We’re going back to Lille. It’ll probably be quieter than last time.
One of the good things about being in Europe regularly means that you get to know foreign climes as well as some of the regular away trips in the league. Eventually it’ll be Madrid and Munich but for now it’s a return to Lille, complete with the obligatory crap northern France weather.
If you’re going there you’ve left already so there’s not much point talking about the journey or what you’ve got in store when you arrive. Lille is still in Flanders, which means good beer and a reputation for food although we’ve got more Michelin stars than they have. Charles de Gaulle and Didier Six were both from Lille as was Isabella of Hainault, who as we all know was the first wife of the twelfth century king Phillip II.
The ground is the fourth-biggest in France and we should have had 2,500 tickets plus as many as can get in everywhere else and keep quiet. Since we played them last time they’ve done as well in their league as we have in ours. They’ve got a new head coach and a lot of new players, including Olivier Giroud, who always used to score against us but is now also drawing his pension.
Their head coach was a manager in China for a couple of years and that’s the only interesting thing about him. They’ve got a Head of High Performance, who would have had his work cut out with us for the past few weeks.
Then again we might, just possibly, with a bit of luck have our very own one-man high performance midfield dynamo back. We’ll also have our one-man Argentinian shithousery department so expect a bit of liveliness behind his goal. Amadou Onana and Lucas Digne will also be going back to their old club.
Last time we were there we won without too many problems so we may as well do the same again.
