eliminated Monaco. It was tough, and when they went 1-0 up, became even harder. Bourillon nodded one in from a corner before Abdullah sent us into the next round with an own goal.

Phew, off the hook.

Coupe de la Lique

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And so, Diaby's debut came in the cup against En Avant de Guingamp. And when Traore pumped in a free kick Diaby rose highest to head home a goal on his debut, go on son! Since then, to avoid a repeat of ANY of the injuries he's sustained at Arsenal, I've used him sparingly, but, when I have, he's been impressive. We destroyed the opposition in the quarter final as Paquet, Coutadeur and Manga all scored to send us to the semi final to face Ligue 1 leaders, Stade Rennais. And what a result against the in form team! Pitroipa actually put the visitors 1-0 up in the 5th minute before Paquet restored parity 11 minutes later. And, who crops up with a well-timed winner? Only that man Alain Traore to send us through to the final! Incredible stuff! To even reach the final has been one hell of an achievement and perhaps it's time the chairman started showing the same ambition as me?!

Miscellaneous

  • Overlooked for the Monaco job in favour of Marco van Basten.
  • Offered an interview by Lyon, they seemed to agree with my view, appointed Ruud Gullit instead.
  • Drawn Clermont Foot in the Coupe de France quarter final.
  • Drawn PSG in the Coupe de la Ligue final.

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am_walters

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March 2014

Ligue 1

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Poor, really poor. We scored two league goals, all month. Granted, we're missing Aliadiere, but, I didn't expect the goals to dry up that much! Bastia are in the relegation zone and it took Summer signing Volkov to rescue us from defeat! Saint-Etienne visited Stade du Mustoir next and their recent charge up the table was reflected by their smash and grab win. Once again, we were very poor here. When Traore put us 1-0 up away to Sochaux within 17 seconds, I expected to at least get 3 points. This wasn't to be as Duboi equalised just 4 minutes later! Jesus Christ?! It was at this point, Laurent Blanc lost his job at PSG. Obviously, I was interested in the post, so, threw my name in the hat.

PSG were visiting next and with uncertainty over my contract and my interest in taking over in Paris, I delegated this match to my assistant, which, I thought was fair. Sadly, my right hand man came up short as PSG tore us apart. The last league game of the month was to feature more disappointment as underdogs and rivals Reims snatched a late winner to drag us from the dizzy heights of 3rd place in Ligue 1.

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Gutted to have dropped to 6th, but, with a media prediction of 10th, we're still performing above all expectations and we're still in the running for both domestic cups! Hopefully in the final two months we can find our shooting boots, because, we're looking incredibly slack in defence.

Coupe de la Ligue

The final will be played against PSG on 19/04/14.

Coupe de France

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Well, we made hard work of this one, didn't we? Probably the easiest team left in the competition and it took extra time for us to dispatch Clermont Foot. I fielded a few fringe players as we were suffering from injuries by this point. Traore did have an opener ruled out, before Frimpong put us 1-0 up. Their keeper spilled a Traore free kick in to his net to put us 2-0 up before Clermont rallied and pegged us back 2-2. Traore put us 3-2 up from another set piece but they once replied very late on to force extra time. The additional play was drab and so, we faced penalties. We triumphed 3-1 on penalties as Audard made up for some of his poor performances.

We're off to the semi final!

Miscellaneous

  • Drawn Sochaux in the Coupe de France semi final.
  • I applied for for the PSG position, didn't get an interview and they appointed Marco Bielsa.
  • Secured new contracts for Maxime Baca, Fabien Audard, Gregory Bourillon and Yann Jouffre.

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am_walters

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April 2014

Ligue 1

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So, April was a massive improvement. We started brilliantly against struggling Evian and tore them apart 3-0. They barely even managed a single shot, so, it was nice to outplay them in every department as we recorded a rare clean sheet. However, we came up short away to Nice as they stole a very late winner thanks to Didier Digard. Thankfully, we got back to winning ways (Aliadiere back in the fold after injury) opened the scoring before Monnet-Paquet hit an absolute screamer to secure all three points. We ended the month with a trip to the league leaders, and after a busy month of cup games (to follow) I had to field a very fatigued XI. But, when Armand scored an own goal followed by a Traore free kick put us 2-0 up, I was pleasantly surprised. However, they rallied back and pegged us back 2-2 for a point. On the whole, I'm pleased. There were some potential banana skins, and I'm happy to get out of April with just the one league defeat.

