Lyon reject £34m bid from Chelsea for Moussa Dembélé — report

Gotta love the way Chelsea do business, ‘Hm, your top goalscorer you say? How about you hand him over for a little less than what we paid for Danny Drinkwater. That’s still a comfy £14m profit for you, is it not?’

Anyway, if Sky Sports is to be believed, that’s exactly what we just tried. Given Lyon’s very funny and (at the time) seemingly random published declaration of love for Moussa Dembélé, there might be more than a smidge of truth to this rumor.

‘It was understood Chelsea were willing to pay up to £34m for the 23-year-old, but it would seem they will have to revise their strategy if they want to have any hope of signing the player.

They have their work cut out though with the French club releasing a statement on Thursday outlining their intent not to let Dembele leave.’

–Sky Sports

Though Moussa was born in France, he transitioned from a youth player to a member of the senior squad just down the road at Fulham. Having grown up and moved on to Celtic and now Lyon, he has maintained an average of a goal nearly every two appearances.

Sky also report that Dembélé reminds Lampard of Didier Drogba, which quite honestly sounds like something to write because it has enough parallels on the surface to avoid questioning. Dembélé is a capable dribbler and crafty finisher who puts a respectable amount of shots on target, and at 6’ can win a header or two, but Drogba — even young Drogba — was a very different prospect.

In any case, the other question is where Moussa would fit in. Lampard has shown that he doesn’t mind burying a player until he routinely shows specific things in training. Also, Dembélé is a nailed-on starter at Lyon, while Tammy Abraham already has twelve goals and a chance to be the first Chelsea striker to hit twenty in the league since Diego Costa in 2016-17.

But first things first; if we truly are interested, we’re going to have to pay (probably quite a bit) more than £34m — Lyon, can I interest you in the meaty French forehead of Olivier Giroud plus a modest sum of cash?