First of all Salim Arrache, recruited from Stasbourg to be one of those wingers Marseille didn’t have in a long time never fully managed to get in the minutes he needed to win over either Jean Fernandez or Albert Emon, let alone Erik Gerets. After a full year of injuries, Salim came back for ten games but was loaned to Toulouse, then Stade de Reims where he still hasn’t managed to blossom.

The hot-headed lefty is apparently still pretty attractive to a few portuguese clubs such as Benfica. But the most interested side seems to be newly relegated Betis Seville who would be willing to take him off our hands for a million and newly promoted Xerez CD who would buy for a little more.

Fabrice Begeorgi on the other hand has been loaned to four different clubs but nothing has stuck so far and the youth product may come back home to France and is interested by a move to any of the Corsian clubs. Ajaccio and Istres seem keen on getting th player but Istres seems in he lead as they would be willing to buy him whereas Ajaccio has been asking for a loan.

More soon for the rest of the lonees, such as Jean-Phillipp Sabo and Gary Bocaly who both have impressed with Montpellier and who could be asked to stay there (even though Bocaly now seems ready to come back and prove how good he can be with us)

As for a few players we were thinking about, Didier Deschamps has decided to let go of all the players whose contracts were over at the end of the season.

First of all Renato Civelli. The Argentine was enjoying a second career at Marseille in 2009, becoming a fan favourite after being considered too clumsy to play for us. Everyone believed he would be re-upped as soon as Deschamps arrived since the player himself was hoping to stay and become an important player in next year’s squad. It won’t be the case and Civelli, who is now enjoying vacation in Argentina, won’t have much trouble finding a new club.

Another man who won’t have much trouble finding a new club is Bolo Zenden.The Dutch veteran is the club’s highest paid player and his departure is an attempt to lower the salary-mass and allow us to recruit or offer pay-raises to other players.

Tyrone Mears won’t be playing for us any more either. His contract ended and the club asked him to leave. As much as people were grateful for his goal in the Netherlands that qualified us, a man who couldn’t start at Derby County can’t start at Marseille. A mistake in casting for a man who was appreciated for his professionalism and always very kind to the fans.

Modeste M’bami will be leaving as well, but that’s everything but a surprise. The Cameroon international wanted to leave for the Premiership a year ago but didn’t. Now he’ll be free to offer his services to anyone. I’m ambivalent on this one because on one hand, he had a big salary but on the other hand, M’bami never stopped showing that Marseille was a stepping stone to the Premiership for him. I’m pretty sure he could succeed there is he applies, something he hasn’t done a whole lot of in Marseille.

Sylvain Wiltord will see his six-month contract come to an end. The 34 year-old is professionalism personified and was very helpful in getting everyone focused on the prize. But it’s another one of those incredibly expensive players, especially if they stay on the bench.

Here are five players who won’t be playing with us any more. Marseille said earlier that Didier Deschamps wanted no more thn 25 players in his whole group. Adding Givet, Samassa, Grandin, the Minots (Gnabouyou, Dennoun, Krstic, Mbow, etc….) and potentially Zubar, that’s already thirteen players leaving the Commanderie before anyone gets in.

Also according to today’s AS, it seems that Gudjohnsen and Marseille already came to an agreement and that in the next few hours, it would be officialised. I don’t know how much credit we can give to that rumour but if that’s the case, that would be fantastic news. Gudjohnsen is a much better player than Samassa.

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.

“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

The french veteran came in free of charge from Rennes for the next six months after Guy Lacombe decided not to use him anymore (he has only played six games this season). When it was clear that he wouldn’t be used much more in the second half, José Anigo proposed his name to Eric Gerets who immediately said yes. Sylvain Wiltord has played in a lot of great clubs and definitely has the experience and weight in the locker room that can be lacking sometimes. His experience will be priceless. Not to mention the fact that he always has been exemplary in his preparation and physical fitness.

One of the things we can really worry about is the fact that he hasn’t not played a whole lot this season and could potentially take a little time to adapt. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how that goes.
For the record, Sylvain Wiltord will be wearing Samir Nasri’s old number.

After Robert Louis-Dreyfus’s incendiary comments from Wednesday, Pape Diouf also came out in the national press to let it be known that he was hurt. The President expressed his astonishment after reading the owner’s interview and reluctantly answered through La Provence to what he believes to be an unfair treatment. The President first expresses how disappointed he is to hear this from the press after seeing the owner last week. And then he lets us in in the power struggles that exist in the club. Robert Louis-Dreyfus’s communication expert, Vincent Labrune, aka The weezle, has longed for his job for a long time, and is now making a play for it.

