Marseille in meltdown: Inside OM's historically bad start to the season after a transfer window to forget

A quick glance at Marseille's summer transfer activity and you begin to understand the reasons behind their dire start to the new season.

OM endured arguably the worst window of any club in Europe; alongside Spain's Athletic Club - who famously only sign players who hail from or began their careers in the Basque Country - the French giants were the only side in Europe's top-five leagues to fail to bring in a single new arrival.

It had been clear from the outset that sales would be the priority, but reinforcements to fill some gaping holes in the squad had still been expected. Ultimately, though, Marseille's only incoming business of any note saw them turn loan deals for USMNT winger Timothy Weah and Bournemouth attacker Hamed Traore permanent.

Otherwise, the focus was entirely on outgoings, as owner Frank McCourt set about slashing the wage bill in a severe austerity drive. Multiple key players including controversial talisman Mason Greenwood (Fenerbahce), fan-favourite striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Deportivo La Coruna), defender Facundo Medina (Bayer Leverkusen) and No.1 goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli (Manchester City) were allowed to leave.

There were more departures, too, with midfielders Quinten Timber and Bilal Nadir joining Crystal Palace and Hamburg, respectively, while former club captain Leonardo Balerdi was loaned to Roma and the aforementioned Traore departed to Genoa on a temporary deal.

Of those outgoings, OM's permanent sales only yielded a fairly modest €80 million (£69m/$91m). Of that, a €45m (£38m/$50m) total package for Greenwood - significantly below the forward's market value - means Marseille only just broke even, given the hefty sell-on fee they owed Manchester United.

There could have been even more big names heading through the exit at Stade Velodrome, but for one player's change of heart, the manager's intervention and the late collapse of another deal.

In August, skipper Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg came close to joining Newcastle before ultimately opting to stay at Marseille. OM's highest earner, that saw him brutally stripped of the captaincy by the club hierarchy, who had been determined to get the Dane off the books. "It's a decision dictated to me by the club's management," Genesio said at the time. "It's not a decision I agree with."

It was around the same time that centre-back Nayef Aguerd was on the verge of returning to Real Sociedad on an initial loan. After claims in the Spanish media that he had failed his medical, Aguerd revealed that deal collapsed due to a disagreement over his rehabilitation after a serious groin injury. He has since been reintegrated.

The off-field drama would peak at the end of the summer as a saga unfolded around winger Igor Paixao. Sunderland made a late push to sign the Brazilian and personal terms were agreed, forcing Genesio into drastic action. The head coach voiced his opposition to the potential sale and it was even claimed that he threatened to quit after fewer than two months in charge.

Ultimately, the transfer was blocked at the death. "We weren’t far from the breaking point with Paixao," club president Stephane Richard revealed afterwards. "I campaigned for Paixao to stay. If I hadn’t intervened, he might have left. In the end, the decision was McCourt's. He made the effort."

Addressing the saga himself In an interview with Ligue 1 Plus, Genesio said: "It is my job to alert my superiors to the sporting consequences of such a decision… it is also a question of the club's survival. We need to be able to adapt to the club's economic context, while also keeping some sporting prerogatives. I was lucky - I was heard."

Marseille's incredibly frugal summer was undoubtedly defined by the domestic and European sanctions the club was slapped with back in June.

First, UEFA handed OM a suspended Europa League exclusion and €10m (£9m/$11m) fine for failing to comply with earnings targets under a settlement agreement, albeit it was a limited breach. If they fail to comply ​with the target this season, Marseille will be banned from ​the next European competition they qualify for within the following three years. They were also restricted in their ability to add players to their 'list A' for the 2026-27 Europa League campaign.

There was a more significant development the following week, as the club was hit with sanctions from French football's financial watchdog the DNCG (Direction Nationale du Controle de Gestion) - the result of posting record losses in recent years. Those measures saw their wage bill capped and their transfer activity closely monitored, with controls in place on fees.

Marseille's failure to qualify for the Champions League last season inevitably had a damaging knock-on effect. They ultimately finished fifth in Ligue 1, agonisingly just one point behind Lyon in fourth.

That is what provoked the fire sale of big-name players, as McCourt and Co. were forced to tighten the purse strings. In late August, a beleaguered Genesio admitted: "There won't be any recruits. Three or four [more] players have to leave us for us to be able to register one or two arrivals."

It was later reported that the club is in talks with its players over a salary review, with the enforced cutbacks continuing.

