On Wednesday, Lille’s Ibrahim Amadou decided to get on a train to London in order to speed up any potential transfer that would see him leave the Ligue 1 side for either Crystal Palace or West Ham.
Both the Eagles and the Hammers were keen on the defensive midfielder, and a number of bids were made to try and convince the Ligue 1 side to let their captain go.
Having let his manager know he would be travelling, who was seemingly OK with it, the decision to block his transfer to either Selhurst Park or London Stadium came from higher up: the owner.
With his club currently 17th in the league, Gerard Lopez took the executive decision to block any sales, and that included Amadou’s.
According to La Voix du Nord, it didn’t matter that West Ham were willing to offer €15m up front, or that Crystal Palace upped their loan offer to €1.5m with a compulsory view to buy at €16m.
A sale just wasn’t on the cards.
So, we can only assume Amadou spent the night in London and got on the first Eurostar in the morning to get to training in time on Thursday.
He’ll be disappointed, but there’s every chance he’ll get his transfer in the summer.
