FC Lorient's Youth Development Philosophy

Many people outside of France (or who basically don’t have much knowledge regarding French football) – get to know French outfit FC Lorient these last few years, mostly because of their big sales of Raphael Guerreiro to Borussia Dortmund and Matteo Guendouzi to Arsenal.

These two transfers, though didn’t exactly include such an outstanding amount of fee (around 10.8million Euros for Guerreiro and only around 7.2million Euros for Guendouzi) actually are still considered big sales due to the clubs they are selling to and of course, the immense amount of talents and potential these two players have – which was why the 18million Euros transfer of Didier Ndong to Sunderland in the summer of 2016/17 (the same transfer window when Guerreiro was transferred to Borussia Dortmund)  didn’t really get so much attention despite literally being their biggest ever sale in terms to transfer fee.

What’s similar to these three transfers though is that none of these three players actually come directly from the youth setups of Lorient – but instead bought for a very low amount of fee, developed properly, played regularly, and then sold for a ridiculous percentage of profit.

The same kind of practice can also be seen in the transfers of Laurent Koscielny, Vincent Aboubakar, Kevin Gameiro, Lamine Kone, Denis Bouanga, Jordan Ayew, and perhaps for some of you older football fans, you might know Jean-Claude Darcheville of course, who was sold to Girondins de Bordeaux for an impressive 8.1million Euros (which remained their record sale for a decade) in the summer of 2002.

This kind of transfer practice is of course quite common now with big clubs like AS Monaco, Borussia Dortmund, Benfica, Porto, PSV Eindhoven, and Ajax being such prominent figures of so-called selling clubs due to their prolificacy in buying cheap young starlets and selling them in the form of much-upgraded championship-winning superstars for perhaps ten folds of their original value.

This, of course, doesn’t directly translate to FC Lorient’s poor youth development setups which makes them have to buy youth talents from somewhere else.

Lorient actually has a pretty decent youth development setup. Some big names have actually come from their youth setups, namely Southampton’s tireless box-to-box midfielder Mario Lemina and former Marseille man, Andre-Pierre Gignac who’s currently plying his trade in Mexico with Tigres UANL.

I can’t actually find any other big names aside from those two who is purely a youth product of Lorient, but I’ve managed to notice that lately, their youth development game is on a rapid rise.

After struggling in the midst of the 2016/17 season with only 2 wins and a very underwhelming 9 losses under manager Sylvain Ripoll, Lorient decided to sack the French manager. Franck Haise took care of the team for a short time before handing the managerial spot to Bernard Casoni who was asked to at least bring the team out of the relegation zone. Still no success.

Lorient was relegated that season and Casoni was sacked. He was replaced by former France international Mickael Landreau.

Things were just “okay” under Mickael Landreau, but they definitely need more than just that to secure a promotion. With key players leaving the club and their lack of financial muscle leaving them no choice but trust on the youth.

Landreau started promoting and giving more and more game times to youth players and this season it seemed to have finally paid off.

After a mid-table finish last season, Lorient are now in the contention for a promotion – being third place in the Ligue 2 table with 9 more matches to go. The last thing they’d want is, of course, a slip and now they are trusting on their youth in combination with their more experienced players to keep the stability and go on to secure a promotion.

Two of the most promising youngsters currently at his disposal are goalkeeper Ilan Meslier and Julien Ponceau. Both of them are 2000-born and are incredibly talented – it would honestly be foolish to say otherwise.

Ilan Meslier, who has only made his debut in August in a Coupe de la Ligue win against Valenciennes has been truly, truly impressive so far. Keeping a superb 9 clean sheets and only conceding 17 goals out of a total 20 appearances across all competitions this season, perhaps robbing the no.1 spot from Montenegrin goalkeeper Danijel Petkovic. AS Monaco have actually enquired for his services in the summer transfer window – but he rejected them anyway, saying that though the prospects of playing in Ligue 1 are quite tempting, the most important thing for him right now to progress is to work hard, develop, and of course get some much-needed game time. He did say he might have a change of plans though. Now that Chelsea are keeping their eyes on him, he’ll have something to think about – especially if Lorient didn’t manage to secure promotion this season.

Julien Ponceau, a very versatile player who can play anywhere in the midfield as well as upfront has seen his price skyrocket after some highly impressive performances with Lorient. Being a central player, but occasionally being deployed in wider areas, Ponceau is a quick-footed, tricky, technically proficient, and intelligent player. His rather stupendous 2 goals and 1 assist tally in a total of 20 matches in all competitions for Lorient this season has attracted the eyes of several European giants, one of them is identified as Italian outfit Inter Milan.

Several players who are actually worth mentioning are Pierre-Yves Hamel, Alexis Claude-Maurice, Franklin Wadja as well as Yoane Wissa, who have contributed significantly to the club’s current impressive run in the competition.

Hamel, a 24-year-old pure striker, seemed to be a target-man –  is the man with the goalscoring instinct, the clinically that was very much-needed by Lorient. He has scored an outstanding 15 goals and created one more in 28 matches this season. Topping the scoring charts of the Bretagne-based club after having done the very same for his current employers the previous season with 10 goals and an assist in 29 games. He has apparently improved a lot this season. Though originally a youth product of Stade Rennais, Hamel still had to work his way through the youth ranks of Lorient after being brought in for free when he was a 19-year-old.

Alexis Claude-Maurice was a youth product of Lorient. He was handed his debut on the 4th of August 2017, coming in as a substitute in the last three minutes of the Ligue 2 match against Gazelec Ajaccio. He was given his first start four days later, playing as an AM in the Coupe de la Ligue match against Stade Lavallois. He ended that season with 23 games to his name, scoring 3 goals in the process. He has absolutely crushed it this season, scoring 9 goals and providing 3 assists to be the second top in the club’s goalscoring charts, just behind Hamel. He has improved very much this season and seeing that he’s only 20, there will definitely be some space for improvements. I’ll expect something exciting coming to him in the coming seasons if he can keep this kind of form going.

Meanwhile, both Franklin Wadja and Yoane Wissa aren’t exactly the youth exponents of Lorient and haven’t really been that long in the squad either. Both entered the Ligue 2 side in the 2017/18 season, with the former coming from Fontenay-Foot-Vendee on a free transfer while the latter came from Angers SCO with the transfer fee of around 1.8million Euros.

Franklin Wadja has been an absolutely solid midfielder this season, winning the ball in midfield, linking up the play, helping the team progress up the field. Seemed to be played as a ball-winning midfielder sometimes and a box-to-box some other times.

Meanwhile, Yoane Wissa has been an impressive creative force for Lorient. Scoring 3 goals and providing 5 assists in a total of 29 appearances across all competitions this season. His quick, clever movements, as well as a brilliant mind for creating chances, have made him an important part of Mickael Landreau’s strong squad.

This article was published originally on Football-Wonderkids.co.uk