On Monday evening we covered the news coming out of France that Tottenham had finally signed the Georges-Kevin N’Koudou transfer paperwork.
That was something of a relief because L’Equipe, in their Monday edition, had explained Tottenham’s failure to actually sign their side of the paperwork was holding up both the N’Koudou and N’Jie transfers.
Tottenham would pay €11.5m to Marseille for N’Koudou and N’Jie would be loaned the other way, with the French club having a €7m buying option.
The fee for N’Koudou wasn’t much less than what had been originally agreed, making the whole delay seem even more of a farce, but there had been claims Spurs secured a good sell-on percentage with N’Jie.
RMC said N’Jie had already given his approval to the move, but that may well be in danger.
In Tuesday’s edition of L’Equipe it’s reported that N’Jie is ‘not really sure he wants to sign for Marseille’.
The delay in the move has coincided with it becoming clear that Marseille aren’t on the brink of a miracle season, having lost some of their best players again, and may well be set for a nightmare.
After 2 games, Marseille are 16th in Ligue 1 with a goal difference of -1. It’s only the start of the season, but Marseille lost to Guingamp at the weekend, and despite reports of a takeover on the way, there’s no imminent guarantee of investment.
L’Equipe had explained Lyon were keen on N’Jie. That’s top of the table Lyon, who have scored 5 goals and conceded none in their first two games.
Lyon are also in the Champions League, and it would be understandable if N’Jie was keener on such a move. The problem is that if Daniel Levy believes he’s weighted the N’Jie deal to help the N’Koudou deal, things could get tricky.
Tottenham and Lyon don’t have the best transfer relationship and with a week of the window left, Spurs will surely be crossing their fingers that N’Jie’s second thoughts disappear.
L’Equipe believe he’ll make a decision in the coming hours.
