Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas had admitted that his club's star players may want to leave this summer, which could be a boost for Manchester United and Manchester City.
While the Premier League is still working on plans to resume action amid the coronavirus crisis, the French Ligue 1 season has already been cancelled with final places in the table set in stone.
As a result Lyon have finished 7th in the table and haven't qualified for the Europa League, let alone the Champions League, which could be the catalyst for an exodus of their best players.
United are looking to reinforce their attacking options in the summer and MEN Sport understands that striker Moussa Dembele has been under consideration, though there has been no contact between the two parties as of yet.
Fellow forward and Lyon captain Memphis Depay has also been sporadically linked with a return to Old Trafford over the last year and United did insist in a buy-back clause being inserted into his contract when he was sold.
City have also been repeatedly linked with one of Lyon's best players, the dynamic midfielder Houssem Aouar, a player who Pep Guardiola admitted his admiration of after his great performance against the Blues in the Champions League last season.
If the Manchester clubs are interested in signing any of Les Gones' players, then there might not be a better time than this summer after Aulas' admission.
"I don’t have any news for the moment. Memphis told me that he is ready to talk when he comes back," he told Le Progres.
"His agents say that he is more thinking about the possibility to depart if we don’t have European football.
"I am going to do everything to keep the players.
"But players who are programmed to play in Europe could want to go elsewhere because we don’t have European football.”
City themselves may not have European football next season, however, after being banned by UEFA for breaches of Financial Fair Play regulations and their appeal is yet to be heard.
