Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas has said that he would like head coach Remi Garde to remain at the club beyond the expiry of his contract this summer, but has admitted that he was unsure whether he would.

Aulas said that Garde has done a lot of good since being at the club, especially his work with the young players, so his preference would be not to have to look for a new coach in the summer.

"He's got so much quality that should he leave that would spell bad news for Olympique Lyonnais," Ligue1.com quotes Aulas as saying. "It would be even harder as the strategy is based on the good work he did with the youth system. We're going to try to convince him to stay.

"There's a lot of integrity in Remi's reflections. He needs to find balance as he has an extremely rich personal life. It's to his credit and that's why I told him he could take all the time he needed to think until the end of the season.

"We hope his decision will be a positive one, and if that's not the case we'll talk over with him how he can stay at the club so that he'll be there when we need him."

Lyon take on Marseille in Ligue 1 on Sunday evening.