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.
“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.
