The Chronicle have explained why Lyon’s statement on Bruno Guimaraes must be taken with a pinch of salt, with Lee Ryder insisting that midfielder is still expected to undergo his medical on Friday.
Within an hour of Sky Sports, The Athletic and other outlets claiming that we’d agreed a £30m deal to sign the 24-year-old, Lyon insisted that this was ‘false information.’
However, French football experts have since explained that Lyon’s Jean-Michel Aulas has a history of releasing such statements until a deal is set in stone, with him doing very similar just before the likes of Fekir, Mendy, Lacazette and Ndombele all ended up completing moves away from the club.
Such practices are also used because the club are classed as a public listed company, meaning they are obliged to release these statements to ensure no false information is disseminated until a deal is made official.
The rules Lyon are forced to work under as a public listed company mean they must also inform the stock exchange first before any big deals go through, so it seems they may have been covering their owns backs here.
As a result, The Chronicle’s Lee Ryder reports that the Brazilian is still scheduled to undergo a medical on Friday – insisting that this has only been delayed as he is due to play Ecuador at 9pm tomorrow night.
