Hugo Lloris Is Being Confusing + Euro 2008 Squads

By: Inara | May 28th, 2008

Hugo Lloris has totally confused the media around on their ears. Four days ago, he was going to Milan. Then yesterday, he was going to Lyon. Today, he’s going to Milan. But Lloris says that he’ll decide where he’s going tomorrow…

I think everyone who reads this blog knows that I’ve had my heart set on Lloris since like forever. He’s my dream signing. He’s the guy that can help complete Lyon’s squad. And goalkeepers don’t get much more perfect than him.

The logical decision for Lloris is to come to Lyon. At 21 years of age, he admitted that it would be better for him to stay in France than go somewhere foreign. Plus Lyon will be the Champions League while Milan will be competing in the glorious UEFA Cup.

He also has to go someplace where he can overtake Steve Mandanda in the France NT pecking order (every French Lyon player gets selected buy Raymond Domenech…it’s part of the Holy Scripture). All he has to do is see who was called up for Euro 2008 today to get the picture.

Even Gregory Coupet called Lloris the best possible successor for him. And Coupet isn’t one to give praise lightly.

Unfortunately, Lyon couldn’t start talking to Lloris until Coupet confirmed that he was going to leave. That gave Milan a lot of time to sweeten the pot – and let’s get real, 99.5 percent of the time, Milan > Lyon. By the time Lyon contacted Lloris, rumor was that he had already come to personal terms with Milan.

But the battle isn’t over yet. Milan are in a bit of a sticky situation in that they already have four goalkeepers in their squad. Dida refuses to leave until the end of his contract, Christian Abbiati just returned from loan at Atletico, Zeljko Kalac looks to be staying, and no one even knows who Valerio Fiori is. So before they can get Lloris, they have to offload at least one keeper (word on the street is that Milan are trying to give Dida to Nice…that’s good news for the other 19 L1 squads).

Lyon have offered 10m for Lloris, which is one million more than Nice’s asking price, while Milan have offered only 7m, which is two million less than what Nice want. But the final decision is up to Lloris.

Let’s hope he makes the right one.

In other news, final squads have been announced for Euro 2008. Lyon are the club contributing the most players with 11 participating in the tournament. See full list here.

France: Gregory Coupet, Francois Clerc, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Sebastien Squillaci, Jeremy Toulalan, Sidney Govou, Karim Benzema.

Italy: Fabio Grosso.

Sweden: Kim Kallstrom.

Switzerland: Patrick Muller. YAY!!!

Czech Republic: Milan Baros.

You gotta feel for Hatem Ben Arfa, who is the only pre-selected Lyon player who failed to make the final cut. Unfortunately for him, Bafetimbi Gomis and Samir Nasri had terrific games yesterday, so there was no room for him. This is surely the nail in the coffin for him. I can’t imagine him even considering staying at Lyon any longer after the last two crappy months he’s had..