PSG assistant, success in Saint-Etienne, fiasco during CAN… Who is Olympique de Marseille’s new coach Jean-Louis Gasset?

Jean-Louis Gasset will leave his bags on the Marseille team’s ejection bench for four months in the company of his usual assistant Ghislain Printant. This is the fourth coach in seven months.

A permanent change to Olympique de Marseille. OM coach Gennaro Gattuso was sacked and replaced by Jean-Louis Gasset. This selection by the Marseille team is not really surprising. Among the criteria set, was the need to find an experienced, French-speaking trainer, able to fix headaches and who would accept a short mission, in this case a contract until June 30.

Jean-Louis Gasset apparently ticks all the boxes. He was assistant to Laurent Blanc at Paris Saint-Germain, Bordeaux and the French team. He then served successfully as a firefighter, always in Bordeaux and especially in Saint-Étienne. From a relegated club, he made ASSE a team that qualified for Europe. On the other hand, his last experience on the bench was a fiasco. During the last African Cup of Nations, he left the Ivorian selection after a humiliating defeat against Equatorial Guinea (0-4) in the group stage. Without him, Ivory Coast had a streak of success and won the competition.

Instability in the coaches and staff is disturbed every summer

For Albert Eamon, former OM player and coach, the players have to follow in the footsteps of Jean-Louis Gasset to overcome the situation. “He still has some experience as a coach. He went through some difficult times at Saint-Etienne, he straightened it out. We are two and a half months before the end of the championship, it is going very fast. At the moment, the players must understand that They don’t coach but they play.”

The fact is that OM is still plagued by an almost unhealthy volatility. This is part of the club’s DNA, and even more so with the arrival of Pablo Longoria as club president in 2021. Jean-Louis Gasset is already the 7th coach in three years. As for personnel, it was upside down every summer, every winter, with more failures than successes. As evidenced by Portuguese Vitinha, the club’s most expensive signing with 27 million euros, who arrived in January 2023 and left on loan a year later.

Marseille supporters are finding it difficult to keep up, and have been showing their displeasure for several weeks. The September meeting, which precipitated the departure of the Spaniard Marcelino, did not change the club’s situation one bit, it only delayed the deadline. Marseille are just six points off the European places, but these six points look to be an insurmountable chasm for Marseille who have not won in the league since December 17.