Olympique Marseille » Coupe de La Ligue

Drogba-to-Marseille prospect returns in cyclical fashion

Daniel Phan — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:35:33 +0000

It’s intriguing, or rather not – to hear of speculation surrounding the ‘imminent’ return of Didier Drogba to the Vélodrome.

You may ask “Why the pessimism? My answer is simply that it has been a reoccurring scenario that comes and goes in periodical cycles as frequent as Berlusconi makes the Italian tabloids – each instance teasing heartened Marseille fans like myself.

In the past, nothing has ever developed out of the speculation besides endearing words from the Côte d’Ivoire international himself; directed at the Marseille club and its supporters. Though pleasing to the ears of the legion of sky blue fans, its been nothing but friendly communication from Drogba.

Just weeks since Drogba’s latest admission of his affection for Marseille (June 10th) comes a rather ambitious and undoubtedly fan-pleasing ploy from the man ready to step into the Marseille Presidential role vacated by Pape Diouf.

In the wake of the recent administration tragedy that is Diouf’s departure from the organisation – Jean-Claude Dassier, his imminent ~~replacement~~ (Diouf is irreplaceable) has declared a desire in re-attaining the services of the Ivorian goal-getter as he plots his assault on the transfer market in a attempt alleviate frustrations from disenchanted fans after the club’s unpopular decision of ousting Erik Gerets and Pape Diouf.

“Everybody wants it (Didier Drogba back at Marseille). We will see if it is possible and if we can afford it.”

But the question remains; will a Drogba-to-Marseille move ever eventuate?

And if yes – will we witness Cindarella (Marseille) reunite with her Prince (Drogba) in the near future?

Personally – I’d rather not listen to any further Drogba-to-Marseille rumours as all it does is remind football followers the Globe over of the French league’s financial inferiority in contrast to its English and Spanish counterparts.

And with money, or a-lack-of being the variable that determines a club’s level of proficiency or mediocrity – any news linking Drogba to Marseille should remain encapsulated until there is any likelihood of the player’s signature. In my belief that is for the better of the club’s reputation.

Saying that, the ambitious yet honest attempt from OM fans exactly a year ago prior to this date here in raising cash for the re-acquaintance of Drogba is truly inspiring and shows the fans hunger for silverware.

Incidently – Drogba’s one-time strike partner at Chelsea Andriy Shevchenko, currently returning to the West London outfit from a uneventful loan spell at former employers AC Milan has been linked to a move to Marseille. If wage demands are anything to go by, Shevchenko’s astronomical earnings will all but send OM into overdraft!

By the way, this is my first blog entry for this page, nice to meet you all! – I hope to re-acquaint myself as regularly as possible throughout the duration of the coming season, and hopefully beyond. Alongside Magnusson’s leadership I’m adamant that we can form a prolific partnership that likens itself to a possible Eto’o-Drogba combination we all wish for at l’OM. *dreams*

What the f*ck just happened? The Carquefou edition…

Magnusson — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:45:06 +0000

See eight days ago, we were 2008’s team. With nly one defeat in three months and the best record in France, we seemed unstoppable, we were still looking great in three different competitions. First the Ligue 1 where we were looking mighty with eight consecuive wins, the UEFA Cup where we were supposed to just make sure our 3-1 home-lead was enough to let us go through against a russian team that should have been scored upon five or six times at least. And finally there was the Coupe de France where we picked the weakest of opponents, Carquefou, a small suburb of Nantes nobody had ever heard about before their win against Nancy. The Nancy boys were alledgedly ambushed by a small team with small ideas but great defending on a pitch that was looking more like a minefield than a football pitch.
But marseille wa warned. Marseille would be playing on the Beaujoire and make sure they left their jerseys to the different carpenters, drape salesmen, gym teachers, administrative assistants and library employees that are pretty much all fans and who were just hoping not to take 6 or 7 goals as everybody predicted.
This game was supposed to be so boring that even France Television didn’t want to show it. Come on! Nobody wants to see the little team get abused by the professionals. Especially when said professionals are just on a mission to redeem themselves in the eyes of their President and their fans.
After the St.Persburg fiasco, Pape Diouf came out strongly gainst his players. I can’t wait to read what he’ll call them tomorrow. Because, Oh! Yes! I forgot to tell you. MARSEILLE LOST AGAIN.
Yes, I’m not kidding. Marseille lost to the amateurs. the team that is struggling not to get relegated. The CFA2 team. Those guys who lost to Lorient’s B team last team. Yep these same guys.
There have been a few “collective Brain Farts” (i’ve used this expression more than the author herself now I believe), Valenciennes, Nice, Liverpool, St.Petersburg adnd now, for eternity, there will be Carquefou.
Eric Gerets gave in to all the Marseille fans who believed Cedric Carasso deserved a chance to play for his hometown team one last time. I was part of those and believe you me, his last game in a Marseille shirt will be remembered fondly. Not necessarilly by us but it will be remembered.
Gerets played Bonnart, Faty, Zubar and Krupoviesa in defense, Kaboré, Ziani and newly appointed bad boy Samir Nasri in the modfield, Zenden and his pal Cissé and his buddy Akalé up top. Seriously not out A-Team but nothing to sneeze at neither. Well we lost anyway. Even with Cana getting in at half-time, even with Ayew replacing Krupoviesa, even with all our goodwill. We were scored upon at the ninth minute. And Carquefou played better than we ever could. They played well, they played together. They’re gonna make us believe we should be watching CFA and CFA2 games soon.
I’d love to see what Eric Gerets and Pape Diouf will say tomorrow. But no excuses, they were better and wanted it more. Hopefully our fans didn’t act rowdy and were fair-play after the game.
Here’s the goal, please don’t blame Carasso, he hasn’t played in awhile and didn’t do anything bad (he didn’t do anything good either but that’s another story) after this first mistake.

