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An open transfer window is worse than mercury being in retrograde or a full moon. Everyone goes bonkers: fans chase figments of their (and Football Manager’s) imaginations, managers find many thousands of ways to say ‘no comment’, players either float above it all like yoga masters or openly court a new team, and clubs are trapped in the middle trying to make sure that their seasons aren’t derailed by an incoming pile of money.
In the vein of the latter, twelfth place Olympique Lyonnais felt compelled to officially announce that they are very happy to have their top goalscorer on their team.
It’s a short statement, and I’m trusting Google Translate more than the three French words I know, but here it is:
‘Olympique Lyonnais has taken note of certain information relayed by the media suggesting that Moussa Dembélé could interest other clubs during this transfer window.
OL would like to reaffirm its wish, as in the summer of 2019, to keep Moussa Dembélé.
The club has full confidence in Moussa and counts in particular on him to build a successful team for the seasons to come.’
My favorite part of the statement is that the tweet announcement included Moussa’s twitter handle, just to be sure he’d see it.
L’OL tient à réaffirmer son souhait, comme lors de l’été 2019, de conserver @MDembele_10.
— Olympique Lyonnais (@OL) January 2, 2020
Toutes les infos ⤵https://t.co/WniqCvpQxD
This is all apparently prompted by rumors that Chelsea is interested in bringing Dembélé to London; and with Olivier Giroud almost certain to leave and Lyon reportedly being interested in him, it’s assumed that the two clubs will eventually talk about something.
in any case, statements like these ultimately mean nothing more than showing the player, and/or future players, that a club is not afraid to openly profess its love. Hey, at least Lyon President Jean-Michel Aulas is being a bit less creepy about it all this time.
Oh Silly Season, I love you.