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Ligue 1: Why French football needs Rudi Garcia to awaken sleeping giant Marseille

The former Champions League winners are looking to return to the top under the ownership of LA Dodgers chief Frank McCourt and Andrew Gibney thinks they have all the tools needed to get the job done.

Ligue 1: Why French football needs Rudi Garcia to awaken sleeping giant Marseille

For any prospective businessman looking to invest in the murky but delightful world of club football, there must be a universal checklist when targeting potential clubs.

You need a stadium to attract the hordes of fans. An ability to expand, a fan base, and a club with hunger for success and perhaps a successful history that has fallen by the wayside.

Russian oligarch Dimitri Rybolovlev’s decision to purchase AS Monaco in 2011 fails to meet any of the above criteria. Even when they won Ligue 1 back in 2000, the Monegasque side were only pulling in crowds of just over 10,000 to the Stade Louis II. It’s Monte Carlo, the prices of expanding or rebuilding must be ridiculous. There was, still is, a definite ceiling.

Just down the road, along the coast, sits the port town of Marseille. Nine-time Ligue 1 winners, the only French club to win the UEFA Champions League and brand new, refurbished 68,000 seater stadium in a one-club town. It’s a no-brainer really, and it seems former LA Dodgers owner Frank McCourt agrees.

Marseille are one of the sleeping giants of French, or even European football. It’s reported that in a country with a population of 66 million, at least 18% of the country’s inhabitants are proud OM fans. This is a club without a ceiling, perhaps the only limitation being that they play in the fifth best ranked league in Europe.

 

Their reach is incredible, back in 2013, when Joey Barton was dictating traffic in the Marseille midfield, they travelled up to the north of France for a Sunday night away game. Now, the culture in Ligue 1 makes away support a rare thing, especially in the same way the British do. There are no 800-mile round trips, perhaps a handful either way. But that weekend, when trying to get access to the Hotel Mercure on the edge of the city to speak to the Englishman, there was easily a couple of hundred OM fans standing outside.

They hadn’t travelled up for the game, they were residents of the Lille Metropolitan area. Even in the Stade Pierre Mauroy that night, apart from the couple of thousand passionate fans that filled the away end, there was at least another 5,000 Marseillais sat in the home end. You could see families sat together, mother and father wearing a shirt of each club and kids having to decide where their loyalties lay.

Marseille have fans everywhere. They always boast one of the best away followings at any Ligue 1 ground, but for that to reach fever pitch at the Stade Velodrome, you need to put a product on the pitch.

In September, when Marseille welcomed Lyon for the Olympique derby, only 32,000 seats were filled. Even with the away fans banned from travelling there was a great noise inside the magnificent stadium. Which makes you wonder what the noise would be like with 68,000 cheering on a team they believe in.

"Today opens a new chapter in the great history of Olympique de Marseille," McCourt told press in a statement announced on the club website on the 17th of October, the day he officially took over control of the club. "A chapter of which I am proud and honoured to be a part.”

"I have no doubt that the challenges OM have had to face on and off the field have had a negative impact on the fans in recent years. Despite the difficulties, the fans have been loyal and steadfast in their support, demonstrating the power of sport and the affection they have for our club.”

French newspaper L’Equipe reported that the American owner will invest €200 million into the club over the next four years. Compared to the billions that English Premier League clubs have at their disposal, it may not sound a lot, but for Marseille it offers them a chance to become a force in French football again, and that’s something everyone in the country should get behind.

Paris Saint-Germain need a challenger and Ligue 1 needs a team that can put pressure on the Parisians. If they want to push on and challenge for a UEFA Champions League crown, they need to be tested and pushed. Walking over the opposition and winning the league by 30 points is, strangely enough, not the best preparation for taking on FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.

AS Monaco and Olympique Lyonnais are already trying to push PSG close, but neither quite has the consistency over a whole season to keep up the challenge for 38 weeks.

Marseille’s first step towards a new future was taken this week when they appointed former AS Roma coach Rudi Garcia as the new man in charge at the Velodrome. It’s a huge statement from the club, it’s big, bold and a wonderful move in a positive direction.

It was a surprise in 2011 when Garcia helped guide Lille to a league and cup double. This was before the age of PSG and their new money and Marseille and Bordeaux were LOSC’s biggest challengers. However, the French boss built up the northerner’s squad over a couple of seasons and he said at the time, the success had come well before what they had planned.

Interestingly, before the former Lille midfielder gets a chance to put his own mark on the squad, he actually has a lot of similar pieces to the puzzle in the Marseille team that he built at Lille. There are quite a few similarities between the type of players he now has at his disposal.

