Olympique de Marseille president, Vincent Labrune, while appearing on the show hosted by Bixente Lizarazu, RTL, spoke of the reasons why he let go of Lucho Gonzalez in January as the Argentine joined FC Porto for free
As they prepare to host http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Olympique-de-Marseille-c40127 president, Vincent Labrune decided to speak about a few issues that have surrounded the club in recent months.
The first issue that the strongman of Marseille spoke about was of former midfielder Lucho Gonzalez. The Argentine international was signed from FC Porto for a hefty fee from FC Porto. In his first season, Gonzalez helped Les Phoceens to the Championelle
but things changed as the Argentine struggled.
In the end, Gonzalez was offloaded for free to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/FC-Porto-c39186. Lucho Gonzalez was supposed to be sold last summer but nothing materialised.
Many consider letting Gonzalez go for free a big mistake but Vincent Labrune knows how important it was for the club to let go of the Argentine.
Labrune argued that Lucho Gonzalez’s pay was a massive burden on the club’s payroll.
“Lucho wanted to leave since May 2011. He wanted to leave the club at all costs. He was not happy, he did not play much. He came to see us in January to tell us he wanted to leave and he had an opportunity at Porto,” says Labrune.
If he yielded to the wishes of Lucho, Labrune stayed right in his boots to manage the highly-publicised conflict between coach Didier Deschamps and sporting director Jose Anigo.
Labrune admits that there was a lot of tension at the club due to this and it did affect the team’s performance.
“My ultimate goal was to give Didier Deschamps and his staff the best possible conditions. In that context, I had an intelligent and constructive discussion with Anigo who agreed to take a step back and refocus on his primary mission.”
Certainly Labrune has sorted every issue at Marseille in cool and calm fashion which is the reason why the club is now in contention for a Champions League place.
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