The only satisfaction comes from my senegalese chauvinism. Pape Idrissa Ndoye is senegalese and just arrived at Carquefou six months ago to find a construction job. The 22 year old is pretty quick and maybe he can become one of those Cinderella stories like Piquionne and Valbuena.
Speaking of which, it’s never as obvious how much Football is more chance than real talent when you see Mathieu valbuena and before him Franck Ribéry who were both kicked out of their academies and played in CFA2 before persevering and making it into the French National Team.
Carquefou’s captain Sebastien Lepaih and a big number of his teammates were kicked out of Nantes academy, him being the only one to play professionally(3 times but still) for the canaries. Maybe this victory will show people that just because they’re not professionals doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a second look.
Peace out.

Never change a losing team…

Magnusson — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:28:47 +0000

Eric Gerets said all week that there was going to be some kind of big shakedown with new players getting their shot (people were talking Oruma-Mbami in the midfield, Arrache Gragnic Ziani Nasri and Moussilou up top. None of that happened. Eric Gerets created the “Never change a losing team” principle. After the fiasco that happened on Saturday, it was good to see him put the same team in just to let them redeem themselves. It pretty much worked.
Samir Nasri is quietly getting back to his best level and that is something very nice to see. He’s back to acting like the understudy of Franck Ribery and was everywhere dishing out passes and just all around making for my lack fantasy-football points lately. Karim Ziani finally showed the public why he was so expensive in the first place. And Mamadou Niang is quietly getting back to being one of the most underrated strikers in the Ligue 1.
In what was a somewhat boring game, Marseille didn’t manage to score against Metz in the initial 90 minutes. We had to go to extra-time for us to take the lead twice by Mamadou Niang first and then by Djibril Cissé.
This particular game had a scenario that I didn’t like one bit as it reminded me of the Final of the Coupe de France last year when after leading twice with goals of Niang and Cissé, Sochaux caught up twice and ended up lifting the trophy.
This time it didn’t happen. Marseille squandered too many chances for me to count (just watch the video) and didn’t manage to score. And in their two excursions out of their zone, Metz managed to score on two mistakes from us. That was worrysome. But Djibril Cissé patching things up with the Vélodrome was a sight to see. He finished the game in his underwear as if we had just won something importantand the public (the very few that actually were at the stadium) were chanting his name throughout the second half even before he scored. And he was voted Player of the match by the fans. Apparently, it only takes Didier Drogba to speak for the supporters to follow suit. In any case, Cissé was smiling even when he was missing shots. Maybe Gerets got the spirit back in the team.

Here is the video of the game.

On a completely different note, the sengalese national team can be gappy, Mamadou Niang and newly selected Momar Ndiaye both scored. With the African Cup of nations starting up january 20th, it’s good to see them in top shape.

Here are some pictures of yesterday night’s game

Marseille – Metz, the shakedown

Magnusson — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:28:50 +0000

Metz is twentieth in the Championnat but you know they managed to take Bordeaux out of the competition in the previous round. Even if they’re dead last in the Ligue, they could surprise us like they surprised the Girondins.
A big shakedown was supposed to happen and Cissé was not even supposed to be included in the group. But after his catastrophic game on Saturday, Eric gerets didn’t want this to seem like a punishment so he’s been reincluded in a group that now counts 20 players. He announced that Ayew and Moussilou was about to start the game. And this turns out to be a big coup since now, one hour before the game, he decided to make minimal changes and the two players that seemed the more tired were replaced. Valbuena who has played every single game can now take some well deserved rest. Zenden as well (he walked the whole Sochaux game, it was incredible).
Here’s the lineup

Mandanda
Taiwo Bonnard Faty Givet
Cheyrou Cana
Nasri Ziani Niang
Cissé

Give us goals then

Marseille hopes not to get Metz-merized…..

Magnusson — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:52:10 +0000

.
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Sorry for the very -VERY- bad pun but I just couldn’t resist the temptation. Marseille will be opposed in the round of 16 of the Coupe de la Ligue to one of the only two teams that are having a worst time than us in the Ligue 1 right now, Metz (the other one being Lens but we beat them last sunday).

Metz is a team that has been dear to my heart in the last few seasons because they have been providing the senegalese youth teams with a lot of talent and have a Youth academy in Dakar (so does Monaco -Silva, Evra, Souleymane Camara among others are academy products, but somehow Metz uses its senegalese youngsters a lot more than Monaco ever did). But it can hardly be said that they are a threat to anyone in the Ligue 1. Long forgotten are th days last season where Metz was actually scaring the bejeezus out of any team in Ligue 1.

Today, they sold some of their key players and are left with a mix of youth and eexperience that hasn’t taken yet. Let’s wait another week fellas for that. Pleae let marseille win for the sake of me.
It’s not that I’m particularly worried about it but Marseille could so easily lose this game if luck escapes us once more like it did at the Bonnal on Saturday.

Eric Gerets gave his group of 20 players selected for tomorrow night’s bout at the Vélodrome and here they are:
Keepers - Mandanda, Hamel
Defenders - Zubar, Faty, Bonnart, Givet, Taiwo
Midfielders - Cana, M’Bami, Cheyrou, Valbuena, Zenden, Oruma, Nasri, Ziani
Strikers - Arrache, Cissé, Niang, Moussilou, Ayew

The players missing are of course Cédric Carrasso , Julien Rodriguez (who started running again friday morning), Fabrice Fiorèse, Vincent Gragnic, Krstic and Hassoune Camara.

I don’t know how important this compettion is to Eric Gerets but we should difinitly try to go as far as possible since the Cups may be the only way for us to qualify for a European compettion next year.