Eventually ending up at Swansea, Wiflried Bony wasn’t short of suitors over the summer.
In fact, the now former Manchester City forward was close to moving to France, with both Marseille and Lille said to be interested in his services.
The latter’s president has already admitted that Marcelo Bielsa, the man he chose to revamp the Ligue 1 side, didn’t particularly want to sign the Ivory Coast striker, as well as Tottenham’s Vincent Janssen, but he still gave it a try, due to time restrictions
On Wednesday, the Argentinean manager was asked about this decision during a press conference, and revealed he did something he doesn’t normally do: call the player personally.
He said, relayed by Yahoo! Sport: “Yes, I wasn’t all for Bony coming, but my arguments against him were weaker than the club’s reasons for wanting him. I don’t like [calling], because, for me, the desire to be at a club needs to be greater than the club’s desire to have the player, but I did it because of how little time I was given, and Bony chose to go to another club”.
So, instead of Bielsa ‘turning down’ Bony, as Gerard Lopez, Lille’s president, said, the real reason behind him not ending up in the north of France was his desire to return to Swansea.
The 28-year-old made his second ‘full debut’ for the club on Tuesday evening in a 2-0 win against Reading, having appeared twice already in the league, both times off the bench.
