Manchester City is often seen by the European sport media as a good example of how a football club should be run.
Not many clubs have the financial strength of the Premier League side, yet a lot of what they do off the pitch isn’t prohibitively expensive in the scheme of running a top football club.
Tuesday’s edition of L’Equipe has an article on French clubs and free-kicks, and talks about the reluctance of Ligue 1 sides to hire specialist coaches for that task. A lot is usually left to individual players to put in their own extra training alone, and Lyon’s Memphis Depay is put over as an example of this.
Pascal Grosbois, a former midfielder who is now a specialist set-piece coach, was approached for comment and he was very clear when explaining things aren’t professional enough in that area right now.
Grosbois went on to mention Manchester City specifically: “L1 clubs do not yet see the usefulness of a coach dedicated to set pieces. While at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola did not hesitate to hire a Frenchman, Nicolas Jover. It’s a shame, because there is untapped potential.”
This is undoubtedly one area in which French clubs could catch up with their Premier League rivals, with the relative cost of a specialist coach’s wages not being a huge drain on finances.
