Marseille gives you everything but patience
Reading Time: 3min | Tue. 09.03.21. | 19:10
New OM boss Jorge Sampaoli asked for the club for time and patience, but he may have come to the wrong place to ask for those
Marseille is a busy place. It goes both for the city and the club. The city never sleeps and the club is notorious for chewing up and spitting out players, managers and directors. There is never peace, there is never enough time nor patience to get things right. And that is exactly what the new head coach Jorge Sampaoli is demanding.
The Argentine has been appointed new Olympique de Marseille Head Coach a few weeks ago but hasn’t actually taken charge of the team until Monday. He’s had to self-isolate upon arriving from Brazil, the country where he’s been working before being made Andre Villas-Boas’ successor. He was presented to the press and unveiled with the club’s new Sporting Director Pablo Longoria.
"I’m thankful to be at Marseille. I hope I’ll be able to help the club reach new heights and overcome the current difficulties. The situation is far from ideal for everyone surrounding the club, but I’m already working with the players and the staff to reach our goals. In the short run, we need to address the results, but in the long run it will be necessary to build a team that could fight for trophies. It takes time and patience."
Patience is the key word. You have to have time to achieve anything meaningful. Everyone knows that, but time is the resource you simply don’t get in this job. Since the turn of the century, Marseille have had 20 managers and a few caretakers in between. Of all those people in charge, only Didier Deschamps, the current France national team coach, was given three years in his role. The vast majority lasted for a year or less. Sampaoli’s teacher Marcelo Bielsa only lasted 15 months and Villas-Boas was given less than two years. Managing Marseille has to be one of the hardest jobs in football.
Olympique de Marseille is still the only French club to have won the Champions League. It’s a fact their fans are fiercely proud of, but it’s a fact that could yet change with their biggest rivals Paris Saint-Germain pushing hard to get the elusive prize. But, for all the tradition and history, l’OM have been subjected to a long drought. The most recent of their ten titles in the French championship came eleven years ago and it doesn’t seem the eleventh title will be coming anytime soon.
There is plenty of work to be done at OM (©AFP)Sampaoli will earn legendary status in the south of France if he could bring glory back to the sleeping giant, but he will need the club’s directors to stick with him. Pablo Longoria has recently been made Sporting Director for the club and the Spaniard is happy to have secured the Argentine, even though the former Sevilla coach didn’t want to work in Europe again.
"Jorge didn’t want to manage in Europe again, but he did want to come to Marseille. He holds the club in high regard, he likes our ideas and is willing to be a part of our project. This gives me confidence that we’ve made the right choice in appointing him."
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Last weekend, Marseille and their fans were subjected to ultimate humiliation when they crashed out from the national cup with a defeat to a fourth-tier amateur team. They’ve hit rock-bottom. Sampaoli will be hoping for a good start and a string of decent results that would boost the team’s morale and get the agitated supporters on his side. He’ll have his first chance on Wednesday when Marseille host Rennes in a re-arranged Ligue 1 match.
It’s a new start for Olympique de Marseille. Jorge Sampaoli will be hoping it isn’t just one of the many they’ve already have.
