WEEKLY TRANSFER ROUND-UP IV

By: John | July 10th, 2009

OL Gets Serious About The Attack!

In:

Lisandro Lopez: Lyon finally got their man. JMA’s first signing of the summer cost OL 24 mill plus performance bonuses. Lisandro is said to have agreed to a five year contract with OL, details of which are not available. He’s on his way from Argentina to Lyon, and should be arriving Friday or Saturday to take his physical and sign on the dotted line.

Andre-Pierre Gignac: Toulouse’s president Olivier Sadran has finally abandoned his “our-player-is-not-for-sale” nonsense, and set a whopping price tag on Gignac of 25mill. Andre has his heart set on joining OL and hopefully this will move along quickly in the coming weeks and Lisandro will have running mate that will fill the heart of defenses with fear, even in Europe. Affaire a Suivre!

Michel Bastos: LOSC have set a price of 18mill on their winger. OL have declared the price too rich for their blood, but this is probably setting the stage for negotiations to get underway. Yes!!!!

Richard Soumah: Last report in L’Equipe was that the Guingamp player will be making his decision over this weekend. With the Bastos negotiations under way, we’ll see how that effects/ if it has any effect on Soumah’s recruitment.

Loic Remy: Nice’s president Maurice Cohen seems to have finally shut the door on the Remy negotiations after absurd overtures by OL- 16mill + Anthony Mounier- and absurd demands by Nice- 16mill + Mounier + Miralem Pjanic on loan. Honestly I’m glad this is over,and hopefully we go after more important pieces like Bastos and Gignac and come back for Remy next year, when he might be worth 16mill.

David Trezeguet: Trez has refused an offer by OL of 2.5mill per year which would be a massive pay-cut from his current 4.8mill. The trail seems to have gone cold, and shifted to Gignac.

Andre Santos: The SC Corinthians Paulista left back, is reported to be a target of Serie A sides Juventus and AC Milan, and as if that weren’t bad enough news for OL, you can now throw FC Barcelona in the mix. Goal.com reports that the Catalunian club is getting ready to make a bid for the Brazilian after negotiations for their main target, Brazilian Felipe Luis of Spanish side Deportiva La Coruna, broke down. Barca are apparently looking for back-up for Eric Abidal after the release of Sylvinho a few weeks ago.

Aly Cissokho: OL are rumored to be in quiet negotiations for the FC Porto left back, although I can’t imagine why after the player has declared that he still wants to join AC Milan- despite the treatment he’s recieved- shunned Lyon directly and then there’s that whopping 14-15mill price tag.

Out:

Mounier: Aside from Nice, who have conceded that the possibility of acquiring Mounier died with the Remy deal, no other teams seem to be seriously in pursuit.

Fabio Grosso: Coming or going? I don’t know. His agent has recently said he isn’t going anywhere, yet there is that rumor that Lyon are still after Aly Cissokho.

Kim Kallstrom: Panathiniakos has dropped their interest in Kallstrom who the Greek outfit reportedly bid 6mill for, which was rejected by OL.

Sidney Govou: Surprise Surprise! Sidney turned-down an offer from Serie A side Parma. I guess he didn’t want to take a massive paycut which would be the case in any move away from OL.