• Olympique de Marseille is involved in the Youth League, the Under-19 Champions League, a competition that is "three worlds apart" from those usually contested by the club's youth teams.

  • Pablo Longoria and his teams have however recruited several promising young people to strengthen the N3 and U19 teams, which make up this team in the Youth League.

  • Above all, this seems to reflect a change in strategy within the training centre, with priority given to post-training, which could be done to the detriment of pre-training.

We have had a smoother apprenticeship at the high level than that of the young people from Olympique de Marseille engaged in the Youth League.

The start of the campaign for this Under-19 Champions League looks like a nightmare for the kids, dead last in their group after two draws and two defeats (12 goals conceded), and already eliminated before meeting Eintracht Frankfurt , Wednesday afternoon, like their elders a little later (9 p.m.).

"There is a big gap with the competitions that OM youth teams are used to playing, I would even say that there are three worlds apart", notes a faithful observer of the training center.

Difficult to prove him wrong when we remember the 6-0 inflicted by Sporting Portugal at home in early October.

But these difficulties do not come from nowhere.

OM are not really used to playing this competition anymore, and the Youth League team is a delicate mix between the N3 team and the U19s.

Newcomers not yet convincing

However, Pablo Longoria and his teams have been active on the transfer market this summer, in order to find young prospects, and make them play this competition.

“I would say that there is talent, but they are not yet phenomena or players that we can consider as nuggets.

Everything seems to be going well in terms of behavior, but I am not convinced by those who have just arrived, ”says another regular at OM Campus.

His counterpart believes that "when you recruit players from outside, they must be better than those already present".

And he “sees no difference”.

“I think that when you recruit Roggerio Nyakossi in Geneva for 2 million euros, he must at least be a candidate to join the rotation of the professional team.

" Which is not the case.

The two observers nevertheless agree on a promising player: Sayha Seha, landed from ESTAC this summer.

One "liked the little [that he] saw in four games", while the other considers him "a good ball player".

Tracked by “several French and German clubs”, the 17-year-old Franco-Malagasy youngster was finally convinced by Pablo Longoria and his sports director, David Friio.

“David Friio and Mathieu Louis-Jean had known him for a long time, when they worked at Manchester United and wanted to recruit him.

At OM, we found the same structure, and they have followed it in almost every match for two years.

We know that the club wants to invest in training, there is a lot of scouting work to find the best talents and develop them, ”lists Andrea Pellegatti, who works for Epic Sport, the agency representing the player.

Short term in training

If these arguments convinced Sayha Seha to join Olympique de Marseille, they above all reveal the new strategy put in place by Pablo Longoria, and the priority placed on post-training.

Difficult to have this confirmed by OM, which wishes to “wait for the end of the group stages of the Youth League to soon clearly explain the strategy and structure of the training center”, we were told.

But Jean-Luc Cassini, former director of the training center until 2019, believes that OM "wants to take the post-training route".

“Pablo Longoria wants to do the short term and bring out a good player”, he is convinced.

But according to him, through the promotion of post-training, "we neglect the training center and the pre-training, which is more restrictive, with results over the longer term".

And above all the arrival of post-training players "does not help the kids at the center", according to one of the observers.

“When you tell some people that you can't afford to pay them and that behind you you send 20 or 30 bricks to Nyakossi, the message is complicated,” he continues.

To the detriment of younger

Given the pool present in Marseille, Jean-Luc Cassini believes that this post-training strategy is a mistake.

"By the size of the city, its past, we have to go through pre-training and training at OM", he says.

But for this, the training center needs much more stability.

Nasser Larguet succeeded Jean-Luc Cassini in 2019, before being replaced this summer by Marco Otero, a close friend of Longoria landed from Valence, whose exact role is still unclear according to several sources.

“Every three years it changes, the ideas and the project with it.

But they have it all wrong.

We have to refocus on Marseille, everything was in place, we just have to perfect it.

If you revolutionize everything, the game ideas, the project, it disturbs the children.

In the best training centers, like in Lyon or Rennes, there is stability.

I left three and a half years ago, and since then almost all the Marseillais have been fired, ”regrets the former director of the training center.

our file on OM

The difficulties in developing a youngster from the academy to the first team – the last player to have followed this course is Boubacar Kamara, who has since left for Aston Villa –, can explain the desire of Pablo Longoria, and the Olympique de Marseille, to give another direction to the training center.

But it can also be very counterproductive.

“If you contact any parents of little Marseillais, they will tell you that they will choose Nice or Lyon for their child, warns Jean-Luc Cassini.

My 14-year-old cousin is followed by quite a few clubs.

But even I, who love OM, would advise him to go elsewhere.

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