Lorient are climbing the Ligue 1 table but losing their manager is a risk

“Why can’t we beat everyone?” asked Lorient owner Bill Foley earlier this month. It’s not the kind of fighting talk you are accustomed to hearing from a newly promoted side but, given that they have already beaten Lens, Lyon, Monaco, Rennes, and now Marseille at home, it is justified.

Lorient toyed with Marseille during their 2-0 win on Saturday, eliciting “olés” from the crowd as they knocked the ball around. The fans at the Stade du Moustoir are used to being treated. Lorient have lost just twice at home in the last two seasons. Not even Paris Saint-Germain took all three points when they visited earlier in the campaign. Marseille’s sporting director, Medhi Benatia, launched into a tirade after the match, denouncing his players’ performances as a “scandal”, but he should have shown more respect for opponents who have defied the odds this season.

This was always going to be a special season for Lorient but not many expected them to be closer to the Champions League places than the relegation zone with four games to play. They are looking up rather than down in what is their centenary year.

Loïc Fery, who was the club’s majority shareholder until January, sold his shares to Black Knight Football Club (BKFC), which also owns Bournemouth in the Premier League as well as Auckland FC in New Zealand and Portuguese top-flight club Moreirense. Prior to becoming Lorient’s sole shareholder, BKFC already owned a 40% stake in the club. It was this investment that helped the Cherries to sign Eli Junior Kroupi, who has excelled in his first season in the Premier League.

Foley arrived with big ambitions, saying the takeover would make the club “more aggressive” in going after their goals. “The objective has always been European football,” he said. “I don’t know if that will be the Champions League. It is a very ambitious goal, but I don’t see any reason why we can’t be in the Europa League or the Europa Conference League. I’m not satisfied with playing a supporting role. My aspirations are high. We will play in Europe and we will make the necessary investment to make Lorient a serious actor in Ligue 1.”

Talk is cheap. When Ineos bought Nice in 2019, Jim Ratcliffe said the club would soon be challenging PSG. They haven’t got close and are in serious danger of being relegated this season. It is a cautionary tale for Lorient.

It is why Féry, who remains club president, and sporting director Laurent Koscielny repeatedly speak of “sustainability”; Féry added that BKFC’s evolution in becoming the sole owner of the club would be the guarantor of that. Féry’s decision to sell his share to Foley and BKFC was not unanimously popular with Lorient fans. A small “Foley out” banner is hung in the stands. In a country as culturally diverse as France, regional identities become intertwined with their clubs, causing friction when they become enveloped in a multi-club model. Strasbourg is a case in point.

Foley is doing his best to reassure those who are sceptical. “We aren’t horrible Americans who want to destroy everything,” he says. “Lorient isn’t a satellite club to Bournemouth. I don’t like that expression. It isn’t my vision. In my mind, they are equals. Lorient exists on its own.” Foley doesn’t want to “destroy everything”, but there will be changes in the summer. Olivier Pantaloni, who left Ajaccio in 2024 after a decade at the club, brought Lorient back into Ligue 1 at the first time of asking and is the architect of the club’s recent rise.

Despite being a stalwart of French football, he has kept up with the times. Lorient, very conservative off the ball, are innovative when they have it, with their split centre-backs often sitting on the last line of the opposition defence. Opponents have struggled to disrupt Lorient’s build-up. Their record, just three defeats in their last 23 games in all competitions, attests to that. A few players have stood out – notably Pablo Pagis, Arsene Kouassi and Bamba Dieng – but no figure is as central to the success as the manager.

You might think Lorient would be desperate to retain Pantaloni, but he has not felt that burning desire from the club. “I signed under conditions that clearly showed there were many doubts about me – I still feel that distrust, and that is why I refuse to work in these conditions,” he said earlier this month, confirming he would leave at the end of the season. Will Still, the former Southampton, Lens and Reims manager, has been touted as a potential replacement.

Olivier Pantaloni will leave Lorient at the end of the season. Photograph: Loïc Venance/AFP/Getty Images

There could also be changes within the club’s hierarchy in the summer. If Lorient retain their ninth-place standing in Ligue 1, it will be their highest finish for more than a decade. Foley is presenting a bright future, too. Despite the desolate financial situation in French football, he talks about Lorient being a buyer rather than a seller and wants the club to become the finishing school for Breton talents.

It is a rosy picture, one that Pantaloni has helped paint. Allowing him to leave feels like a mistake, but Lorient are emboldened after their recent success. Time will tell whether placing their faith in the durability of the new project rather than the Corsican manager is the right choice.

Talking points

Luis Enrique rang the changes after PSG’s comprehensive victory over Liverpool in midweek, with six of those who started at Anfield dropping to the bench. For all of PSG’s strengths, depth is not necessarily one of them. Lucas Hernández, Illia Zabarnyi, Lucas Beraldo and Gonçalo Ramos are significant downgrades on their starting counterparts – as they showed in a surprise 2-1 defeat to Lyon at the Parc des Princes. PSG missed a string of chances, as well as a Ramos penalty. In contrast, Lyon were ruthless in the first half. Afonso Moreira set up Endrick for the first goal and the favour was returned as Moreira hit a second on the counterattack with under 20 minutes on the clock. The big guns came off the bench and one of them, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, pulled a goal back deep in injury time, but PSG could not complete the comeback.

The same cannot be said for Lens. Like Lyon, Toulouse raced into a lead, going 2-0 up within 15 minutes, but they had a man sent off two minutes later and soon had their backs against the wall. It was a valiant effort but their resistance was broken at the hour mark. When Adrien Thomasson restored parity six minutes later, the third felt inevitable, but they would have to wait until injury time and a goal from Ismaelo Ganiou to get it. Having registered 42 shots on goal, the most in Ligue 1 since the 2006-07 season, Lens deserved their 3-2 win. They have closed the gap at the top of the table to just one point.

This is an article by Get French Football News