With the opening, this Monday, of a new hexagonal transfer window, attention will, in part, focus in the days and weeks to come, on Marseille and Rennes. At the center of the game: M'Baye Niang still under contract until June 2023 with the Breton team. It is common knowledge: the attacker wants to join OM this summer.
"This is a club that interests me with a great story, warm supporters as I like," he said in an interview with the Canal Football Club on May 24. If I have the sports project as I had in Rennes, I can lower my salary because I will have fun and win trophies. "
Between the lines, the kid from Les Mureaux, whose monthly fees are around 220,000 monthly gross, seems ready for a financial gesture for OM, unlike Rennes.
No discussion between Rennes and OM
The 3rd in Ligue 1 has no intention of selling at a loss a player bought 15 million euros from Torino in 2019 and would like to recover, at a minimum, between 18 and 20 million euros. If this sum was proposed, English clubs like Tottenham also expressed an interest, Nicolas Holveck, the new president, should therefore accept the transfer. Internally, we tasted little, to put it mildly, the communication of the former Milanese and we would already prepare for his departure by positioning himself, in particular, on the Amiens Serhou Guirassy.
Sunday evening, Canal + even reported the conclusion of an agreement between Rennes and OM for around 20 million euros. It is not so. According to our information, there is, to date, no discussion between the two clubs, not even a simple telephone contact.
If he validated this file, initiated at the very beginning of February by the former sporting director, Andoni Zubizarreta, André Villas-Boas has, moreover, never yet met with the Senegalese international of 25 years . Capable of advancing at the forefront, but also on the left side, Niang, strong from two successful seasons in Brittany (29 goals in 80 games in all competitions), met, however, unanimously on his name within the Olympian board.
He emptied his locker
“It is clearly the offensive priority of OM, even if the financial package promises to be complex. Even a player free of any contract can cause concern to the club, in the inability to be able to increase his payroll or to offer a signing bonus, ”notes a person close to the file.
The health crisis has, in fact, caused OM to lose more than 127 million euros according to anonymous feedback from the LFP which is added to an already calamitous 2018-2019 financial year, with a deficit of 91 million. This summer, Marseille will have to at least sell for 60 million euros before imagining possible reinforcements. Unless Frank McCourt, the American shareholder, re-injects cash to reassure Villas-Boas in view of the return to the Champions League after seven years of absence.
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Currently on vacation in Provence, where he has ties through his in-laws, Niang was seen, on Friday June 5, in a butcher shop in Aubagne in the company of ... Bouna Sarr.
Mbaye niang with bouna sarr at aubagne pic.twitter.com/XTy4StZA7M
- mezouar kamel (@ charrel134) June 5, 2020The photo of the two possible "future" partners was also posted on social networks. This meeting, fortuitous or not, shows that the Rennes striker, linked to Puma the equipment supplier of ... Marseille, clearly shows his preference, even if he is not the only decision maker in this case.
Anyway, his adventure in Rennes is coming to an end. He thus took advantage of the first hours of deconfinement to rally Brittany and empty his locker at the Piverdière training center.