Moussa Dembele

Your man adopting the Steve McLaren method of speaking when he’s abroad.

 

Can't help but love the big man

 

Think Kyogo has taken his title today.

 

Not till he scores a Van Basten against Man City

 

I was thinking of his Hunskelper title

 

Mate I realised that just as I hit send. Was hoping you didn't pull me on it but * it we are where we are x

 

Still only young, few years in Saudi earn his dosh for life and could still do us a service at 29-31

 

https://www.footmercato.net/a512599...ts-de-lol-sont-tous-incompetents-et-arrogants


Foot Mercato: Today, we feel fulfilled and happy in Saudi Arabia where you are scoring a string of goals (8 goals in 7 games, editor's note). Can we say that you are also more liberated than at Olympique Lyonnais?

Moussa Dembélé: There is no photo on that. In football as in life, when you feel appreciated and supported you are better. Hostility does not scare me when it comes from the adversary. I would even say that it stimulates me. I experienced death threats from Rangers fans before the Glasgow derbies and that didn't stop me from doing the job. But when the hostility comes from your own supporters and it becomes hatred, that's a different story. My last season in Lyon was complicated. I had started well despite the obstacles put in the way by management. I admit that I should and could have done better. But that wasn't the case. I am lucid and objective about my services.


FM: You definitely left the Rhone club this summer. Why did you leave?





MD: Because I had nothing more to do about it. The environment there is unhealthy, not conducive to growth. I left just like Malo (Gusto), Castello (Lukeba) and Bradley (Barcola), who also did well to leave to progress, be in a better dynamic for their development and earn more money. Like Lucas Paqueta or Bruno Guimarães were right to leave. Watch how they have fun! They are adored, respected and enjoy their lives. OL are also very happy to pocket money thanks to them.

FM: What do you remember from your time there?

MD: On a personal level, I had three good seasons and two not great ones. On a collective level, it's mixed. There are ups and downs. We were sometimes very good and sometimes very bad. But that's life, nothing is perfect.

FM: What is your best memory in Lyon? Which is the worst?

MD: I have a lot of good memories. I experienced beautiful emotions. The Champions League semi-final, the air conditioning goal in Saint-Etienne (laughs), the goals against Marseille or Paris. There are lots of beautiful things. The worst are the insults from my own supporters towards my family. Hearing 20,000 people insult my mother and insult me with every touch of the ball is not bearable. Not a single leader tried to calm things down. They all hid and remained silent.

FM: Which player impressed you at OL?

MD: I wasn't particularly impressed with anyone there, with all due respect to my former teammates. It was not at the level of the impression that Dimitar Berbatov or Luis Suarez made on me, whom I was able to meet in my other clubs. But be careful, Alexandre Lacazette, Tanguy Ndombele, Lucas Paqueta, Bruno Guimarães, Nabil Fekir or Memphis Depay, it's top notch level.

FM: The club indicated that it had offered you a contract extension. What is it really ?



MD: The club made an offer in the summer of 2022 which I declined, saying that I was not refusing but that I wanted to give myself time to think and above all to see how things would go during the season. It's normal to want to know what you're getting into, especially knowing the chaotic situation behind the scenes.

Moussa Dembélé empties his bag
FM: Did you feel respect from your leaders?

MD:From some, yes. But others, no. Bruno Cheyrou (former head of the recruitment unit, editor's note) and his interview to say that the players are active, it was a big lack of respect. I don't know where he thought he was that day, maybe on a slave ship or on a cotton field where people are objects or numbers. I am not an asset, I am a human being! You have to respect people. The players are assets and therefore the supporters are what? Consumers? His speech is very dangerous and disrespectful. In the locker room, we all took it as an affront and a lack of respect. And he thought he was smart to come and say either they (the players under contract until 2023, editor's note) extend, or they leave. In the end, no one extended and no one left. He made a fool of himself. There is a way of talking about people and doing things. If he wanted me gone, he had to do things respectfully and correctly. I had to call my agent, find a deal that would suit everyone rather than being smart in an interview. Vincent Ponsot, too, was disrespectful. In February he did an interview saying he had received offers and I refused to leave. But he's lying. If he received offers and didn't tell my agent about them then that's professional misconduct on his part, not mine. I was in negotiations with several clubs in January 2023. If we negotiate with a club, it means we agree to leave, right?! At the time he said that, it was when the supporters had taken a dislike to Houssem (Aouar) and the others. We were barely playing at that time. I admit that our performances were not great but the level of hatred was disproportionate. When Vincent Ponsot does his interview, he knows very well what he is doing. He adds fuel to the fire and stirs up even more hatred among the supporters and at the same time exonerates himself to give himself a good image, like “it's not me, go hit them. They are the bad ones.” His sneaky intervention made everyday life unbearable. There were repeated insults, people came to our house to insult us and so on. The last few months were terrible. Vincent Ponsot has a large share of responsibility since he heated up the supporters. He knew very well what he was doing. I had sensed his sneaky game since the summer of 2022 when he sent his journalist friends to say that I was choosing money by wanting to go free. It's a lot of communication and calculations to manipulate people. The truth is that they all messed up in the management of the club and it has been going on for years. When you look closely, these people are never really criticized because they have their friends in the media or on TV sets who will never give them bad press. Apart from Daniel Riolo, Jérôme Rothen and 3-4 exceptions, the rest is cronyism. They won't talk badly about their friends or ex-teammates. Apart from Daniel Riolo, Jérôme Rothen and 3-4 exceptions, the rest is cronyism. They won't talk badly about their friends or ex-teammates. Apart from Daniel Riolo, Jérôme Rothen and 3-4 exceptions, the rest is cronyism. They won't talk badly about their friends or ex-teammates.

