Lille win! What next?

Les Lillois nick the title by one point! Manager and players to leave so what next for Les Dogues?

Christophe Galtier’s men finally crossed the line and beat Angers to win Ligue 1. Les Lillois win the Championship for the first time in 10 years, the 4th time in their history and are just the second team to win it in the last 9 years other than PSG (Monaco won it in 2016/17). The fact they’ve done it on a reasonably tight budget with no established stars just three years after finishing 17th is incredible.

Much of the credit must go to Head Coach and ex Lille player Christophe Galtier. Renowned as a good man manager Galtier has nurtured the clubs young players whilst getting the best out of veterans like Jose Fonte and Burak Yilmaz. His tactical knowledge has also been effective. The Marseillais has deployed a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 formation to great effect, engineering wins at Paris, Milan and Lyon whilst maintaining an incredible home form. Then two days after winning the league he announces to L’Equipe he‘s leaving! His reasoning seems to be that he doesn’t want to get stale and that four years is long enough at a club. He is well aware of at least three clubs interested in him; Nice, Lyon and Napoli but maintains having no contact with anyone. None of these teams will be in the Champions League next season. Why then would Galtier favour one of these clubs over the team he’s just won a Championship with? The main reason could be he knows he will lose important players this summer. Influential Goalkeeper Mike Maignan has already had a medical at AC Milan and midfielder Boubakary Soumaré is reported to soon be signing for Leicester City. Does Galtier really want to be in the Champions League with a lesser squad and end up being the whipping boys of Europe's Elite? Last year André Villas-Boas impressively got Marseille to second in Ligue 1 only to see his side lose five out of 6 games in Europe's top competition. At Lyon and Napoli Galtier would certainly have more money to spend than at Lille. Moving to Serie A could be a risk though. He played for a short time at A.C. Monza but that was in the lower leagues. Moving to a big Italian club, in a league he has no experience of and not speaking the language will be a challenge to say the least. It's doubtful he would be given much time to improve results. Whilst Nice are backed by English Billionaire Jim Ratcliffe and can probably afford a higher wage bill than Lille I can only see this as a step down for Galtier. Nice finished 9th in Ligue 1 this season and will have no European Competition next season. With this in mind Lyon seems the most likely destination for the ex Saint Etienne manager. Galtier has spent time at Lyon as Assistant manager to Alain Perrin in 2007. It's a club he knows well and President Jean-Michel Aulas should give him money to spend. He will arguably have a better squad than he had at Lille. Although Lyon only qualified for the Europa League Galtier may feel that is a Competition he could win. Time will tell where Galtier goes very shortly i would think. The question then becomes who replaces him. Rudi Garcia was dispensed from his position as Lyon Manager as expected. Could he ironically replace the man who possibly takes over from him? Garcia has huge experience and was the last Manager to win Lille the title in 2010/2011. There'll be other candidates I'm sure but Garcia could be a possibility.

Whilst Galtier will rightly win many plaudits for Lille's triumph this season, credit should also be given to Sporting Director Luis Campos. Lille's work in the transfer market since Campos arrived in 2017 has been outstanding. In that time they have recruited Nicolas Pépé, Victor Osimhen and Gabriel and sold them on for huge profits. Campos has also seen the arrival of José Fonte, Jonathan Ikoné, Zeki Çelik Jonathan Bamba, Renato Sanches, Yusuf Yazici, Benjamin André, Sven Botman, Jonathan David and Burak Yilmaz. All of which have been mainstays in this league winning team. Yilmaz is surely the signing of the season, having been signed on a free transfer, scoring 18 league goals and weighing in with 5 assists. Sometimes a specific Sporting Director, or Director of Sport/head of recruitment, works at a particular club at a particular time. It is not always the case that a SD is then successful at more than one club though. Steve Walsh was lauded for his recruitment at Leicester City highlighted by that team winning the Premier League in 2016. His work at Everton some time later was absolutely disastrous. All the more impressive then that Campos was Sporting Director at Monaco when they last won the League in 2017. Surely no coincidence and it will be interesting to see if he stays on at Lille. Rumours are already circling that Real Madrid are interested.

Whatever happens during the summer the new coach will have some rebuilding to do. Hopefully though a core of the above players will stay to defend their title and give their best in the Champions League next year. Lille have been exceptional this year defending solidly yet playing attractive, attacking football. It's hard to believe that this was a club in financial turmoil and subject to a takeover in December 2020. They are an example of how many clubs should be run; a good scouting system, development of young players and a manageable wage structure From top to bottom they deserve enormous credit.