Lyon need a new head coach, but the Crystal Palace manager their fans want back hasn’t even been contacted

Lyon are about to lose their head coach, and plenty of their supporters have spent the last 24 hours dreaming about Pierre Sage coming home. The man himself is still at Selhurst Park, though, and the French club have not picked up the phone.

Sage’s position at Crystal Palace is far from settled after a miserable start to the season, and that uncertainty is exactly what got the Lyon fanbase excited. Paulo Fonseca is on the verge of leaving for Sporting, who parted ways with Rui Borges on Sunday, so a vacancy is opening up in Ligue 1.

According to L’Equipe, however, the 47-year-old is not part of Lyon’s thinking. Not at this stage, anyway.

Why did Lyon fans want Pierre Sage back?

It’s not hard to see the appeal. Sage was in charge at Lyon from November 2023 to January 2025 and took charge of 56 matches, winning 33 and drawing nine of them.

He then spent last season at RC Lens, and it was a big one: he won the Coupe de France with them and finished second in Ligue 1 to reach the Champions League. That was the form that persuaded Palace to hand him the job when Oliver Glasner decided to step down at the end of last season.

Fonseca, meanwhile, was in tears on Sunday after Lyon’s 2-0 win over Angers, knowing he is about to head for Sporting. Lyon’s efforts to keep him have failed, and supporters quickly turned to social media to call for a familiar face.

What has Lyon’s sporting director decided?

The answer from France is blunt. L’Equipe writes that sporting director Matthieu Louis-Jean “must find a new coach who will not be Pierre Sage, still in charge at Crystal Palace and who has not been contacted.”

Lyon are already looking at a few options to replace Fonseca, and Carlos Vicens is the name expected to take over. That should end the talk of a quick return to the Groupama Stadium, at least for now.

How bad has it been at Crystal Palace?

Bad enough for the rumours to start. The Conference League winners have only two wins and six defeats from their nine Premier League games, which leaves them 18th, level on points with 17th-placed Manchester United. The latest loss came at Tottenham, where De Zerbi’s teenager left a Palace defender on the floor in a 2-0 Spurs win.

Last week, former France international Jérôme Rothen laid the blame for Palace’s struggles squarely at the manager’s door, and there has been talk of the Eagles looking to cut ties with him. So far, that hasn’t happened.

The noise around the squad hasn’t helped either, with Nottingham Forest ready to rival Man United for Jean-Philippe Mateta ahead of January.

Is Pierre Sage safe at Crystal Palace?

Lyon closing the door doesn’t make his job any safer. If anything, it removes an easy way out for both sides. Had Lyon come calling, Palace could have let him go without the cost and awkwardness of a sacking. Now, if the board decide a change is needed, they’ll have to make that call themselves.

We’d still give him a little more time. A coach who won a cup and finished second with Lens last season hasn’t forgotten how to coach in a few months, and nine games is a small sample for someone who is still in his first season in English football. But 18th is 18th, and with Manchester United just as low, the room for error is shrinking quickly. He needs results before the board’s patience runs out.