Fulham bid for Steve Marlet refused
last updated Tuesday 21st August 2001, 7:19 AM
Lyon's director of sport Bernard Lacombe
revealed on Monday that the club have turned down a bid from Fulham for
France striker Steve Marlet.
Fulham boss Jean Tigana has already snapped up the former Lyon midfielder
Steed Malbranque this summer and now appears ready to raid the French club
again to get his hands the highly-rated Marlet.
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Steve Marlet
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"I spoke to Jean Tigana on the phone
on Monday morning and he made a large offer," said Lacombe, who admitted
that he was tempted by the offer but explained that the club does not have
sufficient attacking cover to allow Marlet to leave.
"We simply can't afford to let him go so close to the start of our
Champions' League campaign," he said. "Not only that, but we've
just lost Sonny Anderson for three or four weeks to injury and Sidney Govou
had to have an operation in July."
Tigana, who coached Lyon between 1993-95, has been linked with numerous
forwards recently as he strives to add a cutting edge to the squad that
won the first division at a canter last season.
The French coach lost out to German giants Borussia Dortmund in the race
for Czech striker Jan Koller in the summer and were reportedly interested
in Arsenal's out-of-favour Nigerian star Nwankwo Kanu.
Fulham's first-choice forward Louis Saha netted twice for the Cottagers
in their opening day clash with Manchester United, but question marks remain
over the quality of back-up forwards Luis Boa Morte and Barry Hayles, who
have yet to prove themselves at the highest level.
The 23-year-old Marlet joined Lyon from Auxerre for £3.8 million in
June 2000 and played an integral part in the club's success last season.
His pace and movement alongside Anderson and Govou caused problems to the
likes of Arsenal and Bayern Munich in the Champions' League, while he also
helped the club secure their first trophy - the French League Cup - for
28 years.
He was rewarded with a call-up to the full France side and scored his first
international goal against South Korea in the Confederations Cup earlier
in the summer.
Marlet played over 100 games for Auxerre, having joined them from the lower-division
Paris side Red Star. He had problems with his weight in the early stages
of his career, but he soon put those behind him and is now regarded as one
of the best strikers in Le Championnat.
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Source Onefootball
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