St. Etienne are not getting rid of Fernandes, they're simply loaning him out for a year.
Maybe it's got something to do with owners who're short on cash and cannot/don't want to invest too heavily in new players, rather keeping their current assets at bay.
At least that's the impression I got from visiting an ASSE forum recently.
P | Pld | Pts | |
1 | Liverpool | 20 | 47 |
2 | Arsenal | 21 | 43 |
3 | Nottm F | 21 | 41 |
4 | Newcastle | 21 | 38 |
5 | Chelsea | 21 | 37 |
6 | Manchester C | 21 | 35 |
7 | Aston Villa | 21 | 35 |
8 | Bournemouth | 21 | 34 |
9 | Brighton | 21 | 31 |
10 | Fulham | 21 | 30 |
11 | Brentford | 21 | 28 |
12 | Manchester U | 21 | 26 |
13 | West Ham | 21 | 26 |
14 | Tottenham | 21 | 24 |
15 | Palace | 21 | 24 |
16 | Everton | 20 | 17 |
17 | Wolves | 21 | 16 |
18 | Ipswich | 21 | 16 |
19 | Leicester | 21 | 14 |
20 | Southampton | 21 | 6 |