the world cup is over for everyone except bastos, so time to turn attention to a game already in progress. one signing done and perhaps the biggest one in L1 so far: jimmy briand will be the player to beat out on the right and can play in the center too. serious injury with the équipe de france in march 2009 meant incomplete seasons the last two years but he scored 5 times in the second half of last season. L1 opponents tend to leave little space behind the defense against us, they'll be well advised to leave none now, he's very fast. he should have the level to make a difference in the CL. second arrival may be adil rami; hard to say no to that especially as experience has shown us you can't have too many CB's. http://news.maxifoot.com/info-118616_100629/football-277815614657206a5.php
Briand and Rami, two great moves in this mercato. I'm feeling better already about our defense woes. Any news on Kim staying or not? Puel is saying he's in the hunt for an attacking midfielder. Does that mean Ederson is out?
Some news on a couple of brazilians the team's been looking into: http://www.football.fr/footballfr/cmc/lyon/201026/lyon-ne-danse-plus-la-samba_88430.html Amazing that Hernanes would rather go to Lazio.
Cris would be open to leaving OL if he could get a 2-3 yr contract elsewhere: http://www.foot01.com/equipe/lyon/cris-evoque-un-depart-possible-de-l-ol-au-mercato,55972 I don't blame him, job security and what not. I don't think OL will be extending his contract past this upcoming season. Also maybe Ederson isn't leaving after all...at least of his own free will. http://www.lyoncapitale.fr/lyoncapitale/journal/Autre-contenu/Breves/Mercato-Ederson-Partir-Non.
these two cases are exemplary of the present, rather novel, market situation. after a prolonged period of reckless inflation clubs in general have to reduce payroll. many both big and small, will find themselves in serious straits. if OL is far from the most vulnerable, JMA will still try to take advantage of the trend. from a player's viewpoint it's a bad moment to be negotiating. cris will get an extension, but at terms in keeping with this new reality, and probably including a reconversion plan. in the same light, ederson wants to stay because any new contract, even in spain, would be below what he's getting now. and selling him even at a loss will not be easy, so since he did show some moxie in the second half of the season he may stay after all. for what it's worth he was featured in the presentation of the new home jersey. but his case may be linked to another knotty problem: cleber anderson. the only thing he's doing for us now is... taking up an extracommunitaire spot. if he can't be shuffled off, maybe ederson will even have to be loaned out to open up space for ganso or hernanes. another future that may be linked to the cleber anderson situation is boumsong's. my guess is that any offer for him (HSV is reportedly interested) will be so low in this buyers' market that OL will decide to keep him... and JAB will decide to stay... even if it means he leaves on a free next summer. not to give cleber anderson more importance than he deserves, but the skein unravels even further: the ganso/hernanes stories may just be a smokescreen for gourcuff. after all it's a buyer's market; getting a player like that for less than his buyout clause won't happen every day. someone else on the buy list is adil rami. if he's signed the appreciable difference between JAB and CA becomes less important since we're talking about a substitute, 4th or perhaps even 5th CB.
Yea you think that Cris will get an extension? I would be surprised, but I suppose it's possible. I again start a season concerned when Cris wont be able to compete at the level we need him to for our ambitions. He surprised me last year, this year might be a different story. Especially if we do end up getting Rami.
Cris has a better salary than Lisandro, the same as Lucho a 10 000€/month inferior to the one of Gourcuff.. Without cutting his salary by 40% he'll have to go, we'd better have Gourcuff for that price...
brief overview of the situation this week (discounting idle rumours): nanar blocks recruitment for two weeks waiting for the market situation to jell. the group will be reduced from 28 to 25 pro players. that 28 counts piquionne, mensah and cleber anderson; the first has just left for the hammers (1.2M) and the departure of the other two has been announced in no uncertain terms. briand was already in the fold at that counting but belfodil has since signed a pro contract, so OL needs to get rid of one more, plus one for each signing. who else is on the selling block? - kallstrom reportedly; no precise declaration in that direction, and kim apparently wants to stay, JMA responds it's only natural for players to find it hard to leave OL for both sporting and financial reasons... - cris apparently not. cris says he'll accept one year but doesn't want to concede salary. he's rejected a first offer, but JMA's confident that once he tests the market he'll come around. - pana's on boumsong and the club seems to have little interest in keeping him. who's coming? - nanar sez no need for fanni, already 3 can play that post (RVR, gassama and lovren) and OL aren't going to pile up bodies like cordwood. as for the ladies: no articles can be found concerning lotta schelin, but her contract was for two years, those are up, and she does not appear on the roster for 10/11 on the olweb site.
Cris has signed a 2 year extension. http://www.olweb.fr/fr/Accueil/100007/Article/53622/-Mon-histoire-avec-Lyon-n-est-pas-terminee
I was the exact opposite, i orginally thought he was gonna leave but as i went on i figured he would stay on
my guess was that he wouldn't get much serious contact from elsewhere, so when the pana offer came in... one way or the other, that was the catalyst; once they had that benchmark it was easier for both parties to get around to what they really wanted: keeping the policeman on the force!
Paulo Henrique Chagas de Lima [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UnIBPrwQ8E&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube- Paulo Henrique Ganso[/ame] TRUE or FALSE?
It looks like they dont wanna overpay for Ligue 1 players anymore. No more paying 18m for guys like Kader Keita. I wonder if this is a new strategy or just for this year.
I've been hearing alot of noise about Tottenham putting a 6mil pound bid in for Makoun. I don't think it would be smart to let him go.
Cant let him go especially since Puel said Toulalan will be in central defense. I am a Makoun fan actually and dont have any problems with him. Nice player.
we sure could have used J2M on the field last night. ederson and pjanic are no ball winners, and with gonalons sentinel in front of the defense we had a MF as light and airy as an angelfood cake.
This Toulalan as CB idea does not look good. It just doesnt make sense to use him in that position when OL could simply buy a dedicated and experienced CB.
claro. i'm sure puel was kicking himself at halftime saturday. not for starting toulalan at CB but for the public statements that that was his new position. because then lovren in/gonalons or fantominho out with toule moving up a notch, which should have been first sub of the season would have made him look incredibly stupid. but all is not lost. at halftime maxime obviously received la branlee de sa vie and started to at least try to win balls. and gassama grew an incipient pair as well. say what you want about puel, his halftime manner must be a sight to see!
i think aulas needs to step in and say that, despite the financial situation, he's gonna open up the purse strings and shell out for a decent CB. in my mind that would be the one move that would alleviate a lot of doubts for the season. if Pjanic is gonna have a break out season or not, its not the end of the world. Lyon has enough attacking options and can make the midfield work. But they NEED Toulalan as the destroyer in DM.
He's very irritating. Toulalan has expressed his wishes very clearly he didn't want to be a CB. Bodmer the same, I would have been more upset of him leaving if he wasn't so injury prone. Players like to play in positions for a reason, they feel like the excel there. I only thought this switch wouldn't be a disaster if Gonlalons was ready to at least adquately deputize for Makoun our play with him further up. The jury is still out on that, but he wasn't stellar on Saturday. Right now we gotta go with a: -------Makoun---- Kallstrom-----Pjanic Midfield if we want to keep the ball and dictate the pace of the game.
i suspect you're right, though if we manage to get sone cash flow we may still make a bid for rami. this is indeed our best MF w/o toulalan. almost makes me want to sell either J2M or kongo kim to buy rami and force toule back into his real position. i've never been sold on gonalons. i'm all for toulalan becoming a CB. but not yet. he's still too strong to limit his volume de jeu.