FM: After your departure, several supporters thanked you on social networks. Others were not as friendly, especially since they had already invited you to go last year with Houssem Aouar, Thiago Mendes or Karl Toko Ekambi. What do you think about the treatment of fans towards you?



MD: I put things into perspective. I thank those who supported and thanked me. I understand those who criticized me and I accept the criticism. It allows you to evolve and grow. I will not forgive those who insulted my family. It does not go through. But I move forward and continue my life, as they continue theirs.

FM: You left but Lyon is not doing any better. Why is the club having so many problems?


MD: Yet apparently the problem was Aouar, Dembélé, Thiago Mendes, Toko Ekambi. Before it was Marcelo, Léo Dubois. We had Bertrand Traoré, Maxwel Cornet and so on. I wasn't even playing and people said I was the problem. In fact, you have to understand one thing: the sport is managed by people who don't know football. This is the major problem. They use non-stop communication and manipulation games to confuse the supporters. For example, when they came to talk about the OL DNA project in the summer of 2022, we saw that this is marketing. To tell you the truth, we were laughing about it in the locker room. But the supporters fall for it. Look at the club networks at that time. There were only posts about center players. It was communication and nothing else. There is no long-term footballing project, no vision, only smoke and mirrors. It's catastrophic. They are incompetent even at selling players. Houssem, Memphis, Jason (Denayer), me, without forgetting Pierre Kalulu who is blazing at Milan, all left for free. They are not even able to anticipate so as not to find themselves in this situation. I signed my contract in 2018 in Lyon, they had 5 years to prepare for my departure and it was once I reached the last year that they woke up to say we must leave and said in an interview:“we have the right to patati patata” . Worse still, they say they want to sell me to make money but they take the armband off me for no reason and put me in team 2 at the start. What do you think the clubs will say when they see this? They will say to themselves that Dembélé is up for sale since they put him with team 2. So, if Lyon asks for 20 million euros, everyone will say I give 5 because you have shown publicly that you want to get rid of him. There is no strategy! I'm not a manager but that's the basis. Even that, which is the basis of business, they don't have it! The leaders are all incompetent and arrogant.

The attacker points out OL's problems
FM: We talked about locker room problems recently. Was this the case in your time? Is it difficult to integrate into Lyon?



MD: There is no locker room problem. In any case, this is not the reason for Lyon's problems. The players all get along very well. Integration problems are far from being the major concern. I repeat, we were not good and no one was hiding. It didn't make anyone happy. I don't know any player who is happy to lose or not perform well. And it's not by insulting them that things will get better. Meanwhile, management is silent and hiding. She was silent while Houssem, I and others took it all in the face.

FM: What must be done for OL to become a big club again?

MD:Let it be run by people who know football and have a plan. There is no plan there. There is a football director (Vincent Ponsot, editor’s note) who does not know football. That’s something sick! It's as if I were editor-in-chief of Foot Mercato but I didn't know how to read or didn't know the alphabet. Do you see what a crazy thing this is? There were internal wars between leaders. How do you expect players to perform if it's a mess internally. It's hard to blame a child for not doing well at school if it's a mess at home! This is not an excuse but it is a fact. I spent 5 years at Lyon and I knew 5 different coaches and 3 different sports directors (Juninho, Florian Maurice and Bruno Cheyrou were responsible for recruitment, editor’s note). I don't know if you realize how crazy this is. Three sports directors in 5 years! They fired Laurent Blanc. Before him, it was Peter Bosz and even before him Rudi Garcia, Sylvinho and Bruno Genesio. How many are you going to fire like that before you question yourself? Fabio Grosso arrives but it was also about Graham Potter and Gennaro Gattuso. Between Grosso, Potter and Gattuso there is a difference in style and management. This means that even the choice of coach is made at random without really knowing what style of coach they want and what they need. It is bullshit ! They scared away Juni who had a plan. Personally, I had disagreements with Juninho but he defended the interests of the club with passion and I protected my interests. He fought for me to go to Atlético when I needed to and I will always be grateful to him. He understands what football is, a group, the values of the club etc… We must not forget that Maxence (Caqueret), Malo, Castello, it was Juni who brought them up. He brings back Paqueta, Guimarães, Emerson, it’s world class. He anticipated, he analyzed and he moved forward with a plan. Florian Maurice is also in the same category of leaders who knows his job, football but who has been pushed aside. he analyzed and he moved forward with a plan. Florian Maurice is also in the same category of leaders who knows his job, football but who has been pushed aside. he analyzed and he moved forward with a plan. Florian Maurice is also in the same category of leaders who knows his job, football but who has been pushed aside.

FM: Laurent Blanc was fired several days ago. Why didn't it work for him?



MD: He proved that if he has the players, he can be champion (at Bordeaux and PSG). He's a top coach. But if he doesn't have any serious sporting direction to support him, he won't be able to do magic. We have to stop believing that the problem is White or the coaches or certain players. The problem is much deeper than that. Last winter, Laurent Blanc clearly asked for a midfielder (a No. 6) and we brought back Amin Sarr. I have nothing against Amin, he's a very good guy and a good player. I'm just noticing the situation. And the crazy thing is that they loaned Amin six months later (to Wolfsburg). There is no coherence, no project… but it’s the fault of Dembélé, Aouar, Blanc etc…

FM: Could you have contributed more to this team?

MD: Nothing at all. I was flat and unarmed. It takes much more than one or two players and a new coach for Lyon to get better. Attacking Alex (Lacazette) today is nonsense. Go after the root problem, not the surface.

 

https://www.getfootballnewsfrance.c...utives-they-are-all-incompetent-and-arrogant/

 

Big man’s never been shy to speak his mind

 

Yaaaaaaassssss Mousssa!!!!!