O’Brien’s experience — in which he has essentially lost six months of his career, although his performances suggest no long-term damage — underlines just how players can become pawns in a game being played out in boardrooms rather than on the pitch.
And, with Cobh Ramblers becoming the third League of Ireland outfit to come under a multi-club ownership model, it is something which needs to be watched closer to home.
Going to Mick McCarthy’s old club from Crystal Palace was an unqualified success for the Cork native.
He played a major part in Lyon recovering from a disastrous start to last season which had them bottom of Ligue 1 in December to finish sixth and qualify for Europe.
They also reached the French Cup final in which they were beaten by Paris Saint-Germain in Kylian Mbappe’s farewell game.
And, with Cobh Ramblers becoming the third League of Ireland outfit to come under a multi-club ownership model, it is something which needs to be watched closer to home.
Going to Mick McCarthy’s old club from Crystal Palace was an unqualified success for the Cork native.
He played a major part in Lyon recovering from a disastrous start to last season which had them bottom of Ligue 1 in December to finish sixth and qualify for Europe.
They also reached the French Cup final in which they were beaten by Paris Saint-Germain in Kylian Mbappe’s farewell game.
On Friday, the club was handed a provisional relegation with its debts reported to have spiralled to €508m.
For their balance sheet alone selling O’Brien made perfect sense, but there was another context in which that transfer took place.
John Textor is the majority owner and chairman of Eagle Football Holdings Limited, the leading shareholder for Botafogo, Palace, Lyon and Molenbeek. O’Brien has only to decamp to Rio de Janeiro to have lined out for all of the clubs in his portfolio, having earned the move to Lyon on the back of his displays for the Belgian side when on loan from Palace.
Last year, Textor was attempting to offload his interest in Palace and buy Everton.
There had never previously been any transfer activity between the Toffees and Lyon.
And yet, all of a sudden, they became enthusiastic trading partners.
As well as O’Brien, Everton bought Orel Mangala from the French club.
He had only joined Lyon on a permanent basis in June after a successful spell on loan from Nottingham Forest.
The Toffees also tried to sign Ernest Nuamah — who had also only joined Lyon in June — on transfer deadline day but the move collapsed.
But the Merseyside outfit did loan out Nigerian teenager Francis Gomez to Lyon on the same day as they signed him from Sporting Supreme.
