In football, as in most businesses, having contacts and friends you can work with can help to get things done. It can smooth away problems and make for quicker and more efficient dealings, but the former Arsenal player and current manager of the French club Lyon must not have heard about that, because he seems to be going out of his way to make Arsene Wenger’s life difficult during this summer transfer window.

I suppose you can’t blame him for trying to hold on to his players, but now he is actively chasing another of the Arsenal transfer targets Sebastien Corchia. The right back has been reported as one of the main targets for the Gunners this summer.

The 22-year old right back is seen as a possible long term replacement for the man he will soon be trying to oust from the French national team Bacary Sagna. Corchia still has two years of his contract with Sochaux to run but, according to L’Equipe, Garde and Lyon have already begun talks about signing him this summer.

Garde has publicly warned Arsenal off his two players Maxime Gonalons and Clement Grenier. 24-year old Gonalons is a defensive midfielder who has been the beating heart at the centre of Lyon’s midfield over the past few years. Grenier is a skilful and creative player who Wenger has compared to another Frenchman Samir Nasri.

“There are stories about some players leaving the club,” the Lyon boss said. “The last few years we have won the coupe de France and finished third in the league.

“Am I keen to accept the transfer of Gonalons and Grenier? No, because they are exactly in our project and I want to build the team around them.”

It seems to me as if Wenger and Garde could be heading for a fall-out.

2 thoughts on “Arsenal face more problems with Lyon over transfers

  1. first of all we don’t need grenier… he’s AM, we have santi and wilshere who are playing in that pos.

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