The enchanted parenthesis of the Lyon supporters only lasted a month. They had managed, thanks to this unprecedented truce linked to the World Cup in Qatar, to put under the rug the total gloom in which their team finds itself. They even surprised themselves to regain hope, as Laurent Blanc had announced that his group was going to take the opportunity to regenerate on an athletic level. But, a month after the resumption, with two new fiascos suffered (0-1 against Clermont and 1-2 against Strasbourg) and a 9th place in Ligue 1, the disenchantment is absolute.
Worse, the winter transfer window, which was the main reason for hope, due to the takeover of the club by the American John Textor, leans towards the incomprehensible, even the grotesque, five days from the end. Jean-Michel Aulas speaks this Thursday of “great movement of winter”, but Dejan Lovren is so far the only recruit, while no undesirable (Aouar, Dembélé, Boateng, Reine-Adélaïde) should go away . Only the loan of Karl Toko Ekambi has just been formalized by Rennes. Folder by folder, 20 Minutes tells you how much this transfer market sums up OL’s ills.
- Dejan Lovren, 9/10 on the Boateng scale, and 6/10 on the Tolisso scale
A double blow formalized from January 2 to attack this crucial transfer window with fanfare, who says better? Namely a player in full controversy since the end of the World Cup, for having sung a Croatian nationalist song, and even performed a fascist salute. Suffice to say that recruiting Dejan Lovren guarantees you a great inaugural week of bad buzzand even a long subject of Mediapart. A media galley from the outset which is reminiscent of that of another defender, Jérôme Boateng, hired a year and a half earlier by OL. He had to appear in court in Munich for domestic violence on his ex-girlfriend… four days after his first training in Lyon.
Likewise, this “return to the Lyonnais DNA” set by the Aulas-Ponsot-Cheyrou trio already has real limits. Especially noting that Corentin Tolisso has only played one full game since August, after four years marred by physical glitches at Bayern. And there, Lovren signs a contract until June 2025, despite his 33 years and his twenty games played per season since 2018. What is more, unlike Corentin Tolisso, the good memories left by the Croatian during his first visit ( from 2010 to 2013) can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
- Karl Toko Leader, 9/10 on the Beauvue-Marcelo bar
The bronca then the insults towards him, on January 14 against Strasbourg, undoubtedly marked a point of no return. If there is one departure that OL had to finalize at all costs this winter, it is that of Karl Toko Ekambi. This both for his disastrous season in every respect (no goals scored since mid-September) and for his stormy relationship with the north bend. By celebrating a goal against Montpellier (5-2 on April 23) with a finger in front of his mouth as a provocation, the Cameroonian international alienated the Bad Gones for good, just like Claudio Beauvue and Marcelo before him. , following comparable episodes.
But it’s only of a paying loan (€1.5m + €1m bonus) in Rennes (hello FloMau), without a purchase option, far from the compensation of €15.5m that Lyon had paid to Villarreal. OL could thus find themselves with a good headache to manage in six months, since Toko Ekambi will still have a year of contract before being able to commit where he wishes, as Moussa Dembélé and Houssem Aouar are preparing to do so. do this summer. Lyon supporters, we can only advise against OL-Rennes on April 9. Spoiler: 1-5, hat-trick of an unplayable and lodger Toko.
- Joao Gomes, 10/10 on the Onana-Azmoun scale
The jackpot of this transfer window to piss off Lyon supporters. Namely a player on whom OL are staring, while the media echoed, from the start, Joao Gomes’ desire to favor Wolverhampton. As long as it is, Bruno Cheyrou himself confided his wish to recruit the Flamengo midfielder in the press, a strategy that rarely bears fruit. “He is a player that we have been observing for a year and a half, indicated the director of recruitment from Lyon to The team February 17. A window has opened and we are trying to rush in. This player, I like him very much and it would be a sweet dream to recruit him. “A “sweet dream” which will therefore not materialize, and this timing of scouting the player, “a year and a half ago”, recalls how much Juninho, who was still sporting director of OL, had an eye precious on young Brazilians.
