Lyon ‘inquire’ about Chelsea left back Emerson Palmieri — report

Chelsea continue to struggle with the arduous task of clearing the books (not to mention the squad) of unneeded players brought on (and in) by years of aimless, short-term, and ill-advised transfer window spending — a task that has only gotten harder thanks to the economic impact of the pandemic.

One such player is Emerson Palmieri, European Champion but just third-choice at the Champions of Europe. His situation is far from ideal for any and all involved, and has been for some time.

Despite his availability and everyone’s willingness to figure out something better, we have yet to find any willing takers who are also willing to pay a fair transfer fee, or at least what we would consider a fair transfer fee (€20m or so). Napoli have come closest, but we reportedly rejected their low-ball of a bid, and now they are just playing a waiting game to see who blinks first.

Into that void steps a story from France, which claims that Olympique Lyonnais are “very interested” in Emerson, and have made an “inquiry” about him. There’s no word on what Chelsea’s answer might have been — presumably we quoted them €20m as well, which presumably they won’t be happy about (especially given the extra financial issues in Ligue 1), but hey.

That said, Lyon are certainly in the market for a left back, and were linked with former Chelsea prospect Patrick van Aanholt as well before he decided to join Galatasaray just the other week after spending the last 4.5 years at Crystal Palace. So perhaps we can get something done with them for Emerson, or at least use their supposed interest to motivate some action from Napoli or whoever else in the Serie A.