From the Canebière….

By: Magnusson | October 26th, 2007

A few hours before Marseille had to confront Porto in the UEFA Champions League, Mathieu Valbuena signed a new contract with us and is now tied for three more seasons. This new deal will end the relationship between Marseille and the pocket-sized midfielder in June of 2012. The staff is obviously rewarding one of the few players who have given full satisfaction to both the supporters and the team despite the lackluster season beginning. Let’s hope he actually stays this long because given his performances, he could very well be one of the new leader of our team in the seasons to come. He has definitly caught the eye of many recruiters when he scored that goal against Liverpool. It is a great move to have locked the hero of Anfield this early in the season. The boost of confidence can only be a good thing for someone who only wants to be trusted.

According to very frivolous paper BUT! Marseille (For people who don’t know, this is the kind of paper that published headlines like “Batistuta at Marseille, it’s nearly done” and keeps selling like hotcakes), Djibril Cissé will leave at the Mercato. According to his agent, that is not the case and Dibril will stay because “He’ll succeed in Marseille.”. Granted Cissé has not been very good since the beginning of the season (3 goals and 2 assists) but anyone with an ounce of common sense knows he won’t leave and the club won’t let him leave after the whole summer charade with Liverpool. BUT once again is off.

Staying on the Cissé subject, it has been revealed by Le Parisien (Aujourd”hui en France when it’s outside the city) that not only is he still suffering from the metal pieces that are still in his leg and that he refused to take off this summer. These are the same metal pieces that forced him not to start the Liverpool match. Added to the physical pain, Djibril’s wife has apparently lost the baby she was carrying the week after the Auxerre game. Now not to give excuses to the man, but football seems a lot less impotant when you lost one of your kids. Let’s hope he recovers both mentally and physically.

According to Le Phocéen, Robert Louis-Dreyfus and his defense team are on the verge of appealing the decision that was given last week by the Aix-En-Provence court concerning the transfers during the 1997-1999 era and that indicted several memebers of the organization. Now it has been said on many occasions that RLD didn’t appreciate one bit being called a liar and a thief in Court (I guess it always stings a little when people are accusing you of stealing hundreds of thousands of euros at a time while you invested half a billion of your own personal money into the club) and is ready to go all the way to the Cassation Court not to pay that €200.000 fine. Given the price of his high profile pool of attorneys, his principles are apparently priceless.
Other rumor, it has been buzzing around that a french-british conglomerate have just bought Marseille for a little more than a 100.000.000 euros. NOw I couldn’t give credit to this rumor since the person who leaked it (Press promoter Ayache) removed it from his personal blog a few hours after putting it there.

Concerning the same affair, it has come to light that Fabio Celestini’s tranfer from Troyes could have been more than fraudulous itself and the District Attorney of Aix-En-Provence apparently is building a case to make sure everybody that benefited from that €3.000.000 will be indicted. Actual Lyon coach Alain Perrin would apparently be one of the main defendent in that trial, given that he was the one who brought Celestini with him in his luggage when he moved to Marseille. We have not seen the last of the OM accounts apparently.

Samir Nasri will be in Sochaux this weekend. He won’t play but he will be part of the group if his condition improves.

Despite all the intestinal affairs (I’ll try to give you more details on the declarations from Pape Diouf to Thierry de la Brosse, CFO, and El GAoui who’s the president of some internal council. Apparently all these people are gunning for Diouf’s job and decided wile he was in the hospital to do stuff on their own. Diouf was pissed and gave an interview just before the Porto game. The Marseille soap is back on…), the staff seems to be actively looking for a striker and after the Vagner Love rumor that still doesn’t die (I don’t understand why), a new Tullio de Melo rumor is up in this morning’s Le Parisien. Lots of potential but a lack of experience could make him not want to come here seen as he’s been playing for Le Mans so far, a club a lot less exposed than Marseille to say the least.