Lyon forward Moussa Dembele has been the focus of a lot of attention for a while now and his club issued a hands off warning last month with interest resurfacing during the January transfer window. However, the club seem resigned to losing the player in the summer as long as their valuation of the player is met.
According to reports in the media, Lyon have slapped an £83 million price tag on their asset ahead of the summer transfer window. Manchester United and Chelsea both hold an interest in the player with Dembele being linked to United last summer as they sold Romelu Lukaku and with Chelsea seeking strengthening this coming summer.
Jean-Michel Aulas, the president of Lyon, spoke last week about the players the club has and that they will sell the players who want to leave to where they want to go, which sounds positive leaving the ball in the court of both United and Chelsea to convince the player to sign for them. Aulas said:
“We already have a certain number of offers for our players for summer. We sell the players who want to leave to where they want to go.”
It has been suggested that Chelsea had made an approach to sign Dembele during the January transfer window, although this has not been confirmed, rumours suggest that they were only prepared to offer £40 million for the Frenchman, which is clearly not enough to purchase him after this information about his price tag. Dembele recently said:
“I am a Lyon player and I will remain so until the end of the season.”
Manchester City, Newcastle United and West Ham United also seem interested in signing the 23-year-old this summer, although I am sure he would prefer to sign for United, City or Chelsea as opposed to the other two teams, one of which is currently in a relegation battle to remain in the Premier League. United is reportedly his preferred option.
United would need to qualify for the UEFA Champions League next season, which would usually need them to finish in the top four of the Premier League, however, with City banned from the competition for two seasons, despite a pending appeal, finishing fifth would achieve that, as would winning the UEFA Europa League.
However, I am sure United would be seeking to finish inside the top four with them just three points adrift of Chelsea with 11 matches in the league still to be played this season, giving them the chance to break ahead of Frank Lampard’s side, who they have beaten three times this season; twice in the league and once in the Carabao Cup.
Dembele will be very familiar with England as he started his career at Fulham, leaving for Celtic then to Lyon. During this time, he has become a very good forward and one that many clubs could yet find interest in. Tottenham Hotspur will be in the market for a striker this summer after failing to sign one in January to cover Harry Kane’s injury.
This season, in 38 matches for Lyon, Dembele has scored 20 goals, assisted a further seven in 2,974 minutes of football. Whilst at Lyon, he has made a total of 84 appearances, scoring 40 goals and 13 assists. Whilst at Celtic, he made a total of 94 appearances, scoring 51 goals and 18 assists. At Fulham, in a first team environment, he made a total of 64 appearances, scoring 19 goals and nine assists.
