There was more to the sweeping changes made at Olympique de Marseille this summer than a poor showing in Ligue 1.
OM ended the 2023-24 Ligue 1 campaign in eighth, their worst finish to a top-flight season since they wound up in 13th in 2015-16. According to club president Pablo Longoria, though, there was another side to the story last season, which caused him to make wholesale changes.
“It would be populism to only point the finger at the players, but the dynamics of this group, this dressing room, had to be completely changed. I wanted players with a common ambition, over time, with the desire to build,’ Longoria told L’Équipe in an exclusive interview.
There were 14 players who left the Vélodrome at the end of last season, including Jonathan Clauss (32) and Jordan Vérétout (31).
Roberto De Zerbi, meanwhile, was hired to be the new manager after the club had four different coaches during the previous campaign. Longoria says there was an atmosphere in the locker room last season that was not healthy, leading him to start bringing in new faces.
The 38-year-old executive believes for a club to be successful, there has to be “a very clear framework with very clear rules.”
One of the team’s outgoing players this past summer, Pape Gueye (25), spoke out against what he believed were the club’s methods of pushing players towards the exit.
“The club leaders who get the false news out in the press by soiling the image of a player they want to see leave (in addition to forcing, I think people know everything is wrong),” Gueye said on Instagram.
The Senegalese international signed a four-year contract with Villareal on a free transfer from Les Olympiens in July. Longoria admitted to making some mistakes as president of this club, namely setting too many short-term goals.
He was tempted to leave the club but says the confidence that principal owner Frank McCourt showed in him, plus his hopes of building something lasting, played a part in his staying.
With De Zerbi in charge, Longoria believes they have a modern-thinking, innovative coach capable of building a team and an identity, one that was scarcely apparent last season.
Under the Longoria presidency, the club have gone through a massive turnover of players, with at least 10 or more being transferred or loaned out during each of the last three summer transfer windows. OM are currently third in Ligue 1 and are winless in their last two domestic encounters.
