Lyon were once the best-run club in France. Now they look old-fashioned

“E veryone disappointed me. It felt like the ball was burning my players’ feet,” said Lyon coach Laurent Blanc after his team’s drab 1-1 home draw with Nantes this weekend. Blanc also accused his team of “playing backwards” – disappointment and going backwards have become a theme at Lyon of late – with the team who were once PSG’s closest challengers now sitting in mid-table, without direction or impetus. Everyone connected with the club must take some blame, from the fans to the president.

Picturesque Lyon is not a typical hotbed of footballing talent but Lyon’s first team has become defined by a prolific youth system – their nickname, Les Gones, means “The Kids” in the local dialect. Former alumni include Karim Benzema, Hatem Ben Arfa, Sidney Govou, Nabil Fekir, Corentin Tolisso and Alexandre Lacazette. Other academies in France have advantages – Le Havre are under far less pressure to achieve senior results, the centralised Clairefontaine has broad scope and appeal, and PSG have direct access to perhaps the deepest pool of local talent outside Brazil – but Lyon’s youth system has thrived thanks to good management, elite coaching and intelligent scouting.

Lyon were the first to set up a modern development system in the late 1980s when Jean-Michel Aulas arrived as president, helping the club return to the top flight, and they eventually became the dominant club in France, winning seven consecutive league titles. The best run that PSG have achieved with their huge finances is four. Lyon also made the last 16 of the Champions League nine years running between 2004 and 2012, reaching the quarter-finals four times, matching PSG’s record in the last nine seasons.

Despite winning just one trophy since their most recent