Also how would everyone feel about Ramirez going? Been heavily linked with Florentina at the moment
To be fair on Lovren, he's 23 years-old, can play across the back four, International and Champions League experience, he's had a bad season but he has been highly rated before then, and I think a lot of the Lyon fans (and even a lot of non-Lyon fans) are doing it out of comedy rather than hate. I think in a similar scenario, thousands of Saints fan's would do a similar vote about Guly but most on here agree he is a decent player. Even if you look on the comments on that from a few Lyon fans, they're saying that he had a 'couple of bad games', is 'inconsistent' and 'a bit reckless' etc., definitely not ideal but not damning criticism when it comes to football fans.
A few years ago he was a world-class prospect, clearly things haven't gone right for him and he recently said in an interview that he was 'in hell' at Lyon, but I wouldn't be devastated if we took a risk on him. As long as it was alongside a solid CB like Astori or someone, I'm not actively hoping we sign him but I'd be alright if we did.
A few stories going round on twitter that we are after Kone from Wigan.
Not sure about Kone. Doesn't score enough for me.
This has been posted a couple of times, but it's still quite poignant - what better way to find out about a player than the opinions of his own fans?
http://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1bufaq/lyon_fans_trying_to_get_rid_of_unwanted_defender/
Remember Jos. Celtic fans loathed him, was one of our best players.
Jos wasn't really given a chance. Lovren has been there for several seasons.
But there are other players for whom it just didn't work at one club or another. Be it off-field issues or playing style. Crouch is another good example.
Being that he has regularly switched from LB to RB to CB since breaking into the team it seems like he's a player they just are not sure what to do with. To quote Chael Sonnen: "Being a jack of all trades is fine, but it means you just suck at a bunch of things at once." Some regular time and he may get his groove back.
Maybe if we hired Chael Sonnen to motivate him it'd work better. Or at least it would entertain the fans.
Either way, I'm not comfortable with reported fees of £8.5m for someone whose current fans would love to see the back of him, whatever potential excuses there may be.
Can we just buy someone.

£8.5m straight-up would scare the pants off of me; if closer to £5m with moderately-difficult-to-reach incentives, I'd do that.