Ligue 1: Gérard Lopez, angel or demon in Bordeaux?

It was just a year ago. After a long summer soap opera, Gérard Lopez became, via his company Jogo Bonito, majority shareholder of the Girondins de Bordeaux. It was the time when the former boss of Lille was aiming for the top 10 of Ligue 1. Today, the fifty-something businessman in new technologies, with dual Spanish and Luxembourg nationality, born in the Grand Duchy, is still at the head of the club, but on the lower floor, where Bordeaux had not dived for thirty years. A failure ? Yes, capital letter, because the Girondins, undermined by multiple internal conflicts and by disastrous choices (including that of the recruitment of coach Vladimir Petkovic, 300,000 euros for a three-year contract and fired after six months) finished last. A historic flop because Bordeaux had not been relegated sportingly for sixty-two years.