OPPORTUNITIES TO SEIZE – With the opening of the Franco-French transfer window from this Monday, the clubs will benefit from a head start on foreign powers. The opportunity to materialize some good deals.
– Yohan ROBLIN
They will be able to track down good plans before everyone else. Used to being blown away by its European neighbors all summer long, French football will this time have time to prepare. To cope with the economic crisis, linked to the coronavirus pandemic which plunged the entire milieu into uncertainty and worry, the Professional Football League (LFP) authorized the holding of a Franco-French transfer window, which opens this Monday, June 8. This emergency solution should allow the clubs to rebalance their accounts but also to start to shape their membership for the next season.
If some teams will wisely wait for the opening of the international window, which Fifa has yet to fix, to sell to the highest bidder, others could see the opportunity to do some shopping before the foreign clubs position themselves with millions . LCI has selected five players that Ligue 1 would have the good idea to retain in France this summer.
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M’Baye Niang (Rennes)
He is the one who animates this beginning of the transfer window in France. And, frankly, it is not difficult to understand why. Author of 10 goals in Ligue 1 this season, the swirling striker from Rennes has arguments to argue. The 25-year-old Senegalese international, bought from Torino for 15 million euros, also marked the end of his Breton adventure. M’Baye Niang has never hidden it, he wants to go to Marseille. “OM is a club that interests me“, he told Canal Football Club. He even said he was ready to lower his salary to facilitate his arrival. Confined in the Marseille city, where his partner is from, he spent time in town with Bouna Sarr, the right side of Olympique de Marseille. But, for the moment, his transfer is still not acted, OM delaying to position themselves, for lack of sufficient liquidity. But the Old Port does not is not the only possible home base for the former Milanese. Discussions have been held with other clubs. The Premier League is a possibility.
Adrian Grbic (Clermont)
An attacker often hides another, but often not for very long. It must be said that being second top scorer in Ligue 2, with 17 goals and 4 assists, helps Adrian Grbic well. The 23-year-old Austrian striker is particularly courted. In France, Saint-Étienne, Brest, Lorient, Lens and OM would be on the spot to hire him. Abroad, its coast would be just as high. “A Bundesliga club and another Premier League bottom came out in January with amounts I had never seen “, recently told France Bleu Loire the President of Clermont Ahmet Schaefer. Competition promises to be terrible to snatch a player whose value is estimated at 10 million euros. It is up to Ligue 1 to take advantage of the edge it has over its European neighbors, to get its hands on this scorer for the future.
Denis Bouanga (Saint-Étienne)
He too has the future before him. Arrived less than a year ago in Forez, Denis Bouanga is one of the few Saint-Etienne satisfactions of the past season. The former Lorientais and Nîmois, field player most used by his coach Claude Puel, had a full season with the Greens. Top scorer (10 achievements) and passer (3) of his team in Ligue 1, the 25-year-old striker could already go and see if the grass is greener elsewhere. ASSE, mired in a chaotic financial situation, could be forced to part with its best element, from which it hopes to draw between 15 and 20 million euros. If Betis Seville and LOSC have views on the Gabonese international, it is another club that would have every chance of winning the jackpot. Already tracked by Rennes last summer, which he had refused for Sainté and the fervor of his public, the former Nîmes Olympique striker could this time settle down there. With, perhaps, the Champions League to play.
Pedro Mendes (Montpellier)
He is well known to Ligue 1 attackers and he may not have finished giving them a headache. Arrived in Montpellier in 2017, Pedro Mendes imposed himself in one of the most waterproof defenses of the championship. Aged 29, and while his contract in Hérault expires in 2021, the Portuguese defender is a more than credible candidate for a departure from the MHSC. On Eurosport, he reaffirmed that he needed better media exposure to move on in his career. Olympique Lyonnais, looking for a central defender to stabilize its block, could be the team that meets its expectations, to allow it to find the Lusitanian selection after a single call in October 2018. An interest that he commented on for RMC Sport. “I am not aware of anything. But I am very flattered to be associated with OL. It’s a big club and I’m ambitious“, he said. His contractual and sporting situation has everything of a windfall to seize urgently.
Stéphane Ruffier (Saint-Étienne)
Often, clubs are ready to do anything to keep a player. Sometimes they will do anything to see him go. One year from the end of his contract, Stéphane Ruffier’s future, who arrived in Forez in 2011, is far, far away from Geoffroy-Guichard. ASSE does not wish to keep him, his coach Claude Puel, with whom he is in open conflict, has removed him from the starting lineup. The former AS Monaco goalkeeper, captain for a time last season, has been relegated behind Jessy Moulin. A demotion which was confirmed to him. At 33, still a young age for a goalkeeper, Ruffier could bring his experience to certain Ligue 1 clubs. But his salary, estimated at 200,000 euros monthly, is not very attractive and has something to put off. But do you ever know …