The unexpected departure of Guimarães, but also of Shaqiri and Slimani, made it possible to finance the arrivals of Ndombélé and Faivre, but not only. Explanations.
It was an unexpected winter transfer window that shook Olympique Lyonnais during the month of January. The Rhone club wanted to get active there to strengthen a workforce in difficulty in Ligue 1. With a priority target named Sardar Azmoun. But the Iranian failed at OL to finally commit to Bayer Leverkusen. And in the last straight line of the transfer window, OL lost Bruno Guimarães to then recover Romain Faivre and Tanguy Ndombélé.
Added to this were the departures of Shaqiri, a huge casting error last summer, Slimani, who joined Sporting, and the banned Marcelo, who left for Bordeaux. Many movements which aim to straighten the Rhone club, which wishes to return to the Champions League next season. But besides the contribution of Ndombélé and Faivre on the pitch, OL’s winter transfer window has been good for finances.
Air for the payroll
“The impact of player trading carried out during the winter transfer window is estimated at €43.4m on sales proceeds and €25.9m on EBITDA”underlines OL Groupe, as reported by Progress. The proceeds from the sales of Guimarães (€50.8m including €8m in incentives) and Shaqiri (€6.7m) more than offset the sums spent on Faivre (€15m + €2m in bonuses) and Ndombele (loan of 1, €42m).
But it is above all the effect of departures on the wage bill that delights OL. “We have optimized payroll savings”entrust to Progress Managing Director Thierry Sauvage. Casually, with the departures of Guimarães, Shaqiri, Slimani, Marcelo and also sports director Juninho, the next economic report can only be better off after losses of €27.1 million as of December 31, 2021.
