Chelsea loanee Emerson wants to stay with Lyon for good, but that might not be possible

Emerson Palmieri has had himself a pretty good season on loan at Olympique Lyonnais, finding regular playing time after being on the fringes of the Chelsea first-team for the last couple years. In fact, Emerson has played the vast majority of the minutes available to him across all competitions.

Unfortunately, it’s not been a great season for the team, mired as they are in midtable in Ligue 1 and now also out of Europe after their 3-0 home defeat to West Ham United in the Europa League quarterfinals last week. And that, the expected lack of European football next season, just might prevent them from exercising the €15m buy-option built into Emerson’s loan.

Reports of this eventually started emerging last month already, but the 27-year-old has now confirmed the situation as well. As much as he would like to stay for good, that simply might not be feasible financially.

“I’ve felt good here this season because I’ve played a lot compared to last year, although I’m sad with the results so far. I would like to stay here after the end of the season, I have no problem saying that, but it’s not up to me...”

-Emerson Palmieri; source: L’Equipe via Google Translate

Emerson has two years left on his Chelsea contract still, so as things stand he’s set to be coming back after all, at least temporarily, despite already rejecting a chance to do so in January when we needed help covering for the injured Ben Chilwell.