"The transfer market surprised me because it's almost unheard of," Marseille-based La Provence football journalist and author Fabrice Lamperti tells GOAL.

"Zero recruits, only departures. The team is still involved in the Europa League. Marseille remains an ambitious team on paper because it is a historic club in the French championship. So it's surprising that no one arrived, that no one was recruited.

"It surprised everyone, including Bruno Genesio. He was expecting recruits, not necessarily starters, but still recruits, players to develop. He likes that. He has a reputation as a coach, so he likes to train players, to develop them, to help them progress, to get them to get the most out of them."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Marseille haven't been faring any better on the pitch since their season began under a cloud. A resounding opening-day victory over BlueCo-owned Strasbourg at the Velodrome proved to be deceiving, and it's been downhill ever since.

Les Phoceens have lost their subsequent five matches on the bounce, including a 2-0 defeat to south-coast rivals Monaco, a humbling 4-1 rout at the hands of Besiktas in the Europa League and a customary loss to French and European champions Paris Saint-Germain in Le Classique.

This represents OM's worst-ever start to a season. A club that is seemingly never far from a full-blown crisis, this dire run of form has left them in the relegation zone with the first international break of the season upon us, and tensions are inevitably rising at a rapid rate.

Amid OM's terrible results, which have come off the back of a historically bad transfer window for the club, the pressure on both the manager and the hierarchy is cranking up.

During Le Classique against PSG, Marseille's last match before the international break, there were protests around Stade Velodrome as the fervent fanbase voiced its deep discontent with the hierarchy. One banner in the stands read '2016: Champions project, 2026: Ligue 2 project' - a nod to where their side finds itself after a decade of McCourt's stewardship. 'McCourt game over!' was the blunt message of another.

However, Lamperti doesn't foresee the American's reign coming to an end anytime soon. "We rarely see him in Marseille. So for now, I think he's here to stay. He's never hidden that he'd like a minority investor to come and help him, but the problem is that this minority investment would need to be between 200 and 300 million [euros].

"The price is quite high, and at 200 or 300 million, you could buy a club today. Why would you put that money into a club without being the boss, or having much say? McCourt never ceases to repeat that he's still here for years and years, that it's a heritage investment, and that he's not going to leave. So we'll see what happens.

"I think there's going to be more and more protests. But I don't think he necessarily feels them, since he's far away and doesn't come to the stadium often."

Inevitably, Genesio also finds himself under scrutiny. While he has insisted he won't step down, the 60-year-old has held showdown talks with the leadership, having grown increasingly frustrated by McCourt's ongoing silence on the financial situation that is the root cause of Marseille's problems this season. The board, in turn, is running out of patience with the coach's outspokenness about their predicament.

It has since been claimed by L'Equipe that it's unlikely that Genesio will still be in charge of OM come Christmas, albeit they are not in a position to sack him due to the potential financial ramifications. The perspective in Marseille is that his job should be safe, but there is a fear that he could walk away.

"OM are aware of having a great coach, and given the current situation, it may be almost unexpected to have such a coach, because of all the restrictions," Lamperti says. "So I don't think he's under excessive pressure. On the contrary, we trust him, because the team is playing pretty well, despite the five consecutive defeats. Against Paris, they [the fans] didn't get mad at their defeat.

"The only problem is that there's a lack of depth, there aren't enough substitutes. So after a while, it gets more and more complicated for players who last 45 minutes, sometimes an hour, and then it gets more complex. The question we're asking ourselves is whether or not Bruno Genesio will end up being discouraged by all this, and leave of his own accord."

Ironically, Genesio was viewed as a potentially calming presence when he was appointed back in July after a tumultuous period at Stade Velodrome, but his tenure to date has been anything but. Barring a knee-jerk reaction from the hierarchy, time, at least, is on the Frenchman's side at this early stage of the season.

Marseille will view their next three games as winnable, and if they collect seven or more points from those matches then the picture will suddenly look very different. Les Phoceens travel to Troyes next time out, who are one point and one place above them in the table, before a trip to mid-table Angers and a home clash against bottom club Le Havre.

Genesio will probably feel that the international break is well-timed, too, giving him the opportunity to put the summer in the distant past and work with the players he does have on the training ground with a view to kickstarting their season when domestic action resumes. However, this is a crisis that could deepen very quickly if there are more negative results to come.

"These aren't the best moments of my career, that is for sure," the manager said recently. "It may take some time to rediscover the OM that we all want."