An hour of goodwill, then it turned
The meeting happened last Tuesday in Marseille, and L’Equipe put the contents of it on the record this morning. Bruno Genesio, Gregory Lorenzi and Alban Juster sat down with the heads of the supporters’ groups, the introductory session every new OM official gets handed sooner or later.
It ran past the hour. Genesio came across well. Squad, transfer window, the Leonardo Balerdi mess, all of it got covered without much friction.
Then somebody brought up the money.
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“Keep investing, or make way”
Rachid Zeroual runs the Winners, and he was not there to be polite. He went after Frank McCourt’s absence and the decision to close the taps, telling the American owner in terms no club would ever print that he should keep putting money into OM or step aside for someone who will.
The timing gives the words their weight. Marseille open their Ligue 1 season this week, still adjusting to life after the free-spending stretch under Pablo Longoria. Genesio has already conceded he did not realise how tight the budget would be when he took the job.
Genesio inherited a long list
The 59-year-old walked into a squad with problems already running. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Nayef Aguerd have both made a mess of their starts to the campaign. Balerdi is the bigger one, booed by the entire Velodrome against Atletico Madrid, and there is no quiet way to fix a player the crowd has turned on.
Strasbourg come to the Velodrome on Friday at 8.45pm. The ground will be full and the same groups who cornered McCourt on Tuesday will be behind the goal. Lose that one and the temperature goes up fast.
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