Olympique de Marseille has already fallen very low this season, and it continues to dig deeper.
Gennaro Gattuso's players lost in Brest on Sunday (1-0) and are now nine points behind the Ligue 1 podium, where they are ranked 9th.
The Italian coach was fired on Monday and was to be replaced by Jean-Louis Gasset on Tuesday.
It's a commando mission that awaits him to save the furniture.
A look back at OM's painful season in five key dates.
To discover
Calendar and results Ligue 1
Ligue 1 ranking
August 15: OM deprived of the Champions League
It is the fear of all 3rds in Ligue 1, as was Igor Tudor's OM, who folded at the end of last season.
Marseille saw its dream of participating in the Champions League collapse at the Vélodrome stadium, in the 3rd preliminary round against Panathinaikos.
The Greek club won the first leg (1-0) and was trailing 2-0 for a long time, before a penalty at the end of the night (90th+9).
Pana qualifies on penalties.
“Football is cruel
,” lamented President Pablo Longoria, aware that the transfer to the Europa League was a meager consolation prize for the supporters, the players and the club's finances.
September 18: muscular exchange between Longoria and the supporters
On Monday September 18, the day after a pitiful draw (0-0) against Toulouse, ultra supporters of OM went to meet Pablo Longoria.
“I was able to speak for two minutes, then I was cut off and things got out of control very quickly… We were told: “All four of us resign, otherwise it’s war!”
,” the leader recounted in the columns from
La Provence
three days later.
The four are him, football director Javier Ribalta, general manager Pedro Iriondo and financial director Stéphane Tessier.
Also readCrisis at OM: who is Rachid Zeroual, the man who blows on the embers in Marseille?
“Shocked”
by
“these threats”
, Longoria withdraws, like his three acolytes.
Only one resigned on September 20: coach Marcelino, after only seven matches on the Olympian bench, ulcerated by what he described, a month later to
L'Équipe
, as an
“untenable situation”
.
Gennaro Gattuso succeeded him a week later.
January 29: Clauss pushed out against his will
OM or the art of shooting yourself in the foot.
On the evening of Monday January 29, in the final stretch of the winter transfer window, various sources reported that Marseille had put Jonathan Clauss on the market.
The right back is however the most used player in the squad, and certainly not the least efficient.
But at OM, he is suspected of saving himself, of exaggerating injuries to get physically fit for Euro 2024 with the France team.
Clauss, 31, ultimately stayed, even if it meant having a little taste of the substitutes' bench.
Symbolic of a club that works in reverse.
February 5: internal crisis meeting
Beaten by OL on Sunday February 4 with a score which does not reflect Lyon's domination (1-0), Marseille is seriously worrying in these first weeks of 2024, after an encouraging month of December.
The next day, as revealed by
RMC Sport
, a
“crisis meeting”
was held at the Commanderie, at the initiative of Longoria.
The latter is not kind to the players.
Gattuso believes the problem is mental rather than technical or tactical.
Willingness to confront one's flock with their responsibilities.
“It is necessary to do more
,” he said at a press conference a few days later.
SEE ALSO –
Lacazette’s winning goal during Lyon-Marseille on February 4 (1-0)
February 19: Gattuso, end of course
Eight matches in a row without a victory, including an elimination in the round of 16 Coupe de France by Rennes, and a defeat at Brest the day before (1-0).
Gennaro Gattuso in Marseille, it's over.
“We can talk about a mini-crisis
,” he said after a draw (1-1) against Metz, relegated, on February 9.
“We have hit rock bottom
,” he lamented after Brest.
The Olympian management has decided, it is impossible to initiate a new dynamic with the Italian.
New page in this dark chapter that is the 2023-24 season for Olympique de Marseille.