Yoann Gourcuff Joins Olympique Lyonnais on Permanent Transfer…The Saga Ends
By: Jennifer | August 23rd, 2010
It’s official! Olympique Lyonnais and Girondins de Bordeaux have reached an agreement for the permanent transfer of Yoann Gourcuff. The price is set at 22M€, to be paid in 3 instalments by December 31st, 2012. Bordeaux can also gain to profit from his resale from OL, to a maximum of 4.5M€. According to Tom Williams on twitter, Gourcuff’s transfer to Lyon is the most expensive transfer between two Ligue 1 clubs, more than the 19.8M€ Monaco paid Rennes for Shabani Nonda in 2000.
On Saturday evening, Gourcuff and his lawyer met with Jean Louis Triaud to discuss his discontent with Bordeaux and announced that he wants to go to Lyon. Jean Tigana dropped him from the starting lineup subsequent to this announcement.
Tigana said that dropping Gourcuff was not a penalty but is in fact a reaction to his inappropriate behaviour of bringing up his transfer right before a very important game in the league. He added that if he did want to punish Gourcuff, he would have left him at home and not even on the bench.
When interviewed on the bench last night against PSG and asked about his impending departure, he stated that he will only talk about the game. When asked if this is his last game with les Girondins, Gourcuff replied: “We’ll see.”
Well, we did see, he was then subbed on for Jussiê around the 70th minute, and provided the corner that assisted Diarra with his headed goal. And that was in fact his last game in the Bordeaux jersey.. Only a mere 2 days passed from the first announcement, his transfer has been agreed on.
So, where do we go from here? Wendel is also slated for a departure. He had asked for a contract extension but Bordeaux was unable to meet his requests (monetary ones, to be clear). Now, with more cash injected into the club from the sale of Gourcuff, we can once again discuss Wendel’s extension. Losing two midfielders that are experts at set pieces could be dangerous, and I think we can at least keep Wendel in lieu of Gourcuff leaving.
As for Gourcuff’s replacement, the best candidate in my mind would be Lille’s Yohan Cabaye (because you can only replace one Yoann with another Yohan). Bordeaux has been interested in Cabaye for a long time now, and this is the perfect opportunity to purchase. Cabaye’s contract with Lille runs until 2013, but apparently there is a clause that states that he can be purchased for 7M€ (we can spend our first instalment signing Cabaye).
All in all, I’m a little disappointed with how Gourcuff handled his transfer. I think Tigana needs to make the point that we can win without him.
Ciani has been interviewed saying:
“Will Yoann be missed a lot in FCGB? Yes and no. Yes, because he is an important player and we know his qualities. But Jussiê played a good game in his position against PSG and we will have other players to make up for Yoann’s absence. It’ll be a blow if Yoann leaves, but that’s football. We’ve already lost Chamakh, but it doesn’t prevent us from winning without him.”
Diarra said:
“Tonight he came into the game and he has been decisive. If he leaves, obviously it will be a pity for Bordeaux but it will be his choice. It is normal for him to think about it. He is a big boy. I talked with him about it, but that will stay between us.”
Gourcuff’s departure is quite a big blow to the structure of the team. From what I saw last night, none of the midfielders have the creative abilities of Gourcuff, and have difficulty getting the ball through to Gouffran. While Jussiê won many of his tackles against Bodmer, he could not get the ball past midfield through to our offense, which really reduced the amount of opportunities to score for us. None of our strikers, neither Gouffran nor Cavenaghi or Bellion played as deep midfield as Chamakh did to assist with the movement of the ball, and now without a playmaker in midfield to move the ball, we can be in big trouble. Bordeaux has always been scoring from setpieces, but with Gourcuff gone, we can only count on Wendel, who might be on his way as well. The most important thing right now is to find a playmaker and try to keep Wendel.
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Comments
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nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo why gourcuff????!!!!!
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I hope that Yohan Cabaye does come, he is one my favourite players from France, I find that he is underrated and should be given a chance internationally, I feel that going to FCGB would be a step up and it would allow him to improve.
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Is anybody else reading this? December 2012, 2012? O_o
I don’t mind that he’s gone I’ve never been truly impressed by him, and he hasn’t managed to carry good forum for more than a couple of matches. I’m more interested in what we are going to do in the next few days before and after the l’OM match.
Cabaye and Gameiro are good ideas, but I think we’ll end up with Jelen and Ferret
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Whoever invented instalment paying for football is bull. With the inflation and etc we can easy lose a lot of money. But I think Triaud drove a good deal for Gourcuff…I can only hope that he is equally as wise and signs Cabaye. I have a feeling that it’s not only a dream haha. Totally depends on when the first instalment is paid. Should the down payment be like a lot?
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While trying to get over the grieving I will assess the situation in a calm and more optimistic way.
It’s a good deal, and it gives the team the chance to both keep Wendel and find a mentally stronger young player to fit in Gourcuff’s (big) shoes. Plašil will have to aid a little more in offence, Wendel will obviously need to take more responsibilities. Tigana will need to change his method (better now than later during the season) to allow for more balls to get through to the forwards.
I hope we get to see Cavegoal in action real soon. Tigana has the know-how and I’m sure we will still do fine this season. I only wonder how the crowd will react to Gourcuff when Lyon visits the Chaban Delmas weeks from now
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Jennifer, what are we going to do? No more Gourcuff articles and pictures. 
All big transfers are payed in installments but i was wondering why it would take a full season and a half… It’s a bank guarantee, so we can spend 22 million today is we wanted.
Triaud didn’t want to sell Gourcuff. It was De Tavermost that facilitated the transfer.
I think Gameiro should be our priority; we need a box poacher immediately!
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Pick up Cabaye and Gameiro NOW!
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I WANT TO BUY CABAYE FIRST
Or we can buy both of them at the same time. They’re starting negotiations for Gameiro at 15M€ and probably Bellion thrown into the mixWhat is this crap about a 15m deficit??
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We have a 15M euro deficit for next season because we lost out on TV rights from UCL play, but It’s fine now that Gourcuffs gone. We just have to make the UCL.
I want Misimović! and Gameiro and Corchia, maybe.
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Ahh, that makes a lot of sense. According to RMC Moussa Maâzou signed on loan
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-1M euros :S
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Anicho’s getting way too ambitious!
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And there’s an option to purchase at the end of the loan!
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@ Aditya.
If we make the UCL and win something this year it doesn’t matter too much, but right now it’s a stupid move. He doesn’t assure us of anything. Gameiro is likely to boost our chances of success by 80%
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Ben Khalfallah is signed for 4M€ on 3 yr contract
I was seriously hoping for Cabaye but it looks out of the question now huh? But everytime Triaud denies something it comes true, so maybe the denial about anything involving even considering Cabaye means that we will sign him.. -
I don’t think tigana wants him… Cayabe is more of a 4-3-3 player and tigana wants to play a 4-4-2 in a very fast game. Cayabe is also not very fast.
I want gameiro but there has been nothing… we expect one more transfer but there were no rumours for today. somebody has to replace gourcuff but i don’t know if it will be somebody already within france or not.
we still need a right back, and a lot of the youth player are supposed to go ol loan or will be sold in the coming days. i even just herd that ducasse might go back to lorient….
I’m dissapointed by the transfers. I think tigana is keeping the funds for next summer when we return to the UCL, so we might spend cheap for now.
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