Newsie Odds and Ends

By: Martha | July 10th, 2008

•Get used to me posting random pictures of Cyril #1.

•Things are bad with Koné — as I said in the comments last night, when player and club are having virtual arguments via their respective websites and battling for the title of Guy With the Shiniest Halo, it’s rarely a good sign. Cohen has made the supporters happy by digging in his heels with both l’OM and Baky; now it’s time to quietly figure out a way to let him go for a figure close to the €10 million-ish price Nice seem to have wanted all along, even back when the party line was “he won’t leave for less than €15 million.” (It’d be really nice to get it sorted before Monday, at which point Baky’s expected to have recovered from his “gastroenteritis” and be back in training. Too much to ask, I realize.)

•Along with Marseille, PSG are supposedly also interested in Koné and, if Sidney Govou and Fred leave Lyon, the press claim that they’ll turn around and buy Baky (they’d probably get him on the cheap, given how much they paid for Lloris). Lyon, however, were quick to refute the story, announcing on their website that not only do they not want Koné, but also that Govou is staying. I’ll leave the details of Govou and Fred to Inara and John, but I have to say the denial is sort of disappointing — it’d be fun to watch the OM sections of the internets melt down when Baky went to Lyon for a bag of balls and a kiss on the cheek.

•Alongside long(ish)-term interests Frederic Piquionne and Carlos Tenoriohere, there was a story in Le Parisien this morning that Nice also see Lens’ Aruna Dindane as a possible replacement for Koné, whenever he ends up leaving. Dindane blew out his knee last spring and will miss the first several months of the season, but he has scored goals for Lens the last couple of seasons and could probably be had fairly cheaply, as they continue to off-load salary. Apart from that, like Baky, he’s little, fast and Ivorian and looks good on YouTube (the Lens goals are way less impressive than the ones in Belgium, I have to say), I’m ashamed to say I know nothing about Dindane — anyone who has opinions, please share them.

•Also, during the Baky frenzy, I failed to report that Souleymane Camara, who spent last season on loan with Montpellier, has made his move there permanent for an undisclosed fee. This is surely good for everybody, since he had one goal in his whole Nice life, and scored 11 last season for Montpellier. Also, Matt Moussilou, after a season and a half on loan at ASSE, Marseille, and Al Arabi (where he was a goal-scoring machine), is now once again taking up space at Nice. Who wants him? Bueller? Anyone?

•There video up at the official website of Ospina’s press conference yesterday. Not that, you know, it affects his football or anything, but he’s pretty adorable at the end when he tries to speak French and gets all flustered. Reminds you of both how young he is, and how mature Lloris is for his age. Sigh.

•Finally, Nice’s first friendly is tomorrow night in Vichy, against a team that I gather will be made up of players training at a UNFP camp. I’ll report on anything I can find out about it, but with most of the Africans still away, it’s going to be a pretty makeshift team.