Lyon must be patient in attempting to sign Marseille's Nicolas N'Koulou, according to OL president Jean-Michel Aulas.
N'Koulou, 25, has been strongly linked to Lyon this summer, and recently saw Marseille turn down an initial €10 million offer from their Ligue 1 rivals for the Cameroon international.
However, the defender wishes to play Champions League football next season -- a prospect he would have at OL, but not OM -- and with just a year left on his contract, Lyon still hope to take advantage of that ambition.
With Marseille determined not to make life easy for Lyon, Aulas told OLTV he will have to wait and hope N'Koulou will make the next move now that Marseille coach Marcelo Bielsa has returned from holiday.
"The plan is to wait calmly for the arrival of Nicolas N'Koulou, because he is undeniably the first choice to strengthen central defence," Aulas explained.
"I think the N'Koulou dossier is going to move with the return of Marcelo Bielsa. The player, who absolutely wants to play in the Champions League, has to express his wishes to his coach.
"We'll have to take our time with this one and wait and see how Nicolas Nkoulou is going to act with OM."
N'Koulou scored two goals in 25 Ligue 1 appearances for Marseille last season.
