The Search for That Special Striker Continues
By: Inara | September 25th, 2007It hasn’t even been a whole month since the summer transfer window ended, and Aulas has already started thinking about who to bring in during January. I know, I know, we all look down upon unsubstantiated transfer gossip, but I figure it’s my duty as the resident OL blogger to report it, however frightening it is.
So far, Lyon have two and a half serious targets. And they are all South American.
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The first is Rodrigo Palacio of Boca Juniors. Oh yes, he of the hideous rattail. Again, I’m not sure why Lyon want this guy. Forget the fact that he’s Argentine and would be severely outnumbered by the Brazilians, but I just don’t think he’d fit in at Lyon. He’s playing downright crappy at Boca right now and going through a goal drought.
Because a non-scoring striker is so what Lyon need. Anyway, according to Argentine media, Lyon and Boca Juniors have come to a €10m agreement for a transfer in January, right after Boca’s participation in the Club World Cup in Japan. However, Palacio has gone on record to say that he wants to stay at Boca until 2010 because he – gasp - loves his club.
If he does have to leave, he’d prefer to go to a place where he can acclimatize, aka Spain. In fact, he goes so far to say that he would rather play for a midtable Spanish club than play in a top club in Italy, France, and England due to the language barrier.
But Boca need the money, so he might not have a choice.
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Number two is Amantino Mancini of Roma. As some of you may know, Lyon were interested in bringing in Mancini last August, but Roma refused a €15m offer (thanks Rosella, you’re the best!). I was hoping that nonsense was over because the last thing Lyon need is another flaky, on again, off again winger (we already have Hatem Ben Arfa, Kader Keita, and Sidney Govou).
Word on the street is that Aulas is prepared to offer Fred + €13m euros for Mancini in January. I personally am not taking this too seriously, but I’ve read this rumor in a few places and had it confirmed by Chris at the Roma Offside, who has seen it echoed in Italian media.
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As for the half target, that would be Kerlon of Cruzeiro. The reason he’s a half target? Nothing concrete besides some rumbling in the Brazilian and French press. We all know that Lyon love Brazilian strikers, especially ones that don’t work out (Elber, Nilmar, Fred). So naturally, having learned from past mistakes, they will take another gamble yet again on an unknown Brazilian prodigy.
I’ve never seen Kerlon play, but I’m sure AJ at the Cruzeiro Offside will know more about him. I do know he had a good showing at the U-17 World Cup for an otherwise underachieving Brazilian side.
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God. I hope none of these rumors are true. Surely Lyon are not that desperate yet. Bernard, if you’re reading this, please, no new players in January.
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Comments
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Kerlon is amazing but his small stature makes him more of a Juni type player in L1 I think. His quickness and seal dribble will bring more fans to Lyon. But he has a bit of a temper and immaturity a la Fred as well…
Inara, did you just post this up? Isn’t it 7AM there? You really do have Lyon on your mind night and day. Which is great for us, obviously, to have such a dedicated supporter and resource of information.
Posted from
United States
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There’s a funny article on the BBC about Kerlon and his Seal Dribble. Apparently he’s perfected a novel way of balancing the ball on his head and running with it. Its becoming rather controversial in Brazil, as many defenders think he’s just trying to make them look dumb.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/7009897.stm
Also apparently a British newspaper (one absolutely not know for its reliability) reported today that after a bust up with Perrin, Juninho ‘hid’ in the toilets. I think Juni’s official explanation for leaving the video review of the Barc match was to the toilet, so I guess we see how interviews get streeeeetched.
Posted from
France -
what a joke we are selling some of the best players and usually not replacing them and when we do they are cheap mugs
Posted from
United Kingdom -
the team and manager are crap
Posted from
United Kingdom -
the seal dribble… the boy’ll get killed trying that in europe…
i agree we shouldn’t touch any of these players with a bargepole, but not with your appraisal that elber/nilmar/fred didn’t work out.
elber wasn’t an unknown quantity, rather a bayern legend on the wane. his transfer was part of JMA’s first lesson that it’s not as easy as just having the money to sign a name player. OL had tried to get a replacement for sonny all summer and came up with elber as a last-day last-ditch solution. he didn’t fill all expectations right away, but no one knows what would have happened if not for his for all intents and purposes career-ending injury.
as for nilmar he did everything expected and a more in view of his age… he was loaned to corinthians to get under the non-EU bar but once again injury more than anything else is the reason we’ll never know what he might have eventually done with OL.
fred has also lost more than a few matches to injury. you extrapolate what he’s done in lyon to full seasons and he’s had 2 20-goal years.
