One of the revelations of the Ligue 1 season, Ferland Mendy has enjoyed a very successful campaign with Lyon following his transfer from Le Havre last summer, with claims the young defender has caught the eye of Barcelona.
These originated back in March, when France Football revealed the La Liga champions’ interest in the 22-year-old, and now Sport, who have continued in their French counterparts’ footsteps, believe there’s some Premier League competition for his services.
This was reported on Friday, and it appears to have slipped under everyone’s radar, with the Catalan newspaper revealing Brighton, Crystal Palace and Watford are all in the mix.
The interest from the Hornets appears to date back to the Marco Silva days, as a quick look through our back catalog shows a few articles from June last year claiming Javi Gracia’s current side were fighting Everton and Lyon for Mendy’s signature.
As for Crystal Palace and Brighton, this appears to be a whole new story altogether, but it isn’t hard to see why the latter of the two would be interested.
The options at the club for the Seagulls in that role (Markus Suttner and Gaetan Bong) aren’t exactly young, and a rejuvenation at the position could be one of Chris Hughton’s summer plans.
Down Roy Hodgson’s end, he already has Jeffrey Schlupp and Patrick Van Aanholt at left-back, so unless one of those were to leave in the upcoming transfer window, a move there seems unlikely.
It’s worth pointing out that while we are making it sound like a Ferland Mendy transfer could be possible in the coming months, there’s a very good chance it won’t happen.
The young defender was voted in the Ligue 1 team of the season, and it seems highly unlikely that Jean-Michel Aulas, Lyon’s president, will want to see his new starlet exit his club just a year after his arrival.
And if he does, it will be for a hell of a lot of money.
