French side Lyon ‘activated’ moves for Everton winger Demarai Gray and Tottenham’s Bryan Gil on deadline day but were unable to get either over the line.
That’s according to L’Equipe, who say after failed moves for the Ligue 1 side instead targeted Chelsea youngster Diego Moreira.
The newspaper explains that after selling Bradley Barcola to Paris Saint Germain for €50m, Lyon ‘had been wondering’ about signing an additional winger before the transfer deadline.
That saw several tracks ‘activated’ in their late pursuit, and alongside Almeria’s Largie Ramazani, they looked at Everton’s Demarai Gray and Tottenham youngster Bryan Gil.
Deals for both players were explored throughout the final day of the window but ‘all fell through’ for financial or timing reasons. It’s not made clear which player falls into which category on that front.
In the end they ended up signing Moreira from Chelsea late in the day, with his agent, Jorge Mendes, holding direct contact with Lyon owner John Textor and helping to speed up negotiations and push them over the line.
He ended up being the man they got, leaving Gray at Everton and Gil at Tottenham, a situation that doesn’t really suit either player.
The former is very much out of favour under Sean Dyche and the latter is yet to be given his chance by Ange Postecoglou, despite the Australian reintegrating several players back into the fold since he took charge at Spurs this summer.
That would indicate he’s not a part of the plans and similar to Gray, perhaps he will be looking at what options remain open to him, the obvious answer being Saudi Arabia.
