Lorient president Loïc Féry: 'Watch out, because Ligue 1 is coming'

Lorient are back in Ligue 1 for the first time in three years and the club’s president is expecting big things

By Get French Football News for the Guardian Sport Network

The Ligue 1 table has an intriguing look after four rounds of fixtures, with Lyon and PSG well off the pace as they try to recover from their exploits in the Champions League last month. Newly promoted Lorient are also hoping to shoot up the table soon. Having won the Ligue 2 title last season, their return to the top flight has been something of a rude awakening. After three years of trying to escape Ligue 2, they now face a relegation battle to stay out of the second division.

The club’s owner and president, Loïc Féry, has certainly provided the team with adequate financial backing this summer. Lorient have already spent €20m on seven new players and Féry is keen to keep spending in the window. “I don’t think there will be many clubs spending at this level, except PSG and Nice, but we needed it,” says Féry. “Spending money doesn’t guarantee you to stay up. It doesn’t guarantee you anything except the obligation to face specific payments in the following years. It is all about what you make with those players and what the coach is going to do with them, but clearly the way clubs are evolving, you need more working capital to invest. It becomes a more capital-intensive process. For that, clubs need different financial partners to the ones we needed 10 years ago.”

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from Football | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/sep/25/lorient-president-loic-fery-watch-out-ligue-1-is-coming