Ajax, Basel and Lyon. Three traditional clubs that are languishing at the bottom of their respective league tables. What is the cause of their current woes?

Traditional clubs of their countries. Some of the most historically successful clubs in local football history have now hit rock bottom. Not figuratively, but literally. Ajax, Basel and Lyon are all in the bottom half of their respective league tables.

If for some reason you stopped watching football at the end of last season and now looked at the European league tables, you would most likely be left in shock.

Tottenham Hotspur at the top of the English league, Girona from the second position chasing the famous Real Madrid, who only hold the first place thanks to a better score, or the fact that PSG is not the league leader in France. Looking at the French Ligue 1, you would probably be interested in a completely different team.

Olympique Lyon are at the bottom of the table after an incomplete tenth round with three points from three draws so far. It has lost all its other matches and is therefore seven points short of the first non-relegation position.

The French club was founded seventy-three years ago, but has been collecting its greatest successes since the beginning of the twenty-first century, when it celebrated a total of seven league championships between 2002 and 2008.

Subsequently, it has been a regular participant in European competitions despite its league failures. The turning point came in the 2021/2022 season, when Lyon finished as high as eighth. A year later in seventh, and now languishing in last place.

The club’s financial plans envisaged regular participation in European competitions and preferably, of course, in the Champions League. The financial losses caused by their non-participation were mitigated by expensive sales, which were not compensated by similarly ambitious signings.

In the last transfer period, Lyon left Bradley Barcola, Castello Lukeba, Romain Faivre, or Malo Gusto, whose sales cost them around 130 million euros. Houssem Aouar or Moussa Dembélé also left as free agents, footballers that could have been worth a lot of money if sold in time.

Management spent just under €20 million on the arrivals. The imbalance between departures and arrivals is therefore more than evident.

Ajax and Basel

In the case of these two, we are talking about the most successful club in Dutch history and the second most successful club in Swiss history in terms of the number of league titles won. You can read about the problems of Ajax, who almost peeked into the Champions League final five years ago, here.

Basel are also having a season of horror so far, languishing at the bottom of the table with just five points won. Their last loss at Lausanne 0:3 was their eighth defeat in the current edition of the Swiss Super League.

Basel have the worst defence in the league in company with Winterthur, having conceded twenty-five goals in eleven games played.

The Swiss big club last won the league title in the 2016/2017 season, but in the following years they have easily secured the European Cup with their position. It was no different before the start of the current one. The failure of the current season seemed to be foreshadowed by the elimination of the Kazakh Tobol in the preliminary round of the Conference League.

In the case of this club, we can perhaps talk about the inappropriate choice of strengthening the squad and the lack of a large number of new faces. The last league roster consisted of seven new faces.

The miserable results have not been stopped by the new coach Timo Schultz, who took over Basel at the beginning of July and the club is now led for the second time in the last three months by Heiko Vogel, whose primary position was the club’s sporting director.

The three traditional sides have a huge job ahead of them to turn the unflattering situation around and get back on track. Any setbacks from this season could have a disastrous effect on the running of the clubs for years to come.

Source: Livesport, Transfermarket, Wikipedia