Sylvain Wiltord is Marseillais…

By: Magnusson | January 16th, 2009

Yesterday around noon, Nino Wiltord arrived at the Commanderie for the traditional medical visit and an hour later, he was on the pitch for the first practice session of his Marseille career.

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.

Pape Diouf and Eric Gerets respond to Robert Louis-Dreyfus.

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.