Paris (AFP)
"Serenity" returned to Marseille, six days after criticism of coach André Villas-Boas against the management of OM, assured club president Jacques-Henri Eyraud, Tuesday in an interview with RMC radio.
"We regularly chat with André and Andoni (Zubizarreta, the Marseille sports director, note)," said Eyraud. "We saw each other and today is the time for serenity, and especially for focusing on one objective: to finish the season well," he added.
His remarks are along the same lines as those of Villas-Boas, which said on Friday that it had "clarified things" with JHE and promised that everything would return "to normal".
Tensions between the Portuguese coach and the president of OM coincided with the arrival in early January of Paul Aldridge, new adviser to Jacques-Henri Eyraud.
In particular responsible for selling players in the very rich championship of England, the adviser was warned Wednesday against possible inclinations to encroach on the prerogatives of Andoni Zubizarreta.
"If this decision goes against what was done in six months, sportingly, by me and Andoni, I am by his side," warned AVB at a press conference, linking his destiny to that of the sports director.
In response, OM certified that the arrival of the English adviser was "not at all a sidelining" of the Spanish leader.
"Andoni obviously remains the full-time sports director of this club, he obviously remains the architect of this team without whom no transaction can be envisaged," hammered JHE on Tuesday.
Asked about the future of the Portuguese coach at the end of the season, JHE was more vague. "In football, nothing can be taken for granted. We are not yet projecting ourselves at the end of the season today, we are really in this championship", declared the president of OM, who occupies 2nd place in the Ligue 1, qualifier for the Champions League.
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