Manchester United’s accelerated interest in Erling Haaland has seen links with Lyon’s Moussa Dembele recently go quiet.
ESPN had reported Dembele as a United target in late October, a fortnight after The Mail had claimed Lyon wanted £71 million to sign the striker.
That was a staggeringly high figure, but January deals often are. Not even that amount may tempt Lyon to sell Dembele now.
This is due to his teammate and former United star Memphis Depay suffering a serious injury at the weekend.
Depay was one of two Lyon players to sustain a torn ACL in the same match, along with ex-Arsenal starlet Jeff Reine-Adelaide.
We wish Depay well as this is a serious blow for him and will cause him to miss Euro 2020.
Increased importance
Depay has scored 14 goals this season for Lyon and Dembele follows with 10 goals.
Take those two away and the next highest scorer for the club is Houssem Aouar with just three goals.
Considering Lyon cashed in on midfielder Tanguy Ndombele for £65 million in the summer, they are under no pressure financially to sell.
They are already under pressure sitting seventh in the league, and they now need to buy attacking reinforcements, not sell their highest scoring available player.
What this means for United
Links to Dembele have quietened a little which says a little about how quickly United’s chase of Haaland is developing.
United are not the only side keen on Haaland, with German newspaper BILD reporting Borussia Dortmund are still hopeful of winning the race amid meddling from his agent Mino Raiola.
If Haaland does head elsewhere, or stays put at Salzburg, United won’t be buying Dembele.
His asking price is already excessive and no common ground will be found between Lyon and United in January.
Different alternative strike options will need to be found, and these might include stop gap deals like Mario Mandzukic.
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