“Strongly on October 5”: after three games without a win, Lyon hopes to bounce back on Sunday (5:00 p.m.) in Lorient in Ligue 1 in a context made heavy by the upheavals of a transfer window that coach Rudi Garcia is eager to see come to an end . The draw conceded at home against Nîmes (0-0) on September 18 did not only relegate OL to 12th place in the Championship. It also gave rise to doubts about the state of concentration or even the involvement of certain candidates at the start.
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Memphis, Dembélé and Aouar in questions
League 1
Private Lyon from Caqueret and Toko-Ekambi to Lorient
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11 HOURS AGO
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“Nothing is certain. For now, they are under the OL flag. And I told them that you have to give your best as long as you wear the Lyon jersey. This is what they want too. Maybe subconsciously it’s a bit complicated“, admits Garcia, without thinking of temporarily dismissing them. However, whether it is Memphis Depay, who dreams of a great club, or Moussa Dembélé whose possibilities in England would not be up to his hopes, the performance against Nîmes was clearly insufficient while Houssem Aouar was suspended.
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FC Barcelona does not have, for the moment, the means to put the 30 million euros requested by OL to afford Memphis, nor does Arsenal for the 60 million euros hoped for for Aouar, as Jean-Michel Aulas confirmed it again on Saturday morning with a tweet. “I will reassure the supporters. From the start I said that we would not lose the three players announced every day in the newspapers as starters“, said the boss of OL on Thursday daily Progress, warning “that there would be no clearance sale“. “Ten days from the end of the transfer window, none of the three has left and I do not imagine that this will happen, but we are working on replacement hypotheses. However, the best solution would be for all three to stay“, added Aulas. As for Aouar, he also slipped, the middle of 22 years”maybe the best thing would be to stay with us. Financially, Arsenal is like everyone else“.
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But others seem to have more chances of packing their bags, such as striker Jeff Reine-Adelaide, the biggest acquisition in OL history (25 million euros) and rare satisfaction from the calamitous transfer window of the summer 2019. Aulas is angry with him for showing his desire to leave in several media. Rennes is in the running and the market could be concluded around 30 M EUR.
Jeff Reine-Adelaide
Credit: Getty Images
Pellistri and Paqueta pending
Lyon still needs to sell after having already sold Rafael (free, Basaksehir), Kenny Tete (3.2 million, Fulham), Amine Gouiri (7 million, Nice), Martin Terrier (12 million, Rennes), Fernando Marçal (2 million, Woverhampton), Oumar Solet (4.5 million, RB Salzburg), Bertrand Traoré (18 million, Aston Villa) and Anthony Racioppi (free, Dijon).
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Conversely, the young Uruguayan from Penarol Montevideo, Facundo Pellistri (18), is expected shortly. The departure of Reine-Adelaide would promote the recruitment of Lucas Paqueta (23) from AC Milan. A possible return of central defender Samuel Umtiti (Barcelona) is also mentioned but the latter, often injured in a knee for two years, is very expensive.
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In this set of uncertainties, Garcia must nevertheless align a competitive team to win with Les Merlus and then against Marseille, on October 4 at Groupama stadium, in order not to lose too much ground vis-à-vis the final goal: return to the Champions League next fall, at the end of a season without European competition. “In ten days, with the end of the transfer window, we will be better“, hopes Garcia who, at that moment, will finally know the forces on which he can count.
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League 1
At OL, the lack of inspiration
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09/18/2020 At 10:06 PM
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League 1
Lyon still can’t do it
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09/18/2020 At 8:42 PM
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