One of the problems he had at Roma was the type of football he wanted to play and also trying to find a role for someone like Francesco Totti. Also, like in France, there was the dominant from a super team, with Juventus almost untouchable in Serie A. Yet, if Garcia could guide Marseille into one of the top three positions and get them in the Champions League, that would be deemed a massive success.

On Sunday night, Garcia’s first match was the easy task of taking on the Ligue 1 champions at the Parc des Princes and rather than play his normal 4-3-3, he went for 5-3-2 and plugged up the midfield, frustrated PSG and managed to hold out for a draw. The away side didn’t manage a single shot on goal, but that will come later. Small steps, and this was a very positive one in the new coach’s first game in charge.

At Lille, one element of Garcia’s title winning team was one of the best midfield trios in France. Captain Rio Mavuba, the battler, Florent Balmont and then the passing skills of Yohan Cabaye. The combination of the three, the way they worked together, filling in each other’s weaknesses, was a perfect storm and a blend that led than to the title.

Garcia already has his captain type player in Lassana Diarra. Although the former Chelsea and Arsenal man was stripped of the armband before Sunday’s game, he is that perfect, experienced midfielder. He will play the Mavuba role. Dictate the midfield tempo, push the play, instruct and guide the others around him.

He may not have the same passion in a player as he had in the bulldog Balmont, but in William Vainqueur, he has a midfielder he had at Roma, someone who can be physical, but put his foot on the ball and drive the team forward when needed. Energy was huge to Garcia’s Lille team and the 27-year-old has the physique and the long legs to play his part in that role.

Zinedine Machach may not be in the same league when it comes to Cabaye’s passing range, but Diarra is an excellent passer of the ball and the young Frenchman has a lot of potential to play on the left of a three and become a similar talent to that of the Crystal Palace man. Cabaye blossomed under Garcia, becoming the talent that Newcastle United signed in 2011, Machach, if he listens and lets his new boss mould him, has undoubted potential.

Garcia also has Zambo Anguissa, a no-nonsense central midfield warrior. Someone blessed with toughness, energy and the physical side you need to win midfield battles. Just like the young Idrissa Gueye that Garcia had at Lille. Back then, you could see Gueye had talent, but he kept to doing the simple jobs. Making easy passes, winning the ball back, getting his foot in. Everything you’d want from Anguissa.

Up front, Lille were lucky. They had a product from their youth academy that would go on to delight in the Premier League. A winger, blessed with unrivalled pace and a centre-forward that everything he seemed to touch turned to goals.

Eden Hazard, Gervinho and Moussa Sow. A perfect mixture of everything you need to win a league title. Lille fans to this day still don’t quite understand how Sow managed to score 25 league goals. He just always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. His previous best was nine, no one expected an over 200% return.

At Marseille, Garcia has Bafetimbi Gomis, the former international striker has not failed to score more than 10 goals in a Ligue 1 season since 2007. The big centre-forward, on loan from Swansea City, already has six this term. He could be OM’s Sow.

Florian Thauvin nearly, like Hazard, played for Lille, but wanted to move his career to Marseille before playing a single game for LOSC. He has the ability, he has the confidence, and he definitely has the skill. He still needs to pull it all together if he wants to get anywhere near the same level as the Belgian forward. Newcastle United fans will back up that one. There is still something there. He is the most skilful, individualistic player that OM has, He could still become a world beater.

On the other flank, Tottenham Hotspur loanee Clinton N’Jie has everything in his locker to be the new Gervinho, something that Arsenal fans may laugh at. Yet, Garcia has already shown to be somewhat of a Horse Whisperer when it comes to Africa wingers. The Ivorian picked up 10 assists and scored 15 goals, adding another 17 when he was rescued by Garcia at Roma.

When he was at Lyon, the explosive N’Jie scored seven times, adding seven assists, that’s what attracted Spurs in the first place and that’s the raw ability that the French boss will be looking to harness.

In defence, he has a Adil Rami-esque passer in Doria, you can even make a case that he has more natural full-backs. He had Mathieu Debuchy moving to the right from a start in midfield, plus he had Franck Beria playing on the left, for the first time in his career. Henri Bedimo, who signed for OM from Lyon in the summer, is experienced and one of the most consistent left-backs in France. The jury is still out on Hiroki Sakai, but the Japanese defender has enough potential for Garcia to work with.

Marseille have drastically underachieved over the past three seasons. Now, this is the time that their talented squad comes together and Garcia is the perfect man to bring it all together under the bright lights of the Stade Velodrome. Not to mention he will be given support from his American cavalry this winter.

Keep an eye on Marseille this season. It may not be successful, but it’s never boring and with all the tools at his disposal, there’s every chance Rudi Garcia can make OM the force in France that the whole country hopes they will become.