Managing to hold on to their stars for the past couple of seasons, Lyon seem to be slowly admitting defeat when it comes to impending sales of both Alexandre Lacazette and Corentin Tolisso.
The pair have been the two leaders of the Ligue 1 club’s good season in both France and Europe, and their time in their home country is likely to come to an end in the summer, with big moves to either Spain, Italy or England being mentioned for the duo.
With decent cover in midfield through the emergence of Lucas Tousart, as well as Jordan Ferri and Sergi Darder, the bigger loss of the two would Lacazette’s, and Le Foot in France think the French side could turn to Chelsea to find his replacement.
The 25-year-old’s departure is likely to bring in a minimum of €55-60m, such is his reputation on the transfer market these days, and Lyon could certainly use a chunk of that money to find someone capable of scoring as consistently.
Clearly stagnating under Antonio Conte in a season where he would have wanted to build on his great campaign with Marseille in the build up to the Euros, the 23-year-old striker needs to consider whether a return to France is what he wants.
Barring a dramatic Nice collapse, Lyon are unlikely to offer Batshuayi Champions League football, but then again, at this rate, nor are Chelsea, unless the player is content with his two minute cameos, which we highly doubt.
The problem with this, however, is that Lyon aren’t exactly in the business of shelling out €40m+ for players, with their top purchase dating back to 2009 when they spent £20.4m on Lisandro Lopez.
Chelsea would want to recoup most if not all the transfer fee spent on Batshuayi were they to sell him, and it seems unlikely the French side would be willing to grant Roman Abramovich’s wishes.
With Maxwel Cornet currently learning his role in Lyon’s team, the arrival of Memphis Depay, Nabil Fékir’s slow return to his former self and Aldo Kalulu coming back from his loan to Rennes next season, Lacazette’s departure is also rather well covered, and we can’t see a deal of this magnitude taking place in the incoming section at Lyon in the summer.
