Transfers : Rivière close to Rennes

Frédéric Antonetti, who expressed his desire to have most of his squad available for the pre-season camp in Carnac, could see his wish granted. While uncertainty remains around the left-back position, the attacking recruitment seems to be on the rails.

According to our information, Stade Rennes could announce the recruitment of Saint-Etienne’s Emmanuel Rivière (21 y/o) very soon. The young striker from the Martinique would become the expected recruit at the centre-forward position, and would be a direct competition to Victor Hugo Montaño.
At AS Saint-Étienne, Rivière’s departure is in the cards since a few weeks already, with Toulouse showing a pronounced interest for the player, but also with the recruitment of French international Florent Sinama-Pongolle. While Toulouse finally opted to sign young Turkish striker Umut Bulut, Stade Rennes are insisting to try and recruit the young centre-forward, whose contract with ASSE expires in June 2014.
Eventually, the Rennes and Saint Etienne boards have agreed on a transfer fee in the region of 6 Million euros and the player has agreed to the salary offered by the Breton club. The case is therefore likely to be wrapped in a near future, unless the misfortunes experienced over Morel’s transfer were to be repeated.

A member of the same generation as M’Vila, Brahimi, Camara or Pajot (who all played alongside him in the French youth national teams), Rivière has already got the experience of a season and a half as a starter in Ligue 1. Having scored 16 goals in two seasons, he also was the club’s best assists provider last season (5 assists).
At the end of the 2009-2010 season, Emmanuel Rivière, like Yann M’Vila, was shortlisted for the UNFP’s best young player of Ligue 1 award. The profile of a “high potential” player, which Frédéric Antonetti and Pierre Dréossi had clearly targeted for this summer transfer market.