The Lyon manager began his nine-month touchline ban at the weekend. His assistant filled in brilliantly

By Get French Football News

“The role of a manager is like that of parents,” began Lyon assistant coach-cum-child minder Jorge Maciel. “You educate your child for the moments when they aren’t with you, not those when they are.” Left at the school gates, Paulo Fonseca hugged his players as they entered the Allianz Riviera, not to see them until after the school day. Having completed the school run, the Lyon manager returned to the bus, put on his glasses, turned on his iPad and waited.

The Portuguese manager will be spending a lot of time away from his players this year. In the dying seconds of Lyon’s narrow 2-1 win over Brest last weekend, he violently confronted referee Benoît Millot after being shown a red card. The referee says Fonseca displayed an “intimidating attitude”, “spiralled out of control” and tried to “head-butt” him.