Pierre-Emile Højbjerg was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Riyad Mahrez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Igor Paixão is on it.
7 goals in 33 games at Sevilla — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Olympique de Marseille updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Olympique de Marseille know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
3 goals in 34 games at Genoa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Olympique de Marseille updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Olympique de Marseille have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Olympique de Marseille hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
14 combined actions and 7.04. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amine Gouiri is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Olympique de Marseille has to find a result from somewhere.
Pierre-Emile Højbjerg was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Olympique de Marseille did not have in the autumn.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Nayef Aguerd falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vito Mannone and Olympique de Marseille agree another 1 years.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Olympique de Marseille lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deal that would have taken Geoffrey Kondogbia to LOSC Lille has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Olympique de Marseille with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Ludovic Ajorque was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade Brestois have kept their man, and Olympique de Marseille go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
12 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Olympique de Marseille have gone to Al-Qadisiyah with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer went to Chamois Niortais this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Olympique de Marseille have gone to Al-Ahli with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Riyad Mahrez is living that version at Olympique de Marseille, and it tends to show in the first month.
Benjamin Pavard and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emerson and Olympique de Marseille agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Riyad Mahrez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jeffrey de Lange has his answer from Olympique de Marseille; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutIgor Paixão knocks on the manager’s door