He will not play this season, and yet he still weighs on the locker room and the club. Anthony Lopes is dead weight and must be removed, a consultant urges.
The start of the season has once again been complicated for Olympique Lyonnais, even if it is not comparable to last year’s last place. Nevertheless, the defeat at home and in numerical superiority, tipped Pierre Sage’s team to the wrong side, both in terms of accounting and psychology. And in this quagmire, the situation of Anthony Lopes does not help to calm down. This summer, OL confirmed its long-standing choice to entrust the keys to the goalkeeper position to Lucas Perri, who had waited for his chance last season. So out goes Anthony Lopes, who had to find a new club during the transfer window. John Textor even seemed ready to make an effort for that, but the Franco-Portuguese found nothing. Too greedy or not in demand enough, it is difficult to say, but his huge contract in the Rhône did not encourage him to change air.
The banner, the last straw?
And according to columnist Sofiane Zouaoui, OL’s priority must now be to resolve the Anthony Lopes case, by simply removing him from the club. If the goalkeeper, who has the distinction of having been a former ultra of the club, does not say a word in the press officially, the fact that, one evening of cruel defeat during the Olympico, he allowed himself to relay a banner of the ultras (” A Gone here since he was 8 years old deserves better treatment, strength to you Anthony “) in a relaxed manner and without asking questions about the timing shows that he puts his individual case before that of the team.
Behavior that harms the collective, while the “Lyonnais gang” is already suspected of not necessarily pulling OL in the right direction in recent years. Lyon must manage to get Lopes out. No time to deal with unnecessary internal pressure. He has been warned for months that he will be downgraded and given his status and his particular position, it was obvious that he could not be 2. Average goalkeeper, 0 debate. The relay of the banner is really total relaxation. This club is the defense of personal interests and the promotion of friends. Since January, he knows full well that he will no longer be number 1 and it is also a logical sporting decision “, said the columnist for the Club des 5, who is surprised that OL allowed this situation to fester, which inevitably causes some tension given Anthony Lopes’ rage to win and play during his long stint at Lyon.
But it is clear that the goalkeeper born in Givors has not been inundated with offers this summer, and that OL preferred to continue paying his salary even though he does not even occupy a place in the club’s top two goalkeepers in the eyes of the Lyon management.
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