July Report
Transfers
- Edin Dzeko from Wolfsburg for an installment fee of £22million.
Gennaro Gattuso from AC Milan for a fee of £9million.
William Gallas on a Free Agent.
Renato from Sevilla for a fee of £1.5million.
Outs
- Julian Rodriguez to Toulouse for £1million
- Charles Kabore to Schalke for £2.4million.
In an interesting transfer period for the new manager, he succesfully managed to sign the player that he set out to sign in Edin Dzeko. Fired up and ready to go, Dzeko will most likely lead the front line with current club captain Mamadou Niang. Brandao and Morientes will be the back-up strikers. Also with Gattuso and Renato coming in, Youssif now has a great amount of talent to choose from for his central midfield role now. Mbia, Gonzalez View attachment 99014, Cheyrou, Abriel and Valbuena are all of his experianced players. Due to his new 4-3-1-2 set up, he has Ben Arfa as the more creative player with Gonzalez going to be playing in that role when he recovers from his injury.
Dzeko during his Wolfsburg days, now a Marseille player
- - -
Matches
In a pre-season for the new manager that wasn't exceptional but in hindsight was still good as they only lost in 1 game. The game in which they lost was a very poor one and they were beaten by Germinal Beerschot 1-0. New man Ediz Dzeko turned in a handful of good performances and netted 3 goals in pre-season. other good performers were Cheyrou, Mbia and Azpilacueta. Yussif commented though that he still felt that the team itself was bonding and gelling. He added that Deschamps himself had added a lot of new players on top of the current one's that he brought in, so things would take time. Gennaro Gattuso looked a little bit out of shape in his new team and is reportly finding it difficult with the language barrier. He was also a little overconfident, but that was to be expected.
Struggling Gattuso
- - -
The Marseille Cup
In an interesting turn of events, Youssif cancelled the remaining games of Marseille's tour of Belgium and proposed to the board a friendly tournament called 'The Marseille Cup.' It would consist of Arsenal, Standard and Santos. But, after Arsenal turned the request down, Youssif looked to Italian side Fiorentina to fill the void which the accpeted. The tournament was prepared.
It would be a league system were each team would play each other once, the winner would be the team who had the most points of course. Youssif believed that this would be the ideal way to cap of July and prepare for new Ligue 1 season. With talent such as Kerrison for Santos who recently joined on loan from Barcelona, Alberto Gilardino who is one of the most feared forwards in World football and Steven Duffor who is an exceptional central midfield player. It wouldnt be easy for Marseille but they were actually considered the favourites to lift their own trophy.
This was the result and many believed it was a great one. With 2 impressive performances against Standard and Fiorentina whilst narrowly beating Santos on penalties, Marseille lifted the cup. In the Standard game Mamadou Niang would go on to net 4 times in a game which Marseille won 6-2. Dzeko also netted in this game, after he was played through by a delightful little chip from Ben Arfa. Dzeko also netted the equaliser against Santos after Kerrison gave them the lead. Fans from all 4 teams then watched a thrilling penalty shoutout in which Valbuena of Marseille scored to win the match. In the last game Fiorentina had a lot of jaded players, including Gilardino (45% fitness rating and started). This proved vital for Marseille as they turned in a convincing performance and stole the show by winning 3-0. A Morintes thunder-bolt was the highlight of this game as he netted a screamer from 25 yards.
This concluded July for Youssif and his team and they looked hopefully forward to the begging of the new Ligue 1 campaign. They kick off at Home to Stade Rennais F.C on the 08/08/2009.
Niang after his 4th against Standard Liege
- - -
haha! I had £18.75million but most of my transfers are over a period of 48 months kid. When's your next update?
