disgrace to Marseille.”
A report in April
revealed Marseille
had an operating
loss of £70m for the previous season,
which means things off the field are
almost as bad as things on it.
Garcia was given his marching orders
at the end of last season and, despite
talk of former Marseille and Manchester
United player Gabriel Heinze getting the
job, Villas-Boas is now in the hot seat –
and he knows he has no time to waste in
turning things around.
AVB will already have found out in the
short time he’s been in charge that he’sgoing to have to operate cannily to
deliver success. Given the financial state
of the club, selling appears to be far
more of a priority than buying. So far
only defender Alvaro Gonzalez has
arrived, on loan from Villarreal, while
winger Lucas Ocampos has gone to
Sevilla and striker Mario Balotelli left
after his six-month contract expired.
The two players Marseille could cash
in on are winger Florian Thauvin and
midfielder Morgan Sanson, but if they
left then the team would be significantly
weakened once again.
Pre-season started badly for Villas-
Boas as his side lost 2-1 to lower-league
English outfit Accrington Stanley, then
suffered a humiliating 4-0 defeat against
Scottish side Rangers.
“It will be my responsibility to find
solutions to make the team better and
to reach our goals this season,” explained
the coach afterwards. “We’ve not been
at the level we need to reach.”
Perhaps AVB is already working
his magic, though, as Marseille lifted
a trophy in July, in a pre-season
tournament in the USA that saw them
beat Bordeaux and Saint-Etienne. “It’s
good for our collective and individual
confidence,” said the coach.
Villas-Boas made the most of his time
out of football by indulging his passion
for rally driving. He’ll really need to be
on top of his game if he doesn’t want his
first season at Marseille to be something
of a car crash.Marseille turn
to Villas-Boas
A
ndre Villas-Boas is stepping
back into the limelight after
more than 18 months out
of the game. And the 41-
year-old Portuguese definitely isn’t
taking the easy option.
Named as the new coach of Marseille
in late May, he takes over the reins at
one of France’s most volatile clubs after
a season in which they finished outside
the European qualifying spots in fifth
place, five points behind Saint-Etienne
in fourth and fully 30 points adrift of
arch-rivals and Ligue 1 champions Paris
Saint-Germain.
For a club that has such a proud
history and loyal support the length and
breadth of France, the fact that Marseille
have not lifted a trophy since 2012
is unacceptable both to their fans and
to American owner Frank McCourt.
Villas-Boas will need every last drop
of the considerable experience he’s
gained from spells in charge of topsides including Porto, Chelsea
and Zenit to get Marseille back to
winning ways.
McCourt arrived on the French south
coast full of optimism back in 2016,
promising to invest heavily to make OM
great again. After three seasons and
talk of £160million already shelled
out, meaningful progress has been
non-existent. While it’s true Marseille
did reach the Final of the Europa
League under Rudi Garcia in 2018,
a 3-0 loss to Atletico
Madrid demonstrated
just how far behind
the European elite
they currently are.
The club has
notoriously hot-
blooded fans and they
were quick to express
their outrage at yet
another season of
underachievement
when they unfurled
a banner at the club’s
Velodrome Stadium
in January that read:
“Humiliated in Europe,
Coupe de la Ligue
and Coupe de France.
Executives, manager,
players. You are aConfidence...beating
Saint-Etienne in a pre-
season tournamentExperience...
Andre Villas-BoasThat Marseille have not lifted a trophy since
2012 is unacceptable to their fans and the owner
F R A N C E
(^) L
I
G
U
E
(^1)
(^) S
e
a
s
o
n
(^) p
r
e
v
ie
w
(^2)
0
1
9
- 2
0
(^)