Struggling in Ligue 1 (9th), Olympique Lyonnais struggles to strengthen during this winter transfer window.
Five days before the end of the transfer market, the club only formalized the arrival of Dejan Lovren, and this Thursday the departure on paid loan (without option to buy) of Karl Toko Ekambi.
20 Minutes
returns to all the hot issues of this transfer window, which ultimately illustrate, each in its own way, the evils that have accompanied OL's downgrading for many months.
The enchanted parenthesis of the Lyon supporters only lasted a month.
For the first time since the spring of 2021, they had managed, thanks to this unprecedented truce linked to the World Cup in Qatar, to put under the carpet 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 regenerate on the athletic level during his training course.
But a month after the recovery, with two new fiascos suffered (0-1 against Clermont and 1-2 against Strasbourg) and a deserved 9th place, the disenchantment is absolute.
Worse, the winter transfer window, which was the main reason for hope, due to the takeover of the club last month by the American John Textor, leans towards the incomprehensible even the grotesque, five days from the end.
Jean-Michel Aulas speaks this Thursday on Twitter of "great winter movement", but Dejan Lovren is the only recruit so far, while no undesirable (Aouar, Dembélé, Boateng, Reine-Adélaïde) should go.
Only the loan of Karl Toko Ekambi has just been formalized by Stade Rennais.
File by file,
20 Minutes
tells you how much this transfer market summarizes the main ills of OL.
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 in a filmed sequence 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 buzz
, and even a long Mediapart subject on this subject.
A media galley from the outset which is reminiscent of that of another central defender, Jérôme Boateng (ex-Bayern), 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 Lyonnais DNA” established this season by the Aulas-Ponsot-Cheyrou trio already has real limits.
And this especially by noting that Corentin Tolisso has only played one meeting in full since August, at the end of four years marred by physical glitches at Bayern.
And there, Dejan Lovren signs a two and a half year contract, despite his 33 years and his twenty games played on average per season since 2018. What is more, unlike Corentin Tolisso, the good memories left by Dejan Lovren during his first passage (from 2010 to 2013) can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Karl Toko Ekambi, 9/10 on the Beauvue-Marcelo scale
The bronca then the insults towards him, on January 14 against Strasbourg, undoubtedly marked a point of no return.
And for once, if there is a departure that it was necessary to finalize at all costs for OL this winter, it is that of Karl Toko Ekambi.
And this both for his disastrous season in every way (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 is only a paying loan (€1.5 million + €1 million bonus) to Rennes (hello FloMau), without a purchase option, far from the compensation of 15.5 million euros 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 one year of contract, before being able to commit where he wishes, as Moussa Dembélé and Houssem Aouar are preparing to do it 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 all the Brazilian and French media echoed, from the start, Joao Gomes' desire to favor Wolverhampton, and (especially) the Premier League.
As long as it is, Bruno Cheyrou himself confided his wish to recruit the Flamengo milieu in the press, a strategy which rarely bears fruit in the middle of the transfer window.
“He is a player that we have been observing for a year and a half, indicated the director of recruitment from Lyon on 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 player scouting timing, “a year and a half ago”, recalls how much Juninho, who was still sporting director of OL, had a precious eye on young Brazilians.
It is now difficult for Lyon supporters to consider recruiting virtuosos of the caliber of 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) therefore,
and French striker Wilson Isidor (22, Lokomotiv Moscow), tracked by Lyon, seems to see himself 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 an encouraging double in Lorient on March 4, 2022, a month after his arrival in Lyon?
He has been missing for many weeks, and he has only had three (bland) starts (and one assist) 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, just like his undeniable individual talent, 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 stature, under 25 years old, to resist the pressure of a club supposed to fight each season for qualification in Champions League.
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 [until 2026] and the club have bet a lot on him”.
Exactly 15 million euros (+ 2 M€ bonus) that Lyon has little chance of recovering given its continuing poor form.
But we wouldn't be surprised if he quickly had fun again, if 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 came far in the hierarchy in the eyes of the former PSG coach.
It is above all the consequence of a media pressure shot launched by his entourage, who circulated his supposed desires, despite a professional 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 million euros (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 Ligue 1, when Mendes, Faivre, Aouar and Reine-Adélaïde, all far from their best level this season, still have their 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 (25 million euros), is overdue.
A change of scenery this winter could have relieved everyone and precisely freed up some space in the workforce 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.
L'Equipe
reveals that the Andalusian club was 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 scale
During the summer of 2019, Jean-Michel Aulas had hit the jackpot, with 113 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.
And this even if they have the feeling of having already received it many times in recent months.
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Soccer
Olympique Lyonnais (OL)
Jean Michel Aulas
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Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
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