Lyon President Jean Michel Aulas has dealt seemingly a hammer blow to Chelsea’s chances of signing young right back Malo Gusto this January. Or has he?
The French side’s President is notoriously a difficult customer to deal with, and plenty of deals have broken down over his stubbornness to agree a deal.
And now, he has seemingly ended Chelsea’s pursuit of young talent Gusto, who has been linked with a 40m euro move to Stamford Bridge this winter, by taking to social media to confirm that the young Brazilian will remain in Ligue 1 until the summer at the very earliest.
“I have the pleasure of confirming the team on KTE but also of specifying that Malo, a great hope for OL, will continue to play with OL at least until 30/06/23″, he wrote on Twitter.
Puisque je participe de manière active avec Vincent Bruno Laurent à ce grand mouvement de l’hiver j’ai le plaisir de conforter L’équipe sur KTE mais aussi de préciser que Malo 1grand espoir de l’OL continuera de jouer avec l’OL au moins jusqu’au 30/06/23 https://t.co/wI0ybCMeIc
— Jean-Michel AULAS (@JM_Aulas) January 26, 2023
But football fans are not buying it, pointing to previous examples where the Lyon President has said similar things and a move has happened within days of his denial, and brandishing it solely as a bargaining tactic.
Words to a similar effect have been used to deny Arsenal’s move for Alexandre Lacazette, Real Madrid signing Ferland Mendy and, more recently, Bruno Guimaraes’ switch to Newcastle last summer, leaving plenty wondering whether a deal is in fact far closer than initially anticipated.
The state of play
However, Lyon are insisting on a six month loan spell in France before he moves to Stamford Bridge in the summer if any move is to go through, while it is added that it could cost up to 40m euros for any move between now and the end of the transfer window.