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So, we're up from 6th! Very happy at this point, with only three games left, we could potentially record a brilliant league standing. I'm wearing a certificate smile at the moment, as I (and we) are standing above PSG, Lyon and Monaco, who all rejected my services. My final three games are relegated Ajaccio, Lyon and Lille. It's still relatively tight, so, anything can happen. More to come on that little 'EC' icon next to Lorient...

Coupe de France

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Sadly, we came up short against Sochaux in the semi final of the Coupe de France. It was a fairly even affair, with possession fairly equal throughout. Chances were pretty much the same. So, it went to extra time and then penalties. The lottery continued for quite some time, even the goalkeepers took penalties! In the end, Anthony Annan missed the important kick and Sochaux ran out 9-8 winners!

However, we couldn't dally because we had a date with PSG in the Coupe de la Ligue around the corner.

Coupe de la Ligue final

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Drama! What an absolutely fantastic result! My first ever cup on Football Manager 2014!

The squad deserved it more than anything.

After losing to Sochaux on penalties, after 90 minutes and extra time, they were shattered. We fielded a fairly tired squad against the might and funding of PSG. They boasted an attack featuring Ibrahimovic, Moura, Pastore, Cavani and co. I opted for my tried and tested 4-5-1 formation with Traore leading the attack. It came as a huge surprise as Coutadeur danced his way through the idle PSG defence and rammed home a brilliant finish against the inexperienced PSG keeper. Both Douchez and Sirigu were injured, so PSG had to field a youngster from their reserve squad. Not long after going 1-0 up, I pulled Diallo and Monnet-Paquet deeper to make a flatter 4-5-1 to try to combat the flooded midfield of PSG.

This worked fairly well, until the fatigue really started to show. We could barely retain the ball. PSG dominated for the majority. We had a throw in, they countered and before I knew it, Lucas Moura was charging down on Audard. The Brazilian clipped it past my keeper and I just knew changes needed to be made.

Enter that man, Jeremie Aliadiere.

Alain Traore had worked his socks off, but, kept coming up short. I hauled him off and threw Aliadiere up front, on his own. His industry took me by surprise as he robbed Marquinos in the middle of the field, angled himself and hit a scorcher to put us 2-1 up, late in the game! I threw on Frimpong to give us some extra steel in the midfield and dropped both him and Annan in front of the back four to protect. Everything went to plan and before I knew it, everyone was on the pitch!

What a brilliant moment, to overcome PSG!

Miscellaneous

  • Qualified for the UEFA Europa League
  • Yet to sign a contract extension with Lorient.
  • Fabien Audard becomes the most capped player with 325 appearances.

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am_walters

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May 2014

Ligue 1

avaqx.png

And so, came our final three fixtures of my first season in charge. Ajaccio had been relegated by this point, but, still put up a solid effort against us. We dominated the whole game and it took the towering Bourillon to bundle home the winner from a corner to take all three points. Sadly, Lyon edged the second game 2-1. We actually opened the scoring as captain Bruno Ecuele Manga headed us in front from another set piece. Joseph-Monrose and a 93rd minute penalty from Grenier delivered a much needed three points for Gullit. In our final match against second placed Lille, all we had to do was avoid defeat to finish above PSG. We found ourselves 1-0 down thanks to a Nolan Roux goal. Elsewhere, Ibrahimovic put PSG 1-0 up against Montpellier. As it stood, we were to finish 6th with PSG finishing 5th. Montpellier squared it at 1-1 before a quickfire double from Monnet-Paquet and Diallo put us 2-1 up! Lille then equalised late in stoppage time before Ibrahimovic grabbed the winner over Montepllier.

What a good bit of fortune! And what a season we've had domestically.

We were expected to finish 10th and we managed 5th and won the Coupe de la Ligue against all the odds!

Winning the cup has also given us the opportunity to qualify for the Europa League.

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I was glad to see Bastia relegated as I've been considering making a move for their goalkeeper Mickael Landreau to replace the error prone Fabien Audard. In other news, Saint Etienne beat PSG 2-1 in the final of the Coupe de France. Not the best of season for the Parisians! There is still some uncertainty over my position at Lorient, but, I am leaning towards staying. The chairman has been quite generous and given me a budget of £9 million for the upcoming season, but, the club does need a lot of work if we are to push on.

Miscellaneous

  • Broken the record for Lorient's highest ever position of 5th. Previous was 7th.
  • Mathieu Coutadeur was named in the Ligue 1 Stars Team.
  • Mathieu Coutadeur racked up the most assists in the league with 17.
  • Alain Traore achieved the best Ligue 1 African Player award.
  • Alain Traore was came third behind Edinson Cavani and Nolan Roux in the league top scorers award.
  • Maxime Barthelme won goal of the year for his screamer against Ajaccio on 13/12/13.

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