Your Daily Baky Update (Plus)

By: Martha | July 17th, 2008

I’m starting to worry now that once the Baky saga is over, there will be nothing to talk about — maybe I don’t want it to end, after all …

There are, however, a couple minor, non-Baky things going on today. First, even though there has been some conversation this summer about Anthony Mounier moving to Nice, that conversation has cooled a lot, and Mounier himself wants to stay in Lyon. Thanks for that, Anthony. Second, it’s now been confirmed that, as was discussed in the comments yesterday, Lyon academy grad Mickaël Charvet is on trial at Nice for an unspecified length of time. It’s still unclear to me whether he was released or just has been giving permission to try to get a first-team spot elsewhere, but he played a half in Tuesday’s friendly, and will doubtless get more time tomorrow.

So, Baky. Baky is thisclose to being a Marseille player. Seriously, it’s really almost done this time. As expected, Nice caved on their percentage of the resale value, so the clubs have agreed terms: €9 million + €1 million bonus, depending on CL qualification + 6% of Baky’s future price. What’s the problem? The problem is between Nice and Koné — according to Baky’s contract, the club have to pay him 7% of whatever they make from selling him (about €630,000, in this case), and Nice are refusing to pay.

Tangent: What a fantastic clause to have in your contract! Is it common and we just rarely hear about it because clubs usually pay it, or is it just a coincidence that the both Baky and Hatem Ben Arfa have the clause (or was Ben Afra’s a performance bonus?), and both of their clubs refused to pay?

Ostensibly, Nice are saying the reason for their refusal is that Baky skipped training last week, which I suppose they can claim violated his contract. But, since both Cohen and Antonetti paid lip service to Baky’s doctor’s note and his alleged gastroenteritis, it’s hard to imagine they’ve got much of a legal leg to stand on there. Of course, if the press continue to report the €630,000 roadblock as Koné blocking his own transfer, maybe it’s actually a savvy move by Cohen: He’s lost a lot of respect from the fans for the way he’s knuckled under in these negotiations (particularly after standing so firm, first at €15 million, and then at €12 million) — by playing hardball at the last minute and turning the already isolated Baky into the bad guy, he could be salvaging a bit of positive PR. Plus, it’s probably a lot less damaging to future negotiations to have a player mad at him than it would have been to alienate Pape Diouf and his entire club.

It’s anyone’s guess what’s going to happen here — practically speaking, Baky’s desperate to join OM, is going to more than double his salary there, and will be just fine without the €630,000. Given how pissed he was in his last official statement, though, one has to wonder if he’s going to stand on principle here, and try to face down the club that he believes has been trying to screw up him over since this whole soap opera started. If he does, Cohen’s going to be forced to fold yet again, which would sour his status with fans even further.

ETA: Baky apparently agreed to wave some of his bonus, and the deal is finally done.