It is now difficult for Lyon supporters to consider recruiting virtuosos like Bruno Guimaraes and Lucas Paqueta. Nine days after the interview with Bruno Cheyrou, and despite his trip to Rio, but also that of John Textor, to try to convince Joao Gomes, the latter joins the list of André Onana and Sardar Azmoun. Namely these players whose arrival OL thought so much that they had not planned a real plan B. Proof of the plummeting attractiveness of the club for two years, Onana favored Inter Milan, Azmoun Bayer Leverkusen, Joao Gomes the Wolves (17th in PL), and French striker Wilson Isidor (22, Lokomotiv Moscow), tracked by Lyon, seems to see each other more at Lorient than at OL. And that is not unusual.
- Romain Faivre, 8/10 on the Terrier scale
Do you remember the untenable Brest attacking midfielder Romain Faivre, then author of a double in Lorient on March 4, 2022, a month after his arrival in Lyon? This one has been missing for long weeks, and he has only three (bland) starts this season with OL. Even if he is only 24 years old, it is difficult to see him bounce back within a Lyon team in crisis. The lack of character from which Romain Faivre suffers refers to the impasse in which Martin Terrier found himself in the Lyon context (from 2018 to 2020), before he exploded in Rennes.
Revealed in modest Ligue 1 teams (Strasbourg and Brest), Terrier and Faivre perhaps did not have the build, under 25, to resist the pressure of a club supposed to fight for qualification in the Ligue des champions. Last week, Laurent Blanc confirmed the spleen of the interested party: “I adore him but he has not been happy in Lyon for more than three months and he wants to leave. It’s hard because there is a contract [jusqu’en 2026] and the club bet a lot on him”. Exactly €15 million (+ €2 million in bonuses) that Lyon has little chance of recovering given its ongoing poor form. But we wouldn’t be surprised if he had a blast quickly when he joined Régis Le Bris’s Merlus.
- Mohamed El Arouch, 7/10 on the Martial scale
As if by chance, this Thursday we discovered the youthful face of Mohamed El Arouch (18) during training for OL’s professional squad. This is a first with Laurent Blanc, as the promising midfielder arrived far in the hierarchy. It is above all the consequence of a stroke of media pressure launched by his entourage, who circulated his supposed desires, despite a contract until 2025 with his training club.
Could the winner of the last Gambardella Cup become the new Anthony Martial by January 31, who left AS Monaco at the age of 18 for a pittance (€5 million) after only 4 appearances with the pros in Lyon? ? Two years later, it was sold for 80 M€ (bonus included) to Manchester United. Jean-Michel Aulas necessarily fears such a scenario for Mohamed El Arouch. Perhaps he even realized this winter that it was illogical to see such potential at 0 minutes of play in L1, when Mendes, Faivre, Aouar and Reine-Adélaïde, all far from their best level this season , still have a chance.
- Jeff Reine-Adélaïde, 6/10 on the Réveillère-Fekir scale
Can you recover from two cruciate ligament ruptures in 14 months? The question inevitably arises as Jeff Reine-Adélaïde, the most expensive rookie in OL history in 2019 (€25m), is overdue. A change of scenery this winter could have relieved everyone and freed up some space in the squad for Mohamed El Arouch. But as nothing is simple on the Lyon side, the offer of a loan with an option to buy € 12 million from Sevilla FC flew away at the medical examination on Tuesday.
The team reveals that the Andalusian club were alerted by JRA’s “lack of rhythm”. The very one that spectators at Parc OL see every week. Among the famous precedents of Lyon players leaving but failed the medical examination, we think of Anthony Réveillère at PSG in 2012, then Nabil Fekir at Liverpool in 2018. Except that the return of these two captains had not then been perceived like bad news in sport.
- Malo Gusto and Rayan Cherki, 7/10 on the Ndombele-Mendy bar
During the summer of 2019, Jean-Michel Aulas had hit the jackpot, with 123 million euros combined (bonus included) for the transfers of Tanguy Ndombele (Tottenham) and Ferland Mendy (Real Madrid). Two seasons of Ligue 1 in the legs and the new tricolor internationals left Lyon hastily. Three and a half years later, the departure timings of the best youngsters seem even more premature. Malo Gusto and Rayan Cherki only have 19 years (against 22 and 24 then for Ndombele and Mendy) and above all not even a full Ligue 1 season in the shoes of holders.
However, their names are strongly associated with Chelsea and PSG this winter. The sums mentioned (around €20 million) are less crazy than in 2019, given their still limited references. There is no doubt that losing two symbols of success from the Lyon academy would look like a coup de grace for the supporters. Even if they have the feeling of having already received it many times in recent months.
