Ligue 1 was probably the biggest league in Europe that didn’t complete their league season last year, so that lack of revenue will put some clubs under pressure.
Lyon failed to qualify for Europe this season so they were in a weird position of needing to win the Champions League to ensure European football for another year, and they came much closer than many thought they would.
The reality is that big players may need to move on to help the club financially, while their biggest stars will probably want to leave if a Champions League club comes in.
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Memphis Depay is an interesting case because he was widely regarded as the biggest attacking talent in Europe a few years ago, but things did not go well at Man United at all.
He was usually deployed as a left winger who had one trick – cut inside and shoot – so he was easy to defend against and his confidence was slowly crushed.
He’s reinvented himself at Lyon as a prolific goal scorer who plays through the middle, and he managed to score three goals tonight in Lyon’s opening game, albeit two were from the spot.
The Daily Mail indicated that Ronald Koeman had recommended Depay as a potential signing to the Barcelona board when he took over, so his comments after the match will only fuel that fire:
.@Memphis :"Je ne vois pas le futur, je ne sais pas si je vais faire la saison complète ici. Cela fait 4 ans que je suis ci, je suis devenu capitaine. Après il faut regarder sa carrière, il n'y a pas de Champions league. Pour le moment je ne sais pas." pic.twitter.com/nP7rBqaDMB
— OL+ (@OL__Plus) August 28, 2020
He talks about not knowing about the future, how he’s had four years and and become a captain but he needs to think about his own career, and the lack of Champions League football is an issue.
He finishes off by simply saying that he doesn’t know what will happen next, but it’s clear that the door is open for Barca.
While most of the attention is currently on Lionel Messi, it would be interesting to see how Depay fares in Spain because he would probably want to play through the middle, but there must be a temptation for Koeman to restore Antoine Griezmann to his natural role.
Depay is more experienced now so perhaps he would be able to have a strong influence even if he’s played on the left hand side of the attack again, but it’s starting to sound like he won’t be at Lyon for much longer.