Lyon ‘made contact for second Man Utd player’ amid Anthony Martial transfer failure
Solskjaer reviews Man Utd's 1-1 draw with Southampton
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Lyon reportedly made contact with Manchester United over the possible sale of Eric Bailly in the lead up to transfer deadline day. The French side had also tried their luck with Anthony Martial, although the 25-year-old turned down the chance to return to his homeland.
Man Utd had a relatively quiet deadline day, with all of their major business sewn up weeks before crunch time.
The never-ending Jadon Sancho transfer saga ended what feels like a lifetime ago, while Raphael Varane has already made his debut after being paraded around Old Trafford.
When it looked as though United could pat themselves on the back after a job well done, they suddenly pounced on the opportunity to nab Cristiano Ronaldo off Manchester City’s toes.
There was not much in the way of outgoings, however, until Daniel James sealed a deadline day move to Leeds which netted the Red Devils a tidy profit.
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Another player who could have made way, however, was out-of-favour centre-back Eric Bailly.
According to Foot Mercato, Lyon made contact regarding the 27-year-old Ivorian, although his situation turned out too complicated to tempt them into a move.
Instead, the French side ended up going for Jerome Boateng, which is hardly a bad way to make amends for missing out on a target.
For United, they could have missed a key opportunity to shed some weight at the back, with Varane, Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof all likely to see more action.
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Martial was another United player to turn his nose up at Lyon per L’Equipe, despite spending four years with the club as a teenager making his way in the game.
The Frenchman is clearly determined to fight for his spot at Old Trafford, even with a plethora of attacking talent guaranteeting to make it extremely difficult.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s blockbuster arrival created an undeniable feel-good atmosphere around the club, but some of United’s frontmen are sure to be concerned over how their game time will be impacted.
With others fit and firing ahead of him and Marcus Rashford due to return from injury in a matter of weeks, Martial likely falls into that category.
It seems that he backs his talent enough to try his luck, rather than returning to Ligue 1.
Whether Bailly would have jumped at the chance is another issue altogether, given that Lyon decided not to press ahead with the move after encountering complications.
In light of that news that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer reportedly blocked a late loan move for the out-of-favour Donny van de Beek, it may have been the case that the Norwegian was keen to maintain as much squad depth as possible anyway.
United did register one departure on deadline day in Daniel James, but the reports indicate that there could have been several more.
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