Barcelona Play Mind Games with Lyon, More Rumors
By: Inara | May 7th, 2007Because everything that the press says must be true, here is today’s daily dose of transfer news for you to cry over.
Apparently, taking Eric Abidal isn’t enough for Frank Rijkaard. He also wants to add Tiago to his list of Barca’s transfer targets. Tiago would bring creativity and a tidy touch to Barcelona’s midfield, and he’s young, comfortable in a 4-3-3, and familiar with Deco’s playing style. Plus he’s a lot cheaper than Michael Essien and Patrick Vieira.
Rijkaard is even offering to throw in Ludovic Giuly and Sylvinho into the deal.
Thanks for your rejects, Frank. Gerard Houllier will really appreciate that.
I’m not sure exactly why Rijkaard would want Tiago. I understand that he can’t get Essien or Vieira, but is Tiago the next best thing? I’m not trying to devalue him, because he’s a wonderful player, but Rijkaard is looking for defensive options, and while Tiago has passable defensive skills, he can’t be the lone DM. At Lyon, he has more attacking duties, and on the Portugal NT, he plays alongside of Petit or Costinha, who do the bulk of the dirty work. Tiago’s job is to organize and help out the playmaker (Juninho, Deco).
So what exactly is going on?
My theory is that Barcelona’s Director of Football Txiki Begiristain is playing mind games with Lyon President Jean-Michel Aulas.
The real target?
If you keep up with La Liga, you’ll know that Barcelona is between signing two full backs at the moment: Daniel Alves and Eric Abidal. Alves is younger and already familiar with La Liga, but Sevilla is demanding a fee of 20+ million. Abidal is a cheaper alternative who has more experience internationally and in Europe.
Unfortunately, Lyon aren’t giving Abidal up for the price that Barcelona want, and worse, Abidal has other suitors (Milan, Arsenal, and Valencia) who might begin a bidding war. It would be the Essien and Diarra saga all over again.
So after getting everything except Abidal’s signature in blood, Barcelona have suddenly become linked with Borussia M’gladbach left back Marcell Jansen, one of Lyon’s targets to replace Abidal at left back.
Barcelona also know that Lyon will not part with Tiago if they can avoid it, and they know that Tiago hasn’t been happy recently and would welcome a move to Spain, thus leaving Lyon with a big gaping hole in their midfield that might be too expensive to fill adequately.
This Tiago thing, along with the Jansen thing, could just be another avenue to put pressure on Lyon into selling Abidal at an affordable price with no added drama.
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Other interesting (and some unbelievable) rumors:
* Inter Milan is interested in Lyon right back Francois Clerc, who is valued at four million Euros.
* In addition to Louis Saha, Houllier is also looking into Carlos Tevez, Roy Makaay, and Alberto Gilardino as possible attacking options.
* Florent Malouda has offers that “he can’t refuse.” Don CorleoneJuventus must be offering a lot of money.
* Lyon will battle it out with RC Lens for French U-21 goalkeeper Hugo Lloris of Nice. If Lyon wins, they will loan Lloris back to Nice for an additional year so that he can get more experience.
* Anthony Reveillere will be extending his contract with Lyon for another four years, or so says Aulas.
* Thanks to Corinthians totally messing up Nilmar’s transfer, Lyon are one step closer in getting their talented right back, Eduardo Ratinho, for free.
* Fiorentina will most likely be Claudio Cacapa’s next destination.
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Tags: Anthony Reveillere, Barcelona, Claudio Cacapa, Daniel Alves, Eduardo Ratinho, Eric Abidal, Florent Malouda, Francois Clerc, Hugo Lloris, Jean-Michel Aulas, Ludovic Giuly, Lyon, Marcell Jansen, Player News and Rumors, Sylvinho, Team News and Rumors, Tiago, TransfersSubscribe
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Cacapa may have come to the end of his cycle at Lyon, and I think he wants to move on which is fine he has a great servant of the club. Clerc wont leave for 4 mill, and Reviellere will resign, he does not have offers from clubs on Lyons stature. That strikers Lyon is considering get a big thumbs down from me because they all dont fit the bill. We do not need sylvinho, he is rubbish, and Marcel Jansen is a reach. As for Lloris, we have Remy Riou, better known as Riou, on loan at Lorient. Also in the first team is 19 year old John Hartock, just as much potential as Lloris and much bigger, i think he is 6′5″.
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Since these remarks of Malouda, he declared in another interview (google translation from Football 365) :
Will you be in Lyon the next year?
Normally, yes. Afterwards, all is possible. I did not meet the leaders yet. I am under contract. It is expected that one sees oneself. There is no tendency. One will discuss to take stock of this season. And then, one will see according to what is presented.Do you have contacts?
One is not deaf. The club is not closed. Me either. But it is not like one describes it: “All the doors are opened, everyone leaves”. There are things to regulate. The decisions are caught together. There are not great declarations to make. As at the end of each season, there will be arrivals and departures. I do not know if I will form part of it. But there will be no problem. That will occur well”.Consequently, Aulas now declares that Malouda already negotiated an interesting new contract at the beginning of the 2006/07season, and then the OL won’t give him a new contract. For most commentators, Aulas’ speech (and confidence) is based on the underlying fact that Malouda would have the insurance to be in the starting eleven in Lyon in the perspective of the Euro (which is not sure in a new big team).
