With only less than 48 hours open, OL's winter transfer window is already quite active. In terms of departures, the degreasing operation has already started well even if the hardest part is coming.
The road is still long and theOL will definitely need all that time. The winter transfer window officially opened its doors on January 1, 2025 and clubs now have one month to do their shopping. The Christmas list was sent a few weeks ago, but we will have to wait until February 1st to hope to see Santa Claus respond to all the requests. Between Rhône and Saône, we cannot necessarily say that we have been very wise since the time has come not to strengthen ourselves, but to slim down. A desire displayed by Pierre Sage since last summer and who has gained even more weight since passing before the DNCG. By failing to convince the financial policeman of French football, the Lyon club must show its credentials.
Stop living beyond your means so to speak, particularly on the salary issue. This objective was given to David friio six months ago and the former sporting director had failed, thus giving John Weaver an additional reason to end their collaboration. This winter, this task falls to Matthieu Louis-Jeanpropelled to the forefront as technical director in charge of recruitment and the entire sporting field. A double hat which allows him to have all the elements and to work together with Pierre Sage. The two men were thus able to draw up a list of departing players and in less than 48 hours of the winter transfer window, OL are, it seems, off to a good start.
A little over seventeen million already in the coffers
We are still far from the big departures as the DNCG would like but at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, the Lyon club has already moved more than it had done over the three months of the summer. It will take a little more to fully convince the financial policeman of the project Weaver. However, with three departures already, theOL shows that he understood the message. With Jeffinhopermanently transferred to Botafogoa gift Orban who must engage with Hoffenheim in the coming hours, around seventeen million euros will enter the Rhone coffers. It's not Byzantium, but it's still better than nothing.
Even if he had to pay him a large part of the six months he still owed Anthony Lopesl’OL saved almost a million euros in salary with the Portuguese. When it comes to putting a good face on the DNCG, there are no small savings. It is sad to come to be satisfied with such operations, but this has been the daily life that Lyon supporters have had to face for several months. A bit of DIY and not necessarily a very precise guideline. However, these three departures should not make us forget that the biggest part of the work is yet to come.
Departures that matter to manage now
Jeffinho et Orban were clearly not the two most complicated files to carry out. With the Nigerian, the Lyon club still managed to land more or less on its feet and that remains good news for a player who has hardly played for six months. But the management is above all expected to turn the corner on other profiles. Players with a significant salary weight in the squad and who are not necessarily starters. We logically think of Maxence He would lie downrelegated to the hierarchy for three months, or even Saïd Benrahma.
The Algerian has for him to keep a certain rating even if the offers today come from exotic or second-class countries (Championship). These are the cases that Matthieu Louis-Jean and his team will have to manage masterfully for a month. Because, as we often say, in a transfer window, the players courted are never those we want to sell. In Lyon, the objective is clearly not to have to part with Malick Breathe or Rayan Cherki this winter despite the need for liquidity. It will therefore be necessary to sell other elements (Nuamah ?) in a difficult balancing act in which OL have learned to move on a tightrope for four transfer windows…
