MERCATO: Day 1

By: Magnusson | May 26th, 2008

Wilson Oruma and Juan Angel Krupoviesa are not going to play for Marseille ever again. The nigerian international is supposedly one of the pririties of Grenoble for next season. His argentinian colleague will retun to Boca Junior, not convinving enough.

Modeste M’bami wants to leave after two years at Marseille. Despite being one of the main players in Eric Gerets late season rotation, Modeste would like to leave for England. Tottenham and Everton have voiced intersts as well as Fiorentina but the only club to have actually sent an offer is West Bromwich Albion. The Sydney Olympic Gold Medalist is willing to wait before deciding on his future.

After a catastrophic first season and an altercation with his coach, Karim Ziani will leave the club, that’s for sure. But Marseille is not willing to sell the Algerian playmaker for any price. The price has been set at 7 million Euros. Not that much considering he’s very popular in Spain and Atletico madrid has voiced interest acording to La Provence.

Bolo Zenden is still not set on his future. The Dutch veteran wants to know if he’ll be included in Eric Gerets plans or not this season before decideing. The locker-room leader is very happy at Marseille but is willing to leave for a smaller club in order to get more playing time.

Cedric Carasso will undoubtedly leave. The excellent albeit inconsistant keeper has been relegated to the second place and now has a ton of offers on the table. He could land at Nice where Lloris is departing from. Nantes seems more and more interested now that Rémy Vercoutre has extended his contract at Lyon.

Our biggest problem is our defense, and that’s where José Anigo will focus most of his energy for the moment. First of all two Moroccan internationals will be recruited in the next few days. The Marrakech sun will not be to blame as José Anigo has been known to look in Maghreb for a few players even though none of the prospects have come yet (oddly enough, the focus was on Tunisia with Yassine Chikhaoui, Saber ben Frej and more recently Amine Chermiti).

The transfer of Raja Casablanca defender Amine Erbati (26, he played for Dharfa in the UAE this season) should be official this afternoon. Versatile, the central defender can easily slide on the left and should be at Marseille tomorrow t the latest to sign his new contract. He could be followed by his compatriot Soufiane Alloudi (24). The midfielder, himself an ex-Raja man was playing this season at Al Ain, in the United Arab Emirates.

Another player very close to signing is Vittorino Hilton. The Lens brazilian has been approached the last two seasons as well as Le Mans’s Basa and has apparently finally accepted to come play for us. Marseille is willing to pay the 5 million Gervais Martel was demanding for his defensive leader. Ronald Zubar could be making the opposite trip for at least a year on loan in order to get more playing time.

Very disppointing this season, Gaël Givet and Jacques Faty could be leaving. If there’s no rumors on Givet, Faty could join his brother Ricardo at Nantes.

Some last minute rumor that seem to have been whispered is that Marseille used Mamadou Niang to ask if Pape Malickou Diakhaté (ex-Nancy, now with Kiyv) would be interested in coming back in the Ligue 1. The senegalese defender who was at some point very close to clubs like Milan and Madrid was injured all season anddidn’t feel the love of his Ukrainian bosses. This could be great news for the defense if Hilton , Rodriguez and Diakhaté are part of it. Muscle and speed would be added, that’s for sure.

Already at the table today with Lyon representatives negociating Hatem Benarfa, it seems Marseille would love to land Kim Kallstöm at the same time. That would be a double whammy f I ever saw one. Highly unlikely though, since Kallström would succeed very well in the premiership in my opinion. We’ll have to wait and see

To finish, a few done deals, Nancy striker Kim already started talking about playing the Champions League with us. The only problem is nanacy and Marseille staffs are kinda mad at each other. Marseille “took” that spot from Nancy at the last minute , so they’re still kinda salty about it.