In the same interview, Aulas seems pretty vague on the future of Wiltord, consequently rumors about his transfer to Paris are stronger than ever. Whereas he affirms that Reveillere would resign for 4 years, and more generally main players would stay like Juninho. For Aulas, OL is looking for new blood to replace players…who didn’t play much this season (so we can interpret that the lucky ones are : Cacapa, Vercoutre, Diarra, Berthod (?),Ben Arfa (???))
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Corey: I was also surprised at the 4 million evaluation of Clerc. For comparison’s sake, Belhadj’s transfer fee was 3.2 million (and don’t forget the loan deal too). Clerc is a French international with tons of CL experience, so he has gotta be worth at least six. No way Aulas will sell him for less than that.
The goalkeeper situation is also weird. Lacombe in a recent interview said that Lyon was not going to stack up on keepers when asked about Lloris, especially when they have Riou and Hartock. But if Riou wants to stay at Lorient, it might be a different scenario. I don’t think Hartock has been impressing recently because if he was, the club wouldn’t be so hot to get Riou back. Like I said, it’s weird.
Mat: Malouda has been saying all sorts of things for the past few months. He’s kind of emotional, if you ask me. The interview you quoted was right after the Lyon-Le Mans match, when he was high from all the happiness and champagne, but now that Lyon has been playing crappy again, I think he’s changed his mind.
He probably wants a pay raise, which I doubt he’ll get because Aulas is trying to cut back the wage bill. It would be stupid for Malouda to leave right before Euro 2008 because unlike Ribery, he isn’t guaranteed a starting spot. He might end up like Diarra, who tanked at Real Madrid.
No doubt Malouda is being offered more money elsewhere, so he probably feels the need to negotiate and also get guarantees that Lyon’s team next year will be competitive enough to perform better in Europe, but if Aulas chooses to take a stand on the salary thing, he might end up letting Malouda leave, especially if he has someone else in mind to replace him (I wouldn’t be surprised if this were the case).
The left side has to be rebuilt anyway, and other than against Le Mans, his overall form in 2007 hasn’t been that great, so Aulas might decide that Lyon could do without him.
I think there a 60 percent chance of Malouda leaving. It’s in his best interests to stay at his point, and it’s obvious that Lyon will allow him to leave next summer anyway. But money talks, and so does prestige, and he might feel better with a bigger paycheck and a more globally respected jersey like Juventus.
About the other players, Aulas was clear that he wanted a smaller manpower in order to allow the younger kids (Benzema, Ben Arfa, Clerc, Remy, etc) a chance to play. It’s pretty sad that Benzema is more quickly establishing himself for the French NT than he is for Lyon. Even participating in four competitions, Houllier hasn’t really been utilizing his manpower, which has annoyed Aulas and Lacombe on several occasions.
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I forgot last time to congratulate you for this blog (Memo to the World deserves to be in the Cahiers du Football -
even if I have been surprised that you know this humoristic magazine about soccer!!!).
Moreover thanks to answer so fast, consequently I would like to comment your comments ;-bFor the goalkeeper, they would never let play Hartock who is only 19-20, he needs to prove his worth in another professional club during 1 or 2 years through a loan (like Vercoutre in Strasbourg or now Riou in Lorient). So I totally agree with you that is depends on the fact that Riou agrees or not to come back.
Clerc, in his last interview, said that he feel well in Lyon and wants to stay, that the concurrence with Réveillère is normal in a big club…and he is not aware about the interest of the Roma about him. cf
http://fr.sports.yahoo.com/08052007/47/lyon-francois-clerc-jouer-fond.htmlFinally, I think that you get pretty well Malouda’s mind, but I am not sure that Aulas is able to catch a player of the same quality during this summer, and Houiller doesn’t seem ready to give a starting spot to Ben Arfa, so…
PS : before his injury, Benzema was considered as the 2nd main striker, so even before Carew, but during spring he gets injured again, so he didn’t play a lot during this last part of the season.
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Malouda is guaranteed a starting spot on the national team, and that should take Euro event out of the equation. It all depends on his intent.
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Mat: I love Cahiers du Football - even if it’s humorous, they have some great analysis.
I hope they loan out Hartock because he’s supposed to be a really big prospect. I’m surprised that he hasn’t been already - perhaps this summer. I do know that Lyon is trying to get Riou to sign an extended contract until 2011. If Vercoutre leaves, he can come back to Lyon and be #2 to Coupet, and if he doesn’t, then he can stay on loan at Lorient for another year.
I’m really happy to read that about Clerc, because I really like him. It would be sad if he left for another club.
Allez Lyonnais: Oops, what I meant about guaranteed starters was at the club level. At any big club, Malouda isn’t guaranteed a starting spot (maybe Arsenal), but Ribery would be. If Malouda flops at another club, and it can happen, he would be pushed back to the bench. Malouda himself admitted this worry in an interview.
Right now, Malouda is unquestionably a starter on the NT, but if he is benched/loses form next year after making a bad move, Domenech might start someone else over him. He did drop Trezeguet, after all, because there is no excuse for bad performances. And don’t forget, Rothen used to be France’s LW, and it’s looking like he’s getting his 2002 form back under Le Guen.
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