There were odd flashes of promise: a win over Real Madrid in the Champions League, a derby victory over Inter, but by and large, Fonseca seemed lost in Italy, his principled approach failing to reach (in particular) the team’s most talented players (Theo Hernández and Rafael Leão, for example), leaving the team swimming in mid-table mediocrity, despite a rather more impressive Champions League copybook.
A tilt at the title is all but impossible given PSG’s lead and they are frustratingly out of the Coupe de France, but a spot in next season’s Champions League, whether via the Europa League or a place in the top four, is still very much on the table, testament to his ability to get his team playing positively and pulling in the same direction – so long as the squad is absent of egos.
This is, of course, the level of respect that should be afforded a player of 30 years old, who has won the Champions League, World Cup and five Bundesliga titles, but as it didn’t come naturally to Sage, one has to again wonder how the worldliness of Fonseca can continue to benefit this Lyon side.
While his five months in Milan will have landed rather ignominiously, the more germane question as it relates to Lyon is not whether he could corral moody stars who saw themselves as above the machinations of manager, but whether he could get a team whose roster has a decidedly attacking bent playing in a positive fashion.
Under Paulo Fonseca, Les Gones look well and truly on their way to shaking off the malaise that hung about the club, a combination of their dire financial straits and the dismissal of Fonseca’s predecessor, the beloved Pierre Sage.
