Olympique de Marseille’s poor start to the season is inextricably linked to their summer transfer window. Key players such as Mason Greenwood, Facundo Medina, Geronimo Rulli, Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang, Quinten Timber, and Leonardo Balerdi left the club in a firesale after the whole squad was put up for sale in a desperate attempt to adhere to promises made to UEFA and the DNCG.

Despite a raft of high-profile outgoings, the club could still not recruit and it has left Bruno Genesio with a difficult hand. That has shown in the opening weeks of the season, with OM losing five of their first six games in all competitions; the club currently sit second bottom of Ligue 1, although they have had a tough fixture list to start the season.

A divorce between results and budgets at Marseille

That fact can be a source of hope, but fans are also clinging onto hope of a better January transfer window. Speaking to L’Équipe, sporting director Grégory Lorenzi has dampened some of that (misplaced) enthusiasm. “We have to bring calmness and stop thinking solely about the transfer window. We have a constraint that is the DNCG. We have a hearing in December and that will be what informs us (of the January transfer window). Today, I can’t respond about departures or arrivals,” began Lorenzi.

Marseille’s sporting director then broached the topic of spending and the project more globally. “My ideal model? He can’t hinder solely on results. Waiting for TV rights or a UEFA Champions League qualification to make a budget is bad management. We have to have high expectations of ourselves, rediscovering a balance by being independent of results,” said the sporting director.