Lyon relegated, vultures prepare to circle

Last summer, Olympique Lyonnais did not appear to be in a very good financial position. Much like every other French team that is not PSG, Lyon have been hurt by the collapse of media rights deals. We assumed they would look for bargain deals and keep costs low. Instead, they had a net spend of €100m, led by this guy:

Fast forward a couple of months, and Lyon were provisionally relegated to Ligue 2 for violating French football’s financial rules. They seemingly did not take that threat seriously when they should have, and are now actually relegated to Ligue 2.

Please enjoy this utterly baffling list of incoming transfers from last summer.

Lyon are going to appeal their relegation, and whether or not that’s successful could depend on whether or not their books look good. One way to fix that is by selling a bunch of players. Rayan Cherki has already departed to Manchester City for €37m, and he was definitely the biggest asset they had. But a few more players are definitely worth 8-figure fees, and could dig Lyon out of this hole.

Malick Fofana, winger

By far Lyon’s most valuable remaining player. Given his age and his longer-term contract, he could actually fetch a bigger fee than Cherki. Fofana’s dribbling numbers were outstanding in Ligue 1 and Europa League, and he showed excellent shot selection as well. He’ll need to improve either his shot or assist volume to be a truly elite winger, but he’s shown he has the tools to be productive in a stronger league.

Abner Vinicius, LB

Actually one of the good signings from last summer’s transfer bonanza. Abner didn’t have an exceptional first season in France as he dealt with some injury issues, but he was a solid all-around fullback while breaking into the senior Brazil national team. Given how thin the LB market is, I think they can double their money for him pretty comfortably.

Thiago Almada, AM

A bit of a weird player who’s difficult to characterize with SB’s default positional radars. The AM one is unflattering and does not show off his best qualities, while the CM one might be misleading in the other direction. But I still think it shows off that, while Almada usually starts high up the pitch as a No. 10, he likes to drop deep and do No. 8 stuff. Someone should develop this guy into more of a deep-lying playmaker.

The boys will be talking about Lyon’s situation and some other players who could be sold on the podcast, so check that out if you’re interested to hear more.

Transfer news and rumours

• Jamie Gittens to Chelsea is getting closer to being done, according to David Ornstein. It’ll be interesting to see if Garnacho rumours persist or go away completely once this is locked up.

• Jonathan David has an offer from Juventus that he’s happy with and would like to sign. Problem is, his agent is apparently demanding a €15m fee, which Juventus do not want to pay.

• Florian Plettenberg says that Bayer Leverkusen would like to spend some of that Florian Wirtz money on Maghnes Akilouche, which I think would be a very sound investment.

• Arsenal have reportedly bid £10m for Brentford midfielder Christian Norgaard, which was rejected. He’s 31, so I can’t imagine the Gunners will want to go much higher than that, but he’s a really solid rotation DM option.

• Lazio and Marseille are interested in Rangers striker Hamza Igamane, who had a great debut season there after signing for just £2m. Rangers might end up making 10x their money here.

• I’m not thrilled that Christopher Bonsu Baah is set for a Saudi Pro League move. His numbers looked outstanding this year and I was hoping he’d make a step up to Germany, Italy or Spain this summer.

• Nottingham Forest rejected a £45m bid from Newcastle from Anthony Elanga, with this report saying the asking price is £60m. Given the reporting yesterday that they’ve got deals in place for 2 new wingers, I think they’ll be willing to negotiate.

• Forest is one of the clubs interested in Jordan Henderson, who I baselessly assumed was just going to sign for Sunderland this summer.

• I’m a bit surprised by Atalanta paying €18m to sign Kamaldeen Sulemana from Southampton. He’s just 23 and can beat a defender one-on-one, but he hasn’t been productive yet in his career.

• Tottenham are set to miss out on Johnny Cardoso, who they’d previously bought a first option clause on from Betis. The player wanted to stay in Spain instead of moving to England, so he’s heading to Atlético Madrid for €30m. I’m personally not a fan and think signing him would have been a mistake for Spurs.

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