Mathieu Valbuena leaving and all other transfer rumors…

By: Magnusson | June 5th, 2009

Mathieu Valbuena, one of Erik Gerets‘ favorite players was definitely one of the few players who were perceived as potential transferable players once new manager Didier Deschamps took over. Now what everybody was thinking panned out. In a conversation Deschamps had with the player on Wednesday, he told him that he was about to set up a 4-3-3 system and that he didn’t see him as a potential starter next year. Didier Deschamps believes that the diminutive player doesn’t have what it takes to take over the right side of the attack.
And in an interview with newspaper L’Equipe this morning, the Bordeaux product declared:

“Yesterday morning, I had a telephone conversation with Didier Deschamps (…), and he has been very clear, very honest with me. I am not in his eyes an indisputable starter in his next tactical system, namely a 4-3-3, because he said I do not have the qualities necessary to move to the right of the line of attack (…) . He thinks I do not have the volume to give them what they expect from a player at that position. I regret that. I do not understand that. But I prefer not to comment any more on his opinion.”

Immediately after, Pape Diouf did some damage control with french radio RTL by saying that Valbuena’s comments might have been hasty and that a player doesn’t decide to leave, the club does and that he would be calling Valbuena himself in the near future.

In other news, Brazilian defender Naldo won’t be coming since the General secretary of Werder Bremen, German legend Klaus Allofs, has declared that he wouldn’t even negotiate with us for the fullback. Naldo, who confirmed his willingness to come to the Canebière to Didier Deschamps still hasn’t been vocal about it. One of the first soaps of the summer starts now.

Osasuna midfielder Jaroslav Plasil, whom Didier Deschamps discovered when he was at Monaco could be signing in the next few hours and would be the numeric replacement of Modeste M’bami who is leaving the club. The Czech international was said to have contacts with Portuguese clubs before we manifested our interest.

Ronald Zubar, who has never convinced a few of the supporters might go to the Champions Bordeaux since Laurent Blanc has stated many times that he was a fan and the Guadeloupean player might be leaving for a 3 million euro transfer mark. If Zubar never really bothered me, it’ because the guy has never shown anything other than full commitment to the club and the fans. But Marseille’s fans are sometimes unfair with very decent players. As shown with Paris and Nancy’s interest last season, Zubar won’t have any problem bouncing back elsewhere if he happens to leave.

As for Tiago, he will give us his answer after the Portugal-Albania game. If Juventus has made it clear that they want him to leave and it is obvious he has never managed to succeed in Italy, the midfielder still commands a lot of respect in France and would need the boost at 28 years old in a club that will play the Champions League.

Djibril Cissé, who declared in the British press that Marseille was too small for him (but somehow Suderland wasn’t) and that he would never return, was not (and that’s pretty unfortunate for him) picked up for another year at Sunderland. So if Marseille doesn’t get new propositions for the Alès native by the time the season starts, Djibril will have to report his tattooed butt back to the Commanderie on June 23rd.

I WILL BE BACK FOR MORE SOONER THAN LATER