Are we watching the wrong Marseilles players?

Tottenham are being linked with an interest in another Marcelo Bielsa player, this time French midfielder Giannelli Imbula.

Are we watching the wrong Marseilles players?


According to various reports in the tabloids Chelsea, QPR and Arsenal are also said to be watching the 22-year-old who also holds citizenship of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The figure they have thrown at the story is £12 million.

Off to transfermarkt and their valuation is £4.40 million, often out but by nearly £8 million at the lower end of the market? I'd question whether he was a £12 million player immediately, although he does have a contract until 2018 which makes him more expensive and less likely to be a Daniel Levy type target.

Any player playing for new coach Marcelo Bielsa at Marseilles though has to be of interest to us as they play the high-tempo high-press that is Pochettino's style, a style he learned from Bielsa. Anyone already playing the system should take minimal time to adapt. Marseilles sit top of Liege 1 by 7 points from moneybags PSG having scored 25 goals in 10 games and conceded 8.

They have the highest goalscorer in the league this season with 10 goals, 28-year-old André-Pierre Gignac. His contract runs out at the end of the season and is listed as having a value of around £7.92 million. I wonder if we should be watching him as well, not a player in the news but certainly one who clearly knows where the back of the net is.

He has played in all 10 games, completing 9 of them so has a similar profile to the other Marseilles player we are said to be tracking, left-side or central midfielder Andre Ayew. Imbula though is a defensive midfielder, an area we need to strengthen with Capoue not moving the bll forward fast enough.