OM, put under pressure in Ligue 1 by RC Lens, provisionally 2nd in the championship, and AS Monaco (4th), back to 2 points, before the evening match against Reims (8:45 p.m.), will perhaps have to deal with a new problem in its workforce.
Photo credits: Philippe Lecoeur/FEP/Icon Sport
This summer, as well as this winter, the president of Olympique de Marseille, Pablo Longoria, racked his brains and made his network work to relieve the Marseille club of several unwanted elements. Between June and early September 2022, OM indeed loaned Pol Lirola (Elche), Jordan Amavi (Getafe), Konrad De la Fuente (Olympiakos), Nemanja Radonjic (Torino), the very high salary Kevin Strootman (Genoa) and Luis Henrique (Botafogo). In addition to the special case Arkadiusz Milik, sold at a discount to Juventus (with a release clause of less than 10M euros). The Italian club should definitely recruit the Pole at the end of the season.
In June 2023, many of these players will return to OM, most of them having failed to convince in their respective clubs. Except that a name should be added to the contingent of returns, and OM did not necessarily expect it.
An additional striker for Tudor
Indeed, the Colombian Luis Suarez is getting dangerously close to a return to Olympique de Marseille, while the provisional 3rd in Ligue 1 thought he had done the hardest part by loaning the striker to Almeria, in January 2023, with an option of purchase. As reported Football Marseille, the Spanish club are currently 19th in La Liga, with 26 points, as many as 18th and 17th. Almeria are only 2 units behind 12th-placed Sevilla. Nothing is lost in the race to maintain, of course, but the Spanish formation has an automatic purchase option on Luis Suarez which implies that Almeria does not descend to Spanish D2. In the event of relegation, Luis Suarez will therefore return to OM, to integrate the workforce of Igor Tudor.
Not very effective during the first part of the season in Marseille (3 goals and 1 assist in 11 appearances), Luis Suarez (25) did not seduce in Almeria, with only 2 goals and 2 assists in 11 La Liga games. What to hope for, at OM, a maintenance in La Liga for Almeria…