As reported by L’Équipe, Saint-Étienne were surprised to see the club linked with a move for Diego Costa last month but could the club have actually afforded the former Chelsea striker?

Saint-Étienne told L’Équipe that the club had made no offer to Costa and that he was instead offered to them by an intermediary, explaining “the player is not interested in the project and his salary expectations are unrealistic.”

With Costa, now 33 and recently leaving Atlético Mineiro in Brazil, was keen on one more spell in Europe and his agents had targeted clubs like ASSE and Serie A strugglers Salernitana while quoting a €100,000 gross monthly salary plus a €200,000 signing bonus for the free agent.

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Given those relatively reasonable salary demands, was his transfer truly “unrealistic”?

Rennes sporting director Florian Maurice discussed the club’s lack of activity in the transfer window with L’Équipe, explaining that, despite poorer results and four players away on AFCON duty, the club did the right thing but not diving into the market after a busy summer.

“It shouldn’t be defeats that make us want to recruit. We had a very big transfer window last summer precisely to compensate for anything that could happen later on. Injured players will come back, so, for me, there was no need to sign players. Succumbing to general panic and modifying or revolutionizing the team when the results are less good, this is not how I think… We are still on course for our objectives, I’m convinced that we will continue to move forward and reach them at the end of the season with this group of players.”

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As reported by L’Équipe, the Prefecture of Loire-Atlantic published a decree on Wednesday to manage the travel of Corsican fans to the city of Nantes for tonight’s Coupe de France quarter final between Bastia and Nantes.

The decree reads: “On Thursday 10th February 2022, it is forbidden for anyone presenting themselves as supporters of FC Nantes or SC Bastia to circulate or park within the perimeter of Nantes city centre.”

The National Supporters Association indicated on Wednesday night that they had protested this decree with the administrative court of Nantes. They particularly took offence that “anyone wearing Nantes colours in Nantes risks six months in prison a fine of €30,000 and a 5-year ban from the stadium.”

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Having announced its intention to host the Women’s Euros in 2025, the Fédération Française de Football has received criticism for its lack of funding of the women’s top flight, the Division 1 Arkema from one of its star players, Norwegian Ada Hegerberg (26).

The winner of the first women’s Ballon d’Or (2018) tweeted in French, responding directly to the FFF’s twitter announcement: “Organising international competitions is great. Investing in our championship is better. We’re running on empty and the 2019 World Cup had no impact.”

The Lyon striker, who has won the division six times, was referring to the Women’s World Cup of 2019, which was held in France. Over two years later, the French top flight is still not considered a professional championship.

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As reported by the Centre International d’Étude du Sport (International Centre for the Study of Sport, CIES), Lille and Lyon have been the most profitable clubs in terms of transfers over the last 10 years, throughout the top 5 European leagues.

Today the CIES published their findings on the cumulative figures of transfers throughout the last decade. While Manchester United topped the relative spending table (-€1.075bn net), PSG (-€941m) were marginally behind Manchester City (-€984m) in third.

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While Nice (-€8m) and Marseille (-€119m) have also spent more than they’ve received, all other 17 Ligue 1 clubs have a net transfer profit. In comparison, Brentford are the only Premier League club with a net profit. La Liga has 11 teams in the green, the Bundesliga has 9 and Serie A has 8.

Lille have the greatest positive figure of all five European leagues with €349m, followed by Lyon with €247m. Preceded by three Serie A sides in 3rd, 4th and 5th (Genoa, Udinese, Atalanta), Montpellier (€116m) rank sixth in Europe and third in France.

Lille’s position has been helped by high profile sales in the last decade such as Eden Hazard (Chelsea €35m), Nicolas Pépé (Arsenal €80m) and Victor Osimhen (Napoli €75m), among others.

Following Rennes last-minute capitulation to PSG (1-0), the coach of the Breton side took time to praise his 19-year-old centre back, Warmed Omari.

Omari, playing at centre-back next to Morocco international Nayef Aguerd, played a significant role in slowing the PSG attack, who were only able to produce a single shot on target for the entire 90 minutes (with the exception of Mbappé’s disallowed goal).

The manager said of his teenage centre-back: “From the start of the season, he’s been surprising. He proves himself in each match, he trains well, he’s serious and he’s got quality. He was huge in defence tonight, which is important for a centre-back, and also very good at moving the ball out forward.”

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The Mayotte-born defender has made 20 Ligue 1 appearances this season, 17 of which in the starting XI.

Loïc Tanzi of RMC Sport reports this afternoon that former Bordeaux left-back Maxime Poundjé is on the verge of completing a move to Swiss side Lausanne.

The 29-year-old has been a free agent since leaving Les Girondins last summer, having spent his entire career until then with his hometown club save for a brief loan spell with Nîmes.

Although he made over 150 appearances for the club, his playing time had been on the wane in the last few seasons.

The former French youh international is set to join on a six-month deal until the end of the current campaign

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As reported by L’Équipe, Ajaccio defender Chaker Alhadhur, who famously played in goal for the full 90 minutes of his nation’s AFCON last 16 tie with Cameroon last month, will auction his now iconic goalkeeper jersey he wore during that game.

Normally wearing number three when playing in defence, Alhadhur was forced to officially wear number 16 during the game as this was a number assigned to goalkeepers, but the 30-year-old famously tapped a number three over the gold official lettering.

The Comoros international now plans to auction his shirt, complete with tape, off to the benefit of four charities. The sale will run until Tuesday, February 22nd at 10p.m on the BiddingSport platform. The player explained on Twitter:

“I had the chance to live though an exceptional moment and it was important for me that this experience could benefit causes that are close to my heart. This is why I’ll put on my Comoros goalkeeper jersey, taped on the back, worn in the round of 16 up for auction.”

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As reported by Foot Mercato, in speaking before Lyon’s game with Nice tomorrow evening, OL coach Peter Bosz explained the struggles of Swiss international forward Xherdan Shaqiri, who left for MLS this week after just half a season in France. 

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“We used Shaq on the right-wing at the beginning. As we weren’t so dominant, he played in wide-open spaces and had to attack as well as defend, and I don’t think he can do that. He’s really a number 10 who has to play between the lines, you could even say that he was the best player between the lines for us, with his superb technique and vision in small spaces… But there are a lot of players in that position here, Houssem Aouar, Lucas Paquetá, Romain Faivre now.”

Bosz also conceded that the 30-year-old was “not in the best shape at the start” of his Lyon spell which encompassed just 16 games, two goals and three assists in all competitions.

Emery Taisne of L’Équipe reports tonight that former Reims manager David Guion is the favourite to replace Vladimir Petković as manager of Bordeaux.

The former Swiss national team manager was this week suspended by the club ahead of his sacking, with the first six months of his reign seeing the club drop down to 19th and concede 58 league goals, registering the worst defence in the top five leagues.

Guion was manager of Reims from 2017 to 2021, overseeing their 2018 promotion, and previously coached the club’s youth team for five years prior to that.

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