In a rather, no, very strange turn of events, Le Progrès in France are claiming Bruno Génésio, who left his role as Lyon manager at the end of last season, is heading to Newcastle United.
The local French newspaper state the 52-year-old is already in England where he could sign a four-year deal with the Magpies.
They state the club are ‘close to being sold to a Dubai billionaire’ who has a ‘close relationship’ with Manchester City’s owner, and Génésio is said to have ‘attracted interest’ for the role at St James’ Park.
The French manager was reportedly on holiday, but returned to Lyon on Monday before directly heading to the north of England, where he is said to already be in Newcastle in order to ‘finalise’ the start of a ‘new and beautiful experience’.
This comes a day after it was reported Steve Bruce had resigned from his post at Sheffield Wednesday amid speculation he would become Rafa Benitez’s replacement on Tyneside.
We aren’t quite sure what to make of this, because Le Progrès are normally quite good with Lyon news, and while this isn’t directly related to the Ligue 1 club, there’s no denying they will have some contacts around Génésio following his spell there.
We’ll have to wait and see, but this has certainly come out of nowhere, and the claims about the takeover are certainly eyebrow raising to say the least.
