Olof Mellberg courted, Lyon seducing Mamadou Niang…

By: Magnusson | June 6th, 2009

The phone between Marseille and Turin has been working non stop ever since Didier Deschamps took office. After having downplayed very quickly all the rumors linking David Trezeget to Marseille (”I can’t help it if people want to dream. I am a dreamer myself and I love David, we’ve always had a great relationship even as teammates so it is natural for people to assume I’d be trying to get him to come play for us next year, but it’s just completely impossible”), the ex-France international is trying to lure in many players he has coached before, including Tiago and swede international Olof Mellberg.

After being refused even the possibility to talk with Werder staff about Naldo, Mellberg came in as a natural choice for Deschamps who tried to lure the then Aston Villa player when he was coaching “the Old Lady” before resigning from the job a few weeks later.

Mellberg was eventually signed a year later but never convinced this season under Claudio Ranieri despite playing a considerable amount of games. However Marseille’s new boss seems to think the 32 year-old is what the club needs for the next Champions League campaign. Marseille’s central defense has been a big problem for the team in the past two seasons and Julian Rodriguez‘ health can’t be trusted.

In what is a “surprise” to say the least, Lyon is apparently trying to get Mamadou Niang to come play for them in the Frederic Piquionne role that has not been fulfilled by Piquionne himself. With Fred gone and Sidney Govou leaving, Lyon is trying to get someone who could play with Karim Benzema and feed him balls on the left side.

Now I don’t believe this one second. Mamadou Niang, who has always had stellar performances against Lyon is Marseille’s vice-captain and that means something. But I believe Aulas and his staff are trying their hardest to do what they did to Paris a few years back with Pauleta by very publicly flirting with out most important player, making sure we fight for him and give him a very important pay-raise, thus weakening our economic force on the Mercato.

Mamadou Niang, who is everything but dumb would be well advised to keep smiling an just shut up while Pape Diouf, Jose Anigo and Didier Deschamps sweat while waiting for an answer.

We’ll be back soon.