Little Pieces of News

By: Inara | September 15th, 2007

Sorry for the deluge of posts, but now that international week is over, there is suddenly so much to write about. I’m also in a strangely buoyant blog mode. I think it was because I went to see Brazil play Mexico a few nights back, and having finally fulfilled one of my life’s ambitions (seeing Kaka score), I don’t feel like doing “real” work anymore.

Gossip and/or minor bits of news:

* Marseille is suing Francois Clerc and demanding 3 million euros in damages. The story behind this is that in February 2006, Clerc, who would have been out of contract that summer, signed a pre-contract with Marseille, and then a few weeks later, accepted a contract extension with Lyon that doubled the wages Marseille were offering him. The LFP cleared the transfer at the time, but Marseille appealed, and for various reasons the outcome of this decision has been delayed for nearly two years. New court date is January 22, 2008.

* Damien Plessis, a former CFA player, who went to Liverpool on deadline day, said that he “wasted” two years of his life at Lyon. Plessis, who never made a first team appearance for Lyon, decided that if he is going to play in the reserves, he might as well do it at Liverpool. Which I totally understand, because obviously the EPL CFAs > L1 CFAs. Damien, I wish you the best of luck in dislodging the 19 other midfielders at Liverpool, but at the end of the day, you weren’t asked to play on OL’s senior team because you weren’t good enough.

* Karim Benzema is currently the best striker in L1. He is also the youngest person ever to occupy the top striker spot. ::hearts Karim::

* I was alarmed to discover that the Rodrigo Palacio to Lyon rumors are still alive, despite the fact that the transfer window ended just two weeks ago. I personally don’t see Palacio as a solution to any of Lyon’s problems, and in fact he might increase them because he would be the lone Argentine among five Brazilians. But what do I know?

* Another Argentine that Lyon have their eye on is Ezequiel Lavezzi, who is currently playing with Napoli.

* LOLZ at the latest Fred rumor. Apparently, Lyon will offer Fred + 15 million euros to Roma in January, in exchange for Mancini. Umm…haha? This isn’t the first time that Fred was linked with Roma (he pissed off Aulas last year by offering himself to Roma so he could get away from Sylvain Wiltord). I know Lyon wanted Mancini, but why would they trade one of their few strikers to add another winger to their ranks? And it would be stupid to do so in January, when both players will be cup-tied. So for those of you hoping that the rumor is true, sorry, we are still stuck with Fred for a while.

* Gerard Houllier has been awarded the post of Technical Director of the French Football Federation (a post he’s occupied from1989-1998), which means that he’s in charge of all national levels (it also means he’s Raymond Domenech’s boss). Houllier is the long term replacement of Aime Jacquet, who retired last year. And he will be earning a shitload of money.

* Check out the new format of The Offside. The blogs are now divided by league, which you can find at the top of every page. The France Offside is pretty sweet.