WEEKLY TRANSFER ROUND-UP

By: John | June 18th, 2009

Three Possible New-Comers to Gerland This Season.

I’m planning to do one of these at the end of every week to sum-up the concrete, as well as all the crap rumors out there concerning Lyon. So here we go:

Possible Ins:

Lisandro Lopez: Negotiations for the Argentine International are still on-going, much to most of our relief, after the Aly Cissokho debacle. If reports are correct that Lopez has agreed on the transfer, then all that’s needed now is for Porto and JMA to come to an agreement on the transfer fee, reported to be set by Porto at 22 mill. Aulas is said to be nearer 18 mill. According to Lisandro’s agent, Fernando Hidalgo, it’s all down to Porto and OL agreeing on the price. Anyway, since no other clubs seem to be in the mix- except for that absurd Real Madrid rumor- hopefully it will get done soon.

Sylvain Armand: With the Cissokho deal collapsing and Fabio Grosso not knowing if he’s coming or going- although Juventus is said to be hot for him after his performance at the Confederations Cup- OL may be starting-up the flirting game with there old flame Armand; maybe.

Patrick Viera: Aulas confirmed in an interview that OL has indeed been in contact with the aging captain. Could be headed this way if a deal for Ederson happens or purchased.

Amantino Mancini: No news, but also maybe part of deal seeing Ederson going the other way to Inter.

Nicolas Burdisso: Same as Mancini.

Drenthe: My boy, Royston Ricky Drenthe. A long shot, but JMA did mention him in an interview along with other possible players that OL were looking into, probably just window dressing, but let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Loic Remy: See Anthony Mounier Below.

Possible Out:

Ederson: I was hoping this was just utter rubbish, but things have heated up recently with JMA stating to the press that he neither confirmed nor denied the rumor. Because of OL’s interest in three surely out-going Inter players- Mancini, Nicolas Burdisso, and Patrick Viera- this rumor seems to “have teeth,” and big ones at that. OL have proclaimed interest in Mancini and Burdisso for several seasons now, and with the possible signing of an international calibre striker who will surely be pairing up with Karim in a 4-4-2, Mancini becomes a real necessity- well, he’s a necessity with any other formation- to fill the vacancy on the left side of the offense, and even play in the hole if Ederson does go the other way. Burdisso and Viera are excess requirements but I feel it in my bones that management is about to do something foolish in regards to these two, so we’ll see.

Sidney Govou: Rumored that Fiorentina are interested, but no contact has been made.

Abdul Kader Keita: I’ve only seen one report of Keita supposedly being looked-at by Everton, but it would be an early Christmas gift it were true. Keita apparently has no interest in playing for club anymore, so if anyone were willing to take him, at even a fraction of his purchase price, I’d think we’d all readily welcome such a move.

Anthony Mounier: It seems that negotiations for Mounier with Nice have reached an impasse and my not happen. After club chairman Maurice Cohen declared Loic Remy “untransferable” last week, OL refused to set a price on Mounier and indeed seemed to back out of the negotiations, leading Cohen to declare that the Anthony’s transfer may not happen and that if pressed to make a decision between Remy and Mounier, they’ll keep Remy; tough choice huh? Anyway, as I understand it, OL tabled a bid of 15 mill for Remy- almost twice what Nice paid- but Cohen rubuffed the offer, emphatically stating that Remy won’t be going anywhere this summer.
I started reading some of the French blogs, and what I understood was that that supposed buy-back clause OL put in Remy’s sale contract was for the right for Lyon to match any offers by other clubs in the event of Remy’s sale. So, if this is true, and seems so, then OL might just have to wait till Nice sell him, proabably next year, Cohen surely hoping the price will be closer to 20 mill by then- although highly doubtful. This sale made no sense unless it was part of a deal to secure Hugo Lloris: it seemed like basically a swap since their sales prices only differed by about a million Euro or so. Regardless, Remy coming back this season is looking very unlikely and I guess we’ll have to wait to match Arsenal’s or some other team’s offer in the future.

Category: Team News and Rumors

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