What surprised Diouf and anyone with half a brain is the timing of this all. It could have been understandable when we were 19th last season, or when we were “out of the loop” three match days from the end, but now? When the club is winning points again and a new energy is being felt. It doesn’t make any sense.

To respond to his attacks on recruitment, Diouf defends his own results, pointing that when he arrived, the club was deeply in debt and that three years later we are making a lot of money. More importantly, ever since he came, we are back on every single level of decision when it comes to the Ligue and are out of courtrooms.

Speaking of Alex? His salary was a lot higher than Djibril Cissé’s. Gourcuff? It’s easy to talk about him nopw but Ben Arfa and Koné were much more coherent buys this summer. Podolski? Bayern was O.K. but the player doesn’t want to leave Germany. Adriano? He costs 1 million a month, making him the biggest salary with no insurance of performance.

This interview is very interesting. Pape Diouf states once more that he doesn’t need the money (It’s true, he was the biggest sports agent this side of the Premiership (Eto’o, Drogba, Desailly, Nasri, Dugarry…) and reminds everyone that he won’t be clinging to his chair. The man has class, can’t be doubted.

Now to Vincent Labrune, he sent a message, you don’t run Marseille from Paris, but from Marseille. This proved true many times over when Yves Marchand, Christophe Bouchet and others tried to take the daily plane from Paris to run Marseille half the time.

As for Eric Gerets, he too thinks these attacks are unfair. The Belgian technician,, in a short interview with RMC Radio, expressed the poor timing of the whole thing and stated that he believed Pape Diouf to be hurt but believes he won’t resign.

“I’m only repeating the objectives announced by Pape Diouf, Jose Anigo and Eric Gerets in the press early in the season. They made choices of players this summer. Me, I proposed others we could have gotten easily (Alex and Gourcuff…). I respect their choices, but there must be results. It was a way to remind them that they had the means and that their hands were free when they made those choices. But one day, there will have to be consequences. And if these goals are not met, I think they will draw their own conclusions (…) We will, for sure, have a few conversations.”

It’s nothing but fair that the man who is paying the bills is frustrated when he sees that two of the players he w<as puching for are having incredible seasons. Our staff hoped that Mathieu Valbuena would transform into another Ribéry and take Samir Nasri’s spot seeminglessly. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen and Yoann Gourcuff has been hailed as the latest of the “New Zidanes” and may secure his spot in the national team with the amazing four-month run he’s been having. In the meantime, Valbuena is only now starting to look like himself.

Keeping on with the players, Luois-Dreyfus confesses that he was a little hurt in his pride: “I always hope that my recommendations are followed, but perhaps they thought that Kone, Ben Arfa and Hilton were better choices than the ones I wanted. The truth is, everyone needs to rest in his place. Pape Diouf has full powers to make up the team.”
The only moment where he says he pushed really hard was when he felt like Cissé needed to move: “Why did I prompt his departure? Simply because he had the biggest salary in the Ligue, 400,000 euros net per month, and he was not included in the team as a starter. It is a luxury that OM can not afford. I prefer to invest in other players in that case.”

Once again, understandable. But aside from those points, RLD confessed to still be madly in love with the club and says he is still willing to pay for a few more players, in spite of Brandao’s recent signing: “What striker can we have at mercato if we follow the decision of the technical staff to recruit for this position? Sergio “Kun” Agüero (Atletico Madrid), we can not have him anymore. He was very interested last year, but he blew up in the meantime and became very expensive. I called Peter Kenyon (Chelsea CEO) to the ask on Didier Drogba. They are not in any way shape or form ready to let him go. I thought about Adriano (Inter Milan), I contacted Massimo Moratti, but for now they’re stalling.”
It would be interesting to see today what Diouf, Anigo and Gerets respond to that.

In the meantime, Marseille sent out on loan three of their youth team products that Gerets was not interested in develloping at this time, offensive midfielder Amine Dennoun (22) will go to Ajaccio (L2), defender Leyti N’Diaye (23) leaves for Reims (L2), as is the case for left-winger Salim Arrache (26), whio was himself just coming off a loan to Toulouse.

Pape Diouf took the time to reiterate the fact that neither Gaël Givet nor Bostjan Cesar would be leaving since no serious proposal came to his desk yet. Givet, one of the bigger salaries, still fighting for a spot with Hilton and Erbate has a contract running till 2009 and Marseille will have to sell him at the latest during this winter’s mercato unless he revives his careeer à la Karim Ziani in the meantime, since Marseille wouldn’t be very smart letting such a talent go fo free. As for Bostjan Cesar, the guy is a sweetheart but should have left years ago.