Their early-season run suggests the lessons have been well absorbed.

The French champions, trying to become the first club from a major European league to win six national titles in succession, have won their last seven competitive matches and seem unstoppable.

At home, they have picked up 19 points from a maximum 21 after seven matches in the best season start in their history and nothing suggests that they might slow down.

"On one side you have Lyon and on the other side you have all the other clubs," said Paris St Germain coach Guy Lacombe, summing up the general feeling in France that Lyon are more than ever in a class of their own.

Shining in Ligue 1 is no longer enough for Lyon, who desperately want to make an impact in Europe after leaving the Champions League in the quarter-finals for the last three seasons.

By outclassing Real Madrid 2-0 before crushing Steaua 3-0 in Bucharest in their opening group matches, coach Gerard Houllier's men are strongly suggesting that they have what it takes to go all the way in the premier event.

"We have improved," said Houllier. "We're playing better and showing more character.

"Of course we are ambitious," the former Liverpool manager added. "We want to win every match we play."

RIGHT FORMULA

Chairman Jean-Michel Aulas, who has turned Lyon from a sleepy provincial club into the powerhouse of French football and arguably the next European giants, has cast around to find the right formula.

From Chelsea, he found out that wealth is a weapon and that ruling over the transfer market, at least domestically, is a key to success.

Like the London club, Lyon, who had never won a French title until their reign started in 2001, illustrate the fact that having money is just as useful as having a history.

"With all the players they have in their squad, they can line up two teams, each of a very high level," said Toulouse coach Elie Baup. "They are also wealthy enough to buy all the players they need."

Aulas, the chairman of a software company, has plenty of managerial skills and has transformed Lyon into a sound business, attracting brilliant players, notably Brazil's midfield artist Juninho.

From Bayern Munich, he learned that top players alone will not win trophies and that it takes time to build a team.

With the exception of Mali midfielder Mahamadou Diarra, who has moved on to Real Madrid, Lyon have kept all the prominent members of the side who won a record fifth consecutive Ligue 1 title last season.

From Barcelona, Aulas realised that a touch of brilliance could do no harm. The kind of magic that Juninho and rising Brazilian forward Fred work every weekend has made the side a treat to watch.

WORKAHOLIC MIDFIELDERS

Aulas has also been inspired by the failure of clubs such as Real Madrid, who found to their cost that a collection of attacking players, no matter how gifted, will not make a team.

The most influential players in Lyon's last two campaigns, Ghana's Michael Essien, now the property of Chelsea, and Diarra were workaholic holding midfielders.

Youngster Jeremy Toulalan, who has joined this year from Nantes and has just been called up by France coach Raymond Domenech for next month's Euro 2008 qualifiers, is now walking in their footsteps.

Aulas was also reminded by several top clubs from foreign leagues that squabbling and scandals should be avoided at any cost.

As a result, the French league has become just as predictable, some would say as boring, as the English and German ones.

The good side to Lyon's rise is that the elite band of clubs capable of winning the Champions League has an exciting new member.