The Ligue 1 winter transfer window closed its doors at midnight yesterday and, while there was a lot of excitement as the deadline approached, not a lot happened. Economic crisis requires, the bulk of the movements took place on the basis of loans, termination of contract or even exchange of good procedures (OM – Juve exchange for Aké and Tongya on a € 8 million deal to improve the accounting entries of two clubs).
OM, ASSE and Nice livened up the winter, only Monaco released the CB
In the direction of arrivals, there were still a few hits. Arkadiusz Milik (loaned to OM by Naples), Olivier Ntcham (loaned to OM by Celtic), Islam Slimani (recruited by free OL from Leicester) or even Anthony Modeste (loaned to ASSE by Cologne) are the big names arriving from abroad. Jean-Michaël Séri (loaned to Bordeaux by Fulham), William Saliba (loaned by Arsenal to Nice) and Jean-Clair Todibo (loaned by Barcelona to Nice) are back (temporarily?) In a championship where he made a name for himself.
As for Krépin Diatta, a nugget of Club Bruges, he is the only real recruit for payment of this complicated period, Monaco having spent € 20 million to welcome the Senegalese. It should be noted despite everything that, out of the 20 elite clubs, eight have not recruited anyone (PSG, LOSC, Stade Rennais, FC Nantes, RC Lens, MHSC, FC Metz, Stade de Reims) and that the three teams more in difficulty (Dijon, Lorient, Nîmes) did not correct their workforce beyond one movement.
Sanson, Dembélé, Lala, Abeid, Radonjic, Strootman and Mitroglou bye-bye L1
In the direction of departures, all the elite clubs have separated at least one additional player on loan but little money has returned to the coffers. At € 15.8 million, OM signed the biggest sale of the winter with Morgan Sanson at Aston Villa. On the French market, the English have not drawn much. As in winter 2020 with only two departures towards the Perfide Albion (Josh Maja loaned with OA to Fulham). In Marseille, we settled the case of some embarrassing big salaries (Mitroglou, Strootman) and players pushed to the exit (Radonjic). Rennes did not succeed in its disposal plan, simply returning the ghost of Daniele Rugani (on loan from Juve) to Cagliari and reluctantly parting ways with Georginio Rutter to prevent him from leaving free (€ 500,000 in Hoffenheim ).
Several names in need of playing time and / or at the end of the contract close have packed their bags such as Adama Soumaoro (LOSC, loaned to Bologna), Moussa Dembélé (OL, loaned with an OA allowing a capital gain to Atletico Madrid ), Kenny Lala (RC Strasbourg, transferred to Olympiakos), Henry Onyekuru (loaned with OA to Galatasaray), Pablo (Girondins, transferred to Lokomotiv Moscow for € 2.5 million) or Mehdi Abeid (gone to take a big contract in Emirates for 1.5 M €).
