France Player Transfer News, and Non-News

July 2nd, 2008 | by: Laurie | View Comments

The transfer window is open. Players are on the move. What does this mean for our France boys and their club situations? Let’s take a look at a few of our gents and where they’ll be playing next season.

We all know that Gregory Coupet is out the door for Lyon, right? Or maybe not. Atletico Madrid is the suitor, but €1.5 mill is Lyon’s price. Madrid is saying no way. They’ve offered €900,000. In the meantime, Lyon has picked up the talented (and adorably baby-faced) twenty-one-year-old Hugo Lloris to play between the pipes. I’m guessing that Lloris signed for Lyon with the expectation that he’d be the starter, since he was rumored to have lots of options elsewhere. So what happens if Coupet doesn’t leave? My guess it that Lyon will cave and trade Coupet. Except that Aulas has proven to be rather…um…hard-nosed in negotiations, so maybe not. Can anybody else see Coupet spending the season on the bench?

And speaking of “Lyon” and “hard-nosed,” Hatem Ben Arfa is at Marseille! Everybody says so! But… Wait. No, he’s not. Oh, hold on, on second thought, yes he is! It was a road with more twists and turns than the Tour de France, but now Lyon is saying it’s finally happened. After originally saying there was no way he was leaving. Except that now he is. Hatem refused to train at Lyon on Monday, and then trained at Marseille on Tuesday. And now Lyon is admitting that he’s outta there. The price? An estimated €12 million. Plus 20% of his next sale, plus a bonus if Marseille makes Champions League next year. Let’s hope Marseille can give Hatem the nurturing environment he needs to grow up a bit.

And speaking of young Marseille stars who need to grow up a bit, is Samir Nasri a Gunner yet? Apparently not. Remember back to that friendly in June, when the Setanta announcer said Nasri-to-Arsenal was a done deal? It wasn’t then, and it apparently isn’t now either. But everybody seems to be saying it’s going to be. Soon. Very soon. Unless it isn’t. Stay tuned.

And in the “ancient history” category, we all knew Mathieu Flamini is outta Arsenal, right? Just checking. He’ll be plying his trade at AC Milan, doing his best to singlehandedly drop the average age by several years. Good luck, Mathieu. Even if it is Serie A.

So who knew that Sébastien Squillaci was leaving Lyon? Not I. But he may well be. Rumor is that he may be joining sometime France central defense teammate Julien Escudé at Sevilla. Or maybe not. Again, Lyon is asking for the moon — in this case €8 mill. Sevilla is offering 6. Will they come to terms, or will Squillaci be at Lyon for yet another year? Who knows? Yes, Lyon and Aulas are in a cash situation where they can afford to play hardball. And playing hardball is one of the strategies they’ve used to win seven Ligue 1 championships. But is it really a good idea to try to hold onto players who want to go elsewhere? We may find out in the upcoming season.

Rio Mavuba has apparently officially been sold to Lille, after going there on loan from Villareal. You’ll recall that Mavuba left Bordeaux for Villareal last summer, but it was a bit of a disaster. He never found a niche and was loaned to Lille for the second half of the season. And now they’ve made it permanent. Let this be a cautionary tale to all those players who think the grass is always greener outside of Ligue 1.

And in January, you’ll remember that Lassana Diarra left Arsenal for Portsmouth. But he was going to leave Portsmouth this summer for a “bigger” team. But now he isn’t. Unless he is. Wow. Confusing. Latest rumors are showing him staying at Pompey through the next season, which would be smart. I mean, he only spent half a season at Arsenal after leaving Chelsea. And now he’s thinking of leaving Pompey after half a season for those elusive greener pastures? Who’s he think he is, Nicolas Anelka? Stay, Lassana! Stay! Good boy! (You’ll thank me later.)

And that’s all I can think of at the moment. If you’ve heard more rumors, leave them in the comments!