One of the big dramas that followed the transfer window’s deadline day was André Villas-Boas’ announcement he had asked to resign from his job at Marseille.
The reason for that was the signing of Celtic’s Olivier Ntcham on loan, a player he made very clear he didn’t want, but one Pablo Longoria, the director of football, brought in anyways.
The midfielder, who joined from Parkhead until the end of the season, has the ability to stay should Marseille decide to pay Neil Lennon’s team a €6m fee.
Refusing to comment on the situation when he eventually landed in the south of France, the Celtic man was apparently already aware that Villas-Boas didn’t want him before even signing.
He said, relayed by Foot Radio: “We’ll see if it’s credit to the player or not, but when he was negotiating to join Marseille, he asked Longoria during one of their chats if he could talk to the manager. Longoria replied: ‘No, that’s not a good idea’.
“So, basically, Ntcham and his agents already knew André Villas-Boas didn’t really want him to come, but he came anyways”.
That’s because the former France U21 international had been struggling for game time under Neil Lennon, and the chance to move to a club as reputable as Marseille in the present situation was probably too good to turn down.
