Having waited so long to get their hands on the Ligue 1 title, Marseille will not be keen to give it up easily, but Lyon, Bordeaux, Auxerre and plenty of others will be hoping to make the champions’ title defence a testing one. Ian Holyman looks at the teams aiming to end OM’s reign.
After casting a giant shadow over French football for seven successive seasons, Lyon have not picked up any silverware in the last two, and coach Claude Puel is determined to end that barren run in the coming campaign.
The fine-tuning of the squad at the ex-Lille boss’ disposal has been minimal this summer with Jimmy Briand the only major arrival, drafted in from Rennes to provide support to Lisandro Lopez with Sidney Govou finally departing the Stade Municipal de Gerland.
Bafetimbi Gomis, though, has shown fine pre-season form, and the ex-Saint-Etienne striker could prove an effective trick for Puel to have up his sleeve as he attempts to steer OL to both Ligue 1 and Champions League success.
Auxerre reinforce, Montpellier undermined
That will also be the aim of Jean Fernandez, whose canny man-management coaxed an unheralded Auxerre team into third last season. The loss of Romanian international Daniel Niculae to Monaco could have proved costly had the Burgundy club not immediately compensated for it with the arrival of Anthony Le Tallec, who was a rare bright spot for relegated Le Mans last season, to supply the effective but injury-plagued Ireneusz Jelen.
While Auxerre have managed to retain the Polish international, Montpellier were unable to hold on toVictor Hugo Montaño, their leading scorer last season, and if you add to that the loss of midfield cog Alberto Costa, René Girard’s men look short of being able to sustain a substantial challenge.
Tigana's new Bordeaux vintage?
Bordeaux reached the Champions League quarter-finals last season, but Les Girondins will have no such distractions this time round after fading badly in the second half of the 2009-10 campaign, which they started as champions.
Laurent Blanc’s departure to take over the French national side means the newly-installed man in charge, Jean Tigana, has the unenviable task of trying to fill the void left by Marouane Chamakh’s move to Arsenal and re-motivating a talented squad that seemed to lose its way and its self-belief under his predecessor.
If there is one club that would love to usurp Marseille, it is their arch-rivals Paris Saint-Germain, and - as ever - expectations are high, though only time will tell just how much blind faith has pumped up the pre-season hype in the capital.
Last season’s promise petered out into the scant reward of a French Cup win while last week’s Champions Trophy defeat to OM will also have dampened the enthusiasm. However, bolstered by the arrivals of Mathieu Bodmer (Lyon) and Nenê (Monaco), Antoine Kombouaré has a squad that - at least on paper - looks wholly capable of mounting a serious charge for the championship.
Lille Sow seeds of success, Rennes in race
Rudi Garcia’s Lille - arguably the most entertaining side in Ligue 1 last season - have managed to hold onto Adil Rami, Yohan Cabaye and Rio Mavuba, who provide an excellent foundation on which the more creative players, such as the highly-coveted Gervinho, can perform. If Moussa
Sow, freshly arrived from Rennes, and Pierre-Alain Frau can cap the approach play with the finishing touch in front of goal, the northerners will again be a force to be reckoned with.
Sow’s former side have been one of the most active in an otherwise moribund transfer market, and Cameroon international Georges Mandjeck - brought in from German club Stuttgart - will add much-needed steel to the midfield of Frédéric Antonetti’s side.
Should Asamoah Gyan reproduce the sparkling form he showed at the World Cup, and Montano quickly find his feet in Brittany, then Rennes should also find themselves in the top third of the table, as should Monaco, who have tempted Peter Hansson south from the Stade de la Route de Lorient as they look to build on their solid last campaign.
