Old friends face off in France

The new Ligue 1 season gets up and running on Saturday and while deposed champions Olympique Lyonnais will be desperate to reclaim their crown, many eyes will settle on the tussle between former France team-mates Laurent Blanc and Didier Deschamps, the former looking to steer FC Girondins de Bordeaux to back-to-back titles and the latter having spent big at challengers Olympique de Marseille.

New faces
French sides have found it notoriously difficult to attract players in recent years, but few teams in Europe have been more active than Marseille this summer. Last season's runners-up bade farewell to coach Erik Gerets in May and quickly settled on Deschamps as his successor, making funds available for the former Les Bleus captain to put his own stamp on the playing staff. Enjoying his first coaching role since earning promotion to Serie A with Juventus in 2007, 'Dédé' has brought in ten new faces for a combined outlay of around €40m, though he will have to fare without record capture Lucho González until mid-September due to a collarbone fracture.

Friendly win
Deschamps' mission will be to lead OM to their first silverware since he captained the side to UEFA Champions League triumph in 1992/93. His fellow 1998 FIFA World Cup and UEFA EURO 2000™ winner Blanc will not relinquish Ligue 1 supremacy lightly, however, despite a far less conspicuous summer of transfer dealings. The titleholders have snapped up just three newcomers in goalkeeper Cédric Carrasso from Toulouse FC, defender Michaël Ciani from FC Lorient and CA Osasuna midfielder Jaroslav Plašil, but they delivered an early blow by defeating Marseille 2-1 in a friendly last month.

'Just friendship'
The two championship aspirants will meet again in the league as early as 30 August, giving their respective coaches the chance to renew acquaintances. "'Lolo' is someone I have a lot of time for," said Deschamps. "There's no rivalry between us, just friendship," added Blanc. "We call each other a lot. I congratulated him on getting a post with such a big transfer budget. I even told him that if wants to send a few millions my way, he's free to."

Lyon ambition
The team who have spent the most since last term are Lyon, however, the seven-time champions having paid out a French-record total of around €70m for attacking talents Lisandro López, Bafétimbi Gomis and Michel Bastos, as well as midfielder Aly Cissokho, with Karim Benzema leaving for Real Madrid CF. "We want the title back and to go as far as possible in Europe," explained club president Jean-Michel Aulas, who has stuck with coach Claude Puel for the new campaign.

Kombouaré task
Paris Saint-Germain FC will be looking to break into the top three with a new man in the dugout, with former player Antoine Kombouaré having joined from Valenciennes FC. Elsewhere, Guy Lacombe will hope to steer AS Monaco FC back up the standings in his first year at the Stade Louis II, while Toulouse have held on to last season's top scorer André-Pierre Gignac and will attempt to build on their fourth-placed finish in 2008/09.