It’s been painful for Marseille followers to look at bitter rival Paris Saint-Germain accumulate league titles during the last decade to change into probably the most profitable membership in home French soccer.
For whereas Marseille nonetheless has bragging rights over PSG as the one French membership to win the Champions League, it hasn’t received the home league title since 2010. PSG, in the meantime, has received it 9 instances within the final 11 years to set a French file with 11 titles.
Saint-Etienne has 10 and Marseille has been caught on 9 for greater than a decade.
That’s an eternity for followers within the soccer-crazed southern seaport metropolis who dwell and breathe the sport daily. The ardour at Stade Velodrome stays as robust as ever, in distinction to the considerably lukewarm ambiance at PSG’s Parc des Princes.
Marseille regarded like title contenders at sure instances final season, earlier than as soon as once more being hampered by inconsistency: Marseille received eight right away video games however struggled badly at residence underneath former coach Igor Tudor. His model of disciplined soccer was suited to counter-attacking away from residence however too inflexible when needing to interrupt down visiting groups sitting deep. And Tudor didn’t absolutely belief ageing playmaker Dimitri Payet, usually leaving him on the bench.
Typical offseason upheaval adopted with one other teaching change as Spanish supervisor Marcelino got here in to interchange Tudor, and the 36-year-old Payet breaking down in tears upon studying he was surplus to necessities on the membership the place he scored 78 targets and offered 82 assists.
But the arrival of prolific striker Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang and goal-scoring winger Ismaila Sarr to hitch Alexis Sanchez in assault ought to give these followers hope for a aggressive season.
The 34-year-old Aubameyang has over 300 membership targets, together with prolific spells at Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal, earlier than unsuccessful stints at Barcelona and Chelsea.
“I want to win trophies here,” Aubameyang mentioned. “I must set the example. I’m not going to scream at people but I’ll show it on the field through my efforts. Alexis Sanchez had a great season, now I must do the same.”
The Gabon striker can be very conversant in the French league, having scored freely for Saint-Etienne earlier than becoming a member of Dortmund in 2013. Sarr joins after 4 seasons with English membership Watford, together with two within the Premier League – the place the speedy Senegal ahead caught the attention along with his ability and dribbling.
Sarr is joined this season by countryman Iliman Ndiaye. The attacking midfielder performed for Marseille as a junior and made his mark final season with 14 league targets and 11 assists for Sheffield United in England’s second-tier Championship.
They may type a mouth-watering quartet in assault if Marseille manages to retain Sanchez. The veteran Chile ahead received the followers over along with his targets and hard-working method, which isn’t any imply feat contemplating how notoriously impatient Marseille’s massively demanding supporters are.
While they revered managers Marcelo Bielsa and Jorge Sampaoli for his or her attacking method, they jeered Tudor throughout preseason video games final 12 months. They ultimately revered his strategies as Marseille battled to 3rd place and a spot within the Champions League qualifying rounds.
Marseille has additionally been unstable at administration stage, with each Bielsa and Sampaoli abruptly quitting after disagreements and former coach André Villas-Boas suspended after publicly criticizing the membership.
They had been larger names than Marcelino. But in his earlier stint with Spanish membership Athletic Bilbao, Marcelino reached two Spanish Cup finals and received the Spanish Super Cup by beating Real Madrid and Barcelona.
One of Marcelino’s first duties will probably be selecting which Spaniard to start out as goalkeeper for the house sport towards Reims on Saturday, though Pau Lopez is prone to begin forward of Ruben Blanco.
Center again Chancel Mbemba was the rock in Marseille’s protection and Geoffrey Kondogbia’s arrival from Atletico Madrid boosts a stable midfield already boasting France midfielders Jordan Veretout and Matteo Guendouzi.
Kondogbia received the Spanish Cup in 2019 when Marcelino coached him at Valencia.
“This will help me to adapt. I know his methods and what he looks for on and off the field,” mentioned Kondogbia, who has additionally performed for Inter Milan. “Marseille has been ambitious in terms of recruitment and mentality. With (president) C’est Pablo Longoria, I knew things would move quickly on that front.”
So Marcelino clearly has a squad robust sufficient to be aggressive and, ought to PSG begin poorly with out Lionel Messi and probably Kylian Mbappe, then this could possibly be Marseille’s likelihood to finish its barren run.
Whether Marseille’s followers are affected person sufficient to provide him time to place his system into place is one other query.
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