Blessing Malinganiza
IT appears Gennaro Gattuso will be Tino Kadewere’s new coach at seven-time French champion Lyon after the club parted ways with Laurent Blanc on Monday.
Former Chelsea boss, Graham Potter, was in the running but feels the environment is not right for him to return to management by taking charge of Lyon.
The club have only one point in four matches after one draw and three defeats, including a 1-4 home thrashing at the hands of champions Paris Saint-Germain, since the start of the season.
Blanc lasted just 11 months.
Gattusso, in the event he is appointed, will be the fourth coach to take charge of Lyon since Kadewere arrived at the club in January 2020.
Lyon said Blanc left the club by mutual consent alongside assistant coaches Franck Passi and Philippe Lambert.
“Olympique Lyonnais and Laurent Blanc have mutually agreed to end their collaboration with effect from today.
“We would like to thank Laurent Blanc and his staff for their commitment and professionalism over the past 11 months at the helm of the team,” said the club in a press statement.
Jean-Francois Vulliez, who was one of the assistants, has been appointed caretaker coach and will work alongside former Lyon players Jeremie Brechet and Sonny Anderson.
Lyon’s next league match is against promoted Le Havre on Sunday.
Kadewere returned to the club after miserable loan spell at Mallorca in Spain and has made two appearances for his team so far this season.
He started in the 1-4 defeat to PSG, and was substituted at the break, and rose from the bench in their goalless draw against Nice.
He has been working on improving his game and decided against travelling during the current international break to continue with personal training. Kadewere who was tipped to make a move out of the club decided to stay fighting for his position despite an exodus of players.
The club sold more than €80m worth of players this summer and saw a number of others leave for free, with Houssem Aouar joining Roma and forwards Moussa Dembélé and Karl Toko-Ekambi heading to Saudi Arabia.