Once again we wait until the last minute trying to save money and the deal falls through. If we had paid Lille what they wanted a couple of weeks ago they could have got another player in. Two other deals also fell through and the upshot is that we are now weaker a result.
Clearly, this is a false economy given the cost of relegation.

Lille have a transfer embargo so couldn't have bought anyone if we had given them £200m on 1st Jan due to breaking financial rules. The money was acceptable. Their management is terrible and it doesn't surprise me they messed up their loan situation. They wanted the money.

Accepted, but more time would have allowed them the opportunity to find a solution.

What solution? Bung the French FA a few quid to drop the ban? Lille knew the bid was there for ages and waited around for others. They are run by people who are only interested in profit and want to sell players for as much as possible. They do however realise they need a certain number of players to field a side and need to try and stay up so they couldn't sell him once they worked out they weren't getting their loan player back.

It's a shame he plays for Lille, but we clearly scouted him and we wanted him so Lille was who we had to deal with. Throwing money at the problem isn't always the answer and CPFC have a limited budget to work with. We don't want to end up with a transfer ban for breaking FFP rules!

Maybe,or like Tosun not hit the ground running and be replaced by Niasse who the club did not want in August.
It’s a funny old game.

Palace 13th 2017/18.