Mercato Review

By: Inara | February 4th, 2008

With the winter transfer window now shut (at least for another four months), it’s time to see what Lyon have to say for themselves. It boggles me to say this, but Lyon’s winter spending this year was in excess of €24m. In contrast, Lyon earned only €3.6m from the sale of a single player.

If you stretch out the purchases for this entire season, Lyon’s spending goes up to a whopping €63.5m. The amount of players sold also go up, to about €65m. It’s the first time in a long time when income and expenditures are balanced.

OUT:

Claudio Caçapa (free agent to Newcastle United)
Florent Malouda (€21m to Chelsea)
Alou Diarra (€7.75m to Bordeaux)
Éric Abidal (€15m to Barcelona)
Tiago Mendes (€13m to Juventus)
Jérémy Berthod (€2m to AS Monaco)
Gregory Bettiol (€330k to Troyes)
Mourad Benhamida (free agent to Montpellier)
Rémy Riou (€800k to Auxerre)
Sylvain Wiltord (€1.5m to Rennes)
Nadir Belhadj (€3.6m to RC Lens)
Fábio Santos (6 month loan to São Paulo)
Milan Baros (6 month loan to Portsmouth)
Loïc Rémy (6 month loan to Len)
Sandy Paillot (6 month loan to Grenoble)

At first glance, the list of departures does make you wince, doesn’t it? But look at the list closely. Most of the players who left were simply the fat cut out of the squad. Claudio Cacapa and Jeremy Berthod had no future at the club while Sylvain Wiltord had behavioral problems that had him butting heads with the management. Gregory Bettiol, Mourad Benhamida, and Remy Riou were youth players who couldn’t get into the first team. Nadir Belhadj left in search of more playing time.

Lyon also loaned out four players. No one knows about the futures of Milan Baros and Fabio Santos, though common consensus is that neither of them would be terribly missed. Loic Remy and Sandy Paillot are good enough prospects that Lyon refused to sell them this January despite having interested buyers, but with the already stacked manpower (at least up front), they wouldn’t have gotten much playing time. But their loans mean they will return to Lyon in six months with more experience under their belts.

The big three exits are of course our most profitable ones – Florent Malouda, Eric Abidal, and Tiago. While it would have been nice if they had stayed – and Lyon did try to keep them – the bottom line was that they were determined to leave France. We all know that you can’t force a player to stay and then expect him to perform well for you. We already saw Abidal’s mind wandering during his last year at Lyon. So Aulas did what any smart man would do – make the best out of it.

IN:

Mathieu Bodmer (€6.5m from Lille)
Fabio Grosso (€7m from Internazionale)
Nadir Belhadj (loan return from Sedan)
Anderson (€4m from Benfica)
Kader Keïta (€18m from Lille)
Frederic Roux (free agent from Ajaccio)
Cesar Delgado (€10m from Cruz Azul)
Marc Crosas (6 month loan from FC Barcelona)
Jean-Alain Boumsong (€3m from Juventus)
Ederson (€15m from Nice)

If you take out the ~~unwanted~~ unexpected buys, I think this list is pretty good. Keep in mind that Frederic Roux was purchased to temporarily cover the absence of Gregory Coupet, Anderson was purchased to temporarily cover the absence of Cris, and Jean-Alain Boumsong was purchased to temporarily cover the absence of Anderson. Sure we all would have liked better back up players, but since this is France, it takes a lot of time to convince any decent player to either stay in or come to the land of high taxes, especially when they will be at best third choice. For the most part, Lyon spend at least a year scouting out players, evaluating possibilities, and talking to their agents and clubs. So it’s unfair to look at the purchases of Boumsong & Co. as intentional, long term options (they aren’t).

I still have faith that these two will come good.

But the other players who came in are very good. Mathieu Bodmer and Kader Keita were two of the best players in L1 last year. Granted, they aren’t having an easy time at Lyon, but acclimation takes a while. Keita has especially disappointed, but I’m rather hopeful he’ll get better – he’s having a great campaign at the African Cup of Nations. Fabio Grosso was a gamble. It was always going to be impossible to replace someone like Abidal, and the few LBs better than him are out of Lyon’s reach. Grosso’s performance with Palermo and with the Azzurri were good, but his move to Inter was a disaster. Lyon were hoping that he would play Azzurri style at Lyon, but that hasn’t been the case. All we can do is shrug and hope Lyon bring in a better LB this summer.

I’m not sure why some people are so against Cesar Delgado – I think he’s a great signing. He’s been capped several times for Argentina, which is no mean feat, and he wants to work his way back into the NT. He’s had only one start since arriving, and he’s making a big jump in terms of league quality, but for the most part, I thought his performances on the pitch were promising. According to Perrin, Delgado’s level of fitness needs to go up more, so once he reaches that point, I’m expecting good things from him.

As for Ederson…well, I don’t think I need to explain why Lyon bought him. He’s amazing. Marc Crosas isn’t a bad acquisition either, especially when you consider the fact that he was free. Barca wanted to give him playing time, and since they knew Lyon were having a midfielder crisis, they gave Crosas to us (and also because they wanted to get on Aulas’s good side). Lyon may or may not keep Crosas permanently – the current loan is without an option to buy, but you never know with these things.

Grade: B

I won’t lie, I think Lyon’s mercato could have been better at some points, but when I look at the overall situation and how these players fit into the short and long term plans of the club, I can’t get too upset. Lyon have as usual signed some very promising players, along with some unpromising ones, but as I said before, it’s unrealistic to expect that every single transfer is going to be an improvement. Like at any other club, some players don’t work out while some others surpass your expectations.

And rest assured, Lyon aren’t done thinking about transfers either. They’ve started planning for the summer transfer window since last August and will be kicking things into gear in the coming months. We’ve already been linked to a bunch of names, but it’s clear Lyon will bring in one or two defenders and a goalkeeper this summer. One name I particularly like is that of Hugo Lloris, whom I would welcome at Lyon eight days a week.

Anyway, what’s your transfer grade for Lyon this year?