After a 3.5 hour meeting this Friday morning as part of a highly anticipated meeting with the DNCG, the president of Olympique Lyonnais John Textor, accompanied by its general director Laurent Prud'homme, wanted to be reassuring upon his exit . In front of the media, he tried to remove doubts about the economic situation considered worrying by his club. Not without maintaining doubt about the future of several players with high potential.
In the eye of the storm a few days after an economic press release which did not suggest the best for OL, Lyon president John Textor gave his grand oral, Friday November 15 in the morning, in front of the DNCG (national management of control and management). A crucial meeting where, accompanied by his general director Laurent Prud'homme, the American businessman tried to reassure by exposing facts – and figures – going in this direction.
Textor “confident in the numbers”
“The meeting went well, the DNCG took a general picture of our organization more than all the noise it has been making for several weeks,” he began by explaining to the media at the end of his meeting. Before continuing: “This year has been good. We issued a press release stating that Eagle's turnover increased by 70 million euros, cash flow by 44 million euros and income of 73 million euros, but there were two paragraphs at the bottom of the press release which caused a lot of confusion. The different companies were not taken into account, and there was no review of the parent company. and our assumptions.”
“So all the money from our successes elsewhere goes into the same bucket and sometimes Brazil has to help France, which will really happen over the next few months. We shouldn't just look at Olympique Lyonnais, but the fact that we are a group with several clubs (…) I am confident in our figures and the good news is that the DNCG is independent, they are very intelligent people, accountants, financiers who can look at the figures “We will generate several million dollars of cash in the coming months, we are taking a sustainable approach.”
John Textor took the opportunity to specify that all the slides presented during this meeting with the DNCG will be made public this Saturday and that he was going to make the presentation himself in front of the cameras in Lyon.
Cherki or Fofana sold this winter? “People should not be afraid”
However, the American blew hot and cold a little more when discussing the possible sale in the coming weeks of players with high market value like Rayan Cherki or Malick Fofana. If he did not validate the hypothesis of their departure, he nevertheless clarified that everyone was transferable…
“It is always incorrect to talk about certain names in particular. This is what introduces fear into the minds of our fans. We have two big squads. Players can go on the market at any time, depending on our footballing needs. We are optimizing our numbers. People must not be afraid (…) We are not talking about your favorite player, the best player, without having someone to replace them and play better. a few points from a place in the Champions League. Our goal is to go to the Champions League this season (…) We are not going to compromise the strength of this squad.
CMP with Clément Brossard