Posted from
France -
I don’t think any of them are bad players, but they didn’t work out – injuries, age, whatever reasons. These players just aren’t the Sonny the clubs are looking for. ELber was a decent player, scored some goals, especially in the CL. Nilmar was undoubtedly a talent but came to France too young and too slight. As for Fred, well, I’m not writing him off, but given his relationship with the club, I don’t think he’ll be around after the summer – that is, if he doesn’t leave in January.
Posted from
United States -
I like the Seal Dribble. The defender has no choice to do a fault to stop it. And when we have a free kick man like Juninho in the team, that can be a goal.
Posted from
France -
Jo, you never told us about how Barcelona was. Did you have a good time at the Camp Nou?
Posted from
United States -
is it just me, or does the sound of having keita on the right wing, kerlon on the left wing, and ben arfa behind benzema sound like an amazing offense throughout both france and europe?
Posted from
United States -
You seem to forget that for all the seal dribble he wants, he’s only 1m67 tall, and that the average CL defender is 1m93… They’d just challenge him in the air for the ball, or stand still as Kerlon runs into them… Also, 1 goal in 33 games is hardly what people expect from a “top” striker.
Posted from
France -
Kerlon is by no means a striker, just like Mancini is by no means coming to lyon. Kerlon may be good as a winger, fast and tricky, and he can play a good ball or two. But Id still rather have Renato Augusto, damnit someone tell Lacombe to get him. Ederson would be nice too. Ive said this before and I will say it again, if you want a goal scorer with pace to boot and an international future in head of him, BUY JIMMY BRIAND RIGHT NOW. My god the kid has all the tools he needs, just more refinement and some better balls his way.
Posted from
United States -
You’re right, Inara. That’s because I’m busy in this times, and maybe because I want to forget what I saw…
Seriously, I think I cannot say anything more than what has been written everywhere. That was a beautiful match… if you aren’t Lyonnais. That was just like a game between bad national team and the best L1 one. They were too strong for them, and if we lose 6-0, we couldn’t tell anything. That’s a fair result. I didn’t understand why Grosso was on the bench, and why Belhadj was a starter with so less C1 experience… But that’s like that. We will see in November at Gerland if Lyonnais were just petrified, or if they REALLY cannot play the way they have to, against a so big team.But, one thing that nobody said, and that really made me sad, is that players didn’t come to thank us after the match. We were 3000 lyonnais, we sang a lot during 90 minutes, tried our best to let hear the Nou Camp how motivate we are… and ZERO players came near us to felicitate. They immediately came inside Nou Camp’s rooms.
“You spend (so much !) money to see us lose 3-0. You absolutely don’t desserve to be congratulate”.If you wanna see how was the ambiance in Nou Camp, before the beginning of the match look at this : http://www.mynrj.com/web/displayVideoPage.do?method=displayVideoDetails&contentId=6844&visitedUid=3703&pubContentId=3253
Posted from
France -
Don’t buy Jimmy Briand. Just KEEP KARIM BENZ !!!
Posted from
France -
I’ve noticed that many OL players are sore losers. It’s too bad though, as you guys deserved an ovation from the players. It wasn’t just that you traveled so far to see them, but that despite them playing so poorly, you guys still kept singing and supporting them.
Posted from
United States -
Oh haha, Ray, I just saw your comment. For some reason I missed it. The handy thing with this blog is that I can timestamp my posts. So some times I’ll write posts but date them for the next day, so even if I’m away from my computer (or sleeping), the post will go up automatically.
I love Lyon, but even I draw the line at sleep!
Posted from
United States -
That really sucks about not thanking the fans. It was disappointing for the players to loose in the way they did but also for the fans. And you guys really made a noise – you could hear ‘ qui ne sauté pas’ on the televised match.
They really need support at the away matches but that behaviour doesn’t exactly encourage a large away support.Posted from
France -
My two cents :
Palacio I’m really not a fan of.Kerlon is a nice guy to have on your team and he could be a good weapon if he develops well. He’s a bright young prospect, somewhat similar to Be Arfa (though I rate Hatem higher). Certainly a good purchase if he comes cheap.
And no, he’s not a striker. More of an AM/wingerMancini : nice guy to have on your team but at WHAT price? Ridiculous. I wouldn’t spend more than 12M on him in the first place. Second, he’s not needed and third, Fred is worth just as much as him IMO.
Posted from
United States -
Tell jean michel aulas to spend some money thats if hes heard of it aka-saha-nasri-kerlon-silvestre
Posted from
United Kingdom
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