Catching Up With: Transfers

By: Martha | July 3rd, 2008

Training started on Monday (video evidence here), with 22 players in attendance. Thank GOD.

In addition to the Africans who got an extra week off because of the World Cup qualifiers they played in last month (Apam, Diakité, Faé, Kanté, Traoré), and Patrick Barul, who is off on trial with Norwich, several other familiar faces were missing, and won’t be coming back.

•Ederson (€15 million last winter to Lyon)

•Hugo Lloris (a criminally cheap €8.5 million to Lyon)

•Florent Balmont (€2.3 million to Lille)

•Lilian Laslandes: His contract hasn’t been renewed and, though nothing’s for sure, he’s not at training and probably won’t be around this season.

And, to make matters worse, it’s looking more and more likely that Baky Kone will be sold off for peanuts to Marseille. They’re offering €8 million and, after starting the summer demanding €15 million, Nice’s most recent asking price is ~~€12 million~~ €10 million, and it seems inevitable that it’ll keep going down until Marseille say yes. He’s training with the team now and is his usual pocket-sized, speedy self, which is only going to make it hurt more if when he leaves.

There have, however, been a few arrivals to keep us from chucking it all in before the season even starts.

•Loïc Rémy (striker; €8 million from Lyon): Yes, it was basically a straight swap — a brilliant young keeper with two years of first-team experience under his belt for a promising kid who’s displayed flashes of brilliance but no consistency at the top level. Super. Yes, I’m a little concerned. And, yes, I would love to be shown — preferably by an injury-free season and a flood of goals — that being concerned is stupid.

•Emerse Faé (mid; on loan from Reading with the option to buy for about €3 million): Says he’s “100% Nice” and wants to make the move permanent. Will arrive at training on Monday.

•Chaouki Ben Saada (striker/attacking mid; €1.5 million from Basita): Is somehow barely 24 after a lifetime at Basita. Signed a three-year deal and was presented to the press today.

•Kafoumba Coulibaly (defensive mid): Came to Nice from Basita with Ben Saada, only he was on a free; signed for four years and had his presentation today with Ben Saada. I hope all this togetherness doesn’t give him a complex.

In addition, there’s a whole slew of rumors about other interests, which will surely only get more intense when Baky leaves. For now, though, the only person whose arrival seems imminent is David Ospina, a young Colombian keeper who won his first national cap at 17 — and by that point he’d already won the league with Atletico Nacional. The price is thought to be about €2.5 million, and if/when he shows up, the idea is that he’d take over the gloves from the ever-willing Letizi whenever he’s ready. Give the kid’s level of experience and evident quality, this could potentially be the most exciting transfer of the season for Nice — assuming nothing goes wrong with the deal and he actually turns up.

As usual, the in/out lists are depressing — talent going out, hope and Ligue 2 bodies coming in — but they’re also nothing new. And who knows? After the departures last summer (especially Vahirua), everyone figured Nice would be battling relegation, but they ended up spending much of the season fighting for a place in Europe. Plus, Antonetti, Echouafni, and Rool are still there, and I’m firmly convinced that, between them, those three can do anything. Well, anything that doesn’t require running fast.