SUMMER TRANSFERS: INS AND OUTS

By: John | June 9th, 2009

Which one/s will be in an OL kit next year?

Well, the summer transfer season is underway, and if rumors are to be believed, Lyon is pretty busy. I don’t give much weight to most of the zillion rumors floating around- one of you guys made a comment about not believing an OL transfer rumor untill the player was wearing a Lyon kit, and shaking hands with JMA at a press conference; I’m starting to feel that way. Anyway, I thought I’d post something new and give you guys a new spot to post your comments. Although we’ve been discussing most of these rumors ad nauseum in the comments section and have pretty much exhausted them, I thought I’d relist them for those who haven’t been keeping up and as a continuation for further discussions for those of us who’ve been incessently debating about transfers since the end of the season.

“Possible” In’s:

Hot(Negotiations Rumored to be Taking Place):

The hottest rumors seem to be negotiations for FC Porto duo Lisandro and Aly Cissokho.

Lisandro Lopez: An Argentine international, this diminuitive(short of starture but big on talent) striker has netted ten league goals and six goals in the CL this year for Porto. Lopez’s pricetag is said to be set at 20mill.

Aly Cissokho: is a French-born left back who played for FC Gueugnon before being snapped-up by Porto. The Portuguese outfit reportedly want 14mill for the side back and it seems that OL value him at around 8mill. Negotiations are supposedly under way, with goal.com implying that Lopez seems to be OL’s top priority between the two.

Two problems I have with the Cissokho rumor: one, is that Fabio Grosso has claimed that he wants to stay at Lyon. If this is true, why would OL pay that much for a back-up left back? And why would Cissokho leave to a less succesful club to be a back-up? It has to be that Grosso is on the move.

Loic Remy: My favorite rumor: hometown boy and Lyon youth product Loic Remy might be back in an OL kit next season, as reports say that Lyon is in negotiations to bring Loic back home. Information is sketchy, and I haven’t been able to verify what many of us have speculated about in the past: namely whether or not the contract of Remy’s sale to Nice had a buy-back clause. Let’s hope that’s the case because if not, Nice is sure to jack-up the price from the 9mill purchase price of the young French international.

Luke-warm(No Negotiations Rumored to be Taking Place):

Patrick Viera: The French legend’s name has been continually linked with Lyon in the past weeks, and unlike other rumors, just won’t go away; even Lacombe has been flirting with the idea in the press. Hopefully this is just management wanting OL’s name linked with a player who’s name hold’s world-wide recognition and nothing more. Aside from his leadership abilities, I don’t see what he could possibly contribute to this team. Hopefully he ends-up at the PSG retirment home, along side Claude.

Andre Pierre Gignac: Another name thrown about buy Bernarde Lacombe. JMA shook his hand after the French NT amicable match vs. Turkey that took place in Lyon last week. Was this the intial phase of a potiential seduction? Let’s hope so. I always like the idea of OL picking-up French internationals, and the thought of a Gingnac-Benzema pairing makes me giddy.
Toulouse’s president Olvier Sadran has issued an emphatic “hands-off” warning to potential suitors while Gignac has stated that he is happy at Toulouse, but that “things can change quickly;” let’s hope so.

Mevlut Erding: The Turkish international striker was subbed-out early of Friday’s match vs. the French NT at Lyon, depriving OL management and fans a display of his skills that are anything but average. Erding has bagged eleven goals for Sochaux this season, and luckily is on few radars other than PSG’s, from what I’ve read so far. I think this might be the fall-back guy, if all other striker options fail. Erding is said to be valued at 10mill by Sochaux.

B#LL SH$T:

Edin Dzeko: The second highest scorer in the Bundesliga this season with (26) goals in 32 matches. AC Milan are reportedly entering into negotiations for the Bosnian striker; end of story.

Grafite: Dzeko’s Wolfsburg teamate and leading Bundesliga scorer this season, the Brazilian striker bested his teamate by two goals, scoring (28) in 25 matches. More mental masturbation by OL mangement.

Mamadou Niang: This would have been a nice pick-up if it were possible. Niang could have resolved our left wing, stiker, and scoring needs all in one stroke. But being that he’s Marseille, it’s doubtful Diouf would let him go to Lyon, or if so, with a whopping price-tag; move on.

Out (Possibles):

Fabio Grosso: After losing his starting spot to Kallstrom and being forced to sit-out a long stretch of matches at the end of season, most thought the Fabio was on the way out of Gerland, but Grosso’s agent came-out after the end of the season, and stated that Fabio was happy at Lyon, despite interest from Bayern Munich and Juve.
Bayern Munich found their LB in SC Heerenveen’s Danijel Pranjic, but Juve still are making public claims of their interest in signing Grosso with Juve coach Cirro Ferrara being the most vocal advocate of the move.

Anthony Mounier: Mounier has been expressing his desire for a move away from OL in order to secure first-team football. Rumors arouse about interest from L1 clubs such as Lille, PSG, but Lens or Nice seem to be the most concrete and possible desitinations. Mounier discarted the possibility of playing for PSG in a recent interview as he said that he would certainly be a back-up with the capital club, and didn’t want to relive the same experience as at Lyon. Anthony joked about following in the footsteps of his ex-teamate Loic Remy: going to Lens, then to Nice and finally the senior NT squad, but It looks to me that Mounier might be included in the deal for Remy- if there is one- and will ply his trade at Nice next season.

OUT (Confirmed):

Sandy Paillot: The local boy and Lyon youth product made his loan-spell at cross-town rivals Grenoble permanent last week. The deal is said to be worth 2mill.

Pierrick Valdivia: The twenty-one year-old CFA midfielder has left Lyon to join L2 outfit Sedan on a three year contract.