Having sold Morgan Sanson to Aston Villa, Marseille are in desperate need of a new midfielder to make sure they aren’t short for the second half of the season.
Many names have circulated, with none really sticking, but one has on transfer deadline day, and it’s Celtic’s Olivier Ntcham.
It was reported earlier today that the Ligue 1 side had made a loan offer with a view to buy for Neil Lennon’s man, but they aren’t the only ones after him, with Newcastle United also on the case.
This backs up previous suggestions that Steve Bruce is looking for a player to bolster his midfield on transfer deadline, with Genoa’s Lukas Lerager among those previously mentioned.
La Provence are the ones reporting it on Monday, claiming Ntcham is ‘very close’ to joining Marseille, according to their sources, with their director of football, Pablo Longoria, ‘focusing his efforts’ on the Celtic player with the whole affair ‘extremely advanced’.
Newcastle were ‘also interested’, but their need to sell before coming in for a new player allowed the Ligue 1 side to ‘profit’ and have ‘thrown themselves’ at the former France U21.
It seems to be edging ever closer and we could see a Parkhead departure before the end of the day.
Once a key member of the squad with Celtic placing the bar at €25m for their man, Ntcham could, according to Nabil Djellit from France Football, go for as little as €10m come the end of the season.
Le Celtic avait refusé une opération à 17M€ pour Ntcham en provenance de Porto. Les Ecossais avaient fixé la barre à 25 à l'été 2019. Désormais pour 10 M€ en fin de saison, l'affaire est bouclée. Le salaire de l'Espoir français est largement accessible aux finances de l'#OM.
— Nabil Djellit (@Nabil_djellit) February 1, 2021
We’ll have to see if that’s what Marseille have put forward, but he’s very accessible to them, even wage wise.
