Throughout the summer, Tottenham and Marseille fans had to patiently wait for the Georges-Kevin N’Koudou and Clinton N’Jié saga to go through, which eventually happened.
The pair got their respective moves to and from Tottenham, but there were numerous delays, which have now been explained by Marseille’s new director of sport, Gunter Jacob.
The Belgian, who was brought in to help the transition period between Marseille’s soon-to-be-ex-owner and Frank McCourt, their new investor, told La Provence on Thursday what exactly happened to cause a transfer that looked all done in mid-July drag on until transfer deadline day.
He said: “I was brought in when it was pretty much all done. N’Koudou had passed his medical, as had N’Jié. When I’m asked to make decisions and sign things, I’m happy to take responsibility, I don’t hide, but I don’t sign things I’m not happy with. They were legal and financial details.
“I gave my opinion to the supervisory board, who agreed. Mr Levy wasn’t very happy, but we got through it. We have a good relationship now. I wished him good luck with the league, as he did to me, and we’re still in touch. He did, however, tell me: “Never do that to me again”. I told him that next time I hoped to start the negotiations from the start to not have to do them over.”
As expected, this confirmed our suspicions the potential change of ownership had been part of the hold up, but this also seems to highlight a certain ineptitude from the first negotiator, who would have been then president Vincent Labrune.
For someone to halt a deal that was pretty much all done suggests some strange agreements must have taken place beforehand.
Either that, or Labrune just didn’t care as he was about to leave anyways.
