Transfer Rumors, Transfer Folly, and Me Ranting.

By: John | August 14th, 2009

Just when you thought the door of the Lyon’s transfer season had been locked until December- at least if you believe Puel- with the arrival Bafetimbi Gomis, OL still have some unfinished business to attend to, though it’s all “out-bound” traffic, in their minds that is. Really, Puel needs to have his head examined: his minimalist approach to recruiting is really irking the crap-out-of-me.

Management has known all along that a couple of players were still on the way out- I’m thinking of Mounier and Mensah specifically- no-matter-what, way before Puel “slammed” the door shut on the summer recruitment drive. And if OL don’t plan on correcting the erosion of depth that the departure of at least two players will cause, with new recruits, then it will truely be a continuation of a transfer philosophy that does nothing more than weaken the squad e.g., last year’s blunders of not bringing in a RB after both Clerc and Reveillere went down; not getting-cover for Fabio Grosso at LB; and not replacing Fred with a legitimate striker, instead allowing Piquionne to slide into the #2 spot with no legitemate 3rd striker to name.

Incoming:

Gaby Mudingayi: Mudingayi is a Congo-born Belgium International who plays for Seria A side Bologna FC. He is a box-to-box midfielder, mostly featuring at DM, and can even play on either of the midfield, prefering the right. Gaby has had stints with Lazio and Torino as well. There is a slew of clubs interested, too many to mention. Asking price: 6mill.

A weak rumor, but since Makoun will be off to the ACN this year, it kind of makes sense, although I say just pair Ederson or Kallstrom with Toulalan, but we still won’t have a back-up DM, unless Beynie developed some massive skills I don’t know about, during his loan spell last season.

Out-bound:

Francois Clerc: This rumor has floated around for a while, but it’s back again like the annoying moquito that it is. The thing that has me worried is that Clerc hasn’t signed a contract extension- has turned down at least one prior extension offer, I believe – and the contract expires in June of next year. He’s said in the past that he’d like to play outside of France and Juve might be to inviting to turn-down.

Fabio Grosso: The “Praying Mantis” has to make his move and spring-off the Lyon bench in order to get what may be his last contract. The twilight is upon Fabio and although in this economy alot of players are sitting tight and collecting their salaries, Grosso has to make a move. The handful of potential suitors that were rumored to be interested in Grosso, no less than several weeks ago have dissapated, but now, a new exit seems a real possibility: it’s rumored that Zenit are interested in Fabio, now that Grosso’s former coach at Inter, Roberto Mancini, is set to take over the Russian outfit.

Anthony Mounier: Negotiations for Mounier’s tranfer to Nice- of all clubs!- are ongoing, with coach Didier Olle-Nicole saying that the negotiations are dragging. JMA has said that Mounier was definetely moving this summer and that managment was looking for the “best possible club.” I guess Jean-mimi is paying Maurice Cohen an early admission fee to the upcoming production next summer: “Raping Aulas’ On the Sale of Loic Remy,” coming to theaters near you, summer 2010.

Aside from my aversion to extorsion, I have a problem with this deal: That we aren’t exactly swimming in wingers. With Mounier gone, we have two starters: Govou, and Bastos; then Ederson- who isn’t a winger, and Cesar Delgado who seems to be more injury-prone than Mensah lately. Oh, we can throw Lisandro Lopez on the right in a squeeze, but that’s like using your Ferrari to haul groceries. Why didn’t we get Richard Soumah or some other cheap back-up as cover?

John Mensah: And then there’s Mensah! A good move to shed the “Glass Ghanaian” IMO. With his failure to adjust at Lyon i.e, racist tuants by a Le Havre fan and racist cops; his desire to leave; his incessent injuries, and the up-coming ACN and World Cup- the first requiring his absence for a long stretch of this season, and both the former and the latter increasing his chances of injury- altough they are already at 100% before going-in to these competitions- it’s a smart move.

According to which source you read, he is either very close to leaving or the deal has fallen apart. Le Progress claims that a loan deal with an option to purchase, that would see Mensah go to Sunderland, has fallen through. Sky Sports claims the deal is moving foward full steam. We’ll see.

Again, and many of us have been screaming about the need for a starting CB- forget about back-ups- why haven’t they gone after any CBs, knowing all along that Mensah would either be leaving for another club, injured most of the year, or gone for a great stretch of the season to the African Cup? Our best center back- Boumsong- is slightly injured, Cris has been abominable and seems to get worse every game, we have a converted midfielder as a starter and possible second or third back after Boumsong returns, and Anderson Cleber as our fourth. Frightening. This definitely will be our achilles heal this season, the first match was proof of that.

It seems that OL have developed a denial mentality vis-a-vis their strength and depth at positions, seems to me, since Puel arrived. Since I’ve started following OL, I’ve always seen JMA either replace out-going players with comparable established or younger talent with lots of potential from outside or youthful talent already waiting in the wings. M. Diarra-Toulalan; Coupet-Lloris; Juninho-Ederson; Abidal-Grosso( ok bad example); Cacapa-Squillaci-Mensah(JMA’s heart was in the right place); Carew-Benzema; Malouda-Ben Arfa, etc. And we’ve all seen that he’s definitely not been stingy when it comes to purchasing players.

But what I can’t figure-out is this “put-a-piece-of gum-in-the-leaking-hole-in-the-dam,” mentality that it seems to me, Puel has brought with him, especially, for a new coach who is in a precarious position in terms of his job security. I would think he’d reinforce all those holes in the hull of a Lyon ship that seems to be taking-on water. I mean it’s not as if he doesn’t have the funds at his disposal, but he still goes and tries to “put ducktape” on last year’s LB and striker problem, while completely disregarding the CB weakness this year. Why do we spend tons of money on a few players and leave some of our most pressing deficiencies unadressed? Just look at how OM methodicaly went about remedying almost all of their deficienies. Seems to me that it’s Puel believing that he can make-do with what he has, when he clearly can’t, and it’s this conservative, turn-a-blind-eye approach to this problem, that simply won’t do for a club that plays at the level and has to live-up-to the high level of expectations that OL and it’s fans demand. I guess the captain is content to go down with his ship.
What do you guys think?