Marseille sign a trio of Premier League players

Olympique Marseille wandered in many directions, knocked on many doors, and managed to arrange a triple reinforcement on the final day of the transfer window. Danish midfielder Matt O’Riley is arriving from Brighton on loan, while left-back Emerson Palmieri and center-back Nayef Aguerd are coming from West Ham. Another defender, who can cover both right-back and center-back positions, is also expected. After nearly agreeing with Milan on the sale of Adrien Rabiot, Marseille went looking for a midfielder of similar qualities and found one at Brighton. A year ago, Matt O’Riley was one of the most sought-after players in Europe in his position, and Brighton beat Atalanta to sign him back then. He got injured quickly and couldn’t make the expected breakthrough, but he didn’t lose market value, and Roberto De Zerbi pushed for the move from his former club. It’s a 2,000,000 euros loan deal with no buy option. Marseille brought in another midfielder by similar means—talented Belgian Arthur Vermeeren from Leipzig. That loan is worth 3,000,000, but with a 21,000,000 euros purchase option. Both midfielders are expected to fit into De Zerbi’s style.

Much more panic reigned at the Velodrome over reinforcements in the back line. Marseille had several targets there. The main one was Ecuadorian center-back Joel Ordoñez from Brugge, but the 30,000,000 offer wasn’t enough. So Marseille revived an old target—Nayef Aguerd. The Moroccan from West Ham is returning to France after three years. To recall, in the summer of 2022 he moved from Rennes to West Ham for 35,000,000, and now the Hammers are selling him to Marseille for 23,000,000. He becomes the club’s third central defensive reinforcement this August. Before him came CJ Egan-Riley from Burnley on a free transfer and Facundo Medina from Lens on loan. Following Aguerd’s path is his West Ham teammate Emerson Palmieri. The Italo-Brazilian was only the third or fourth option for left-back, but when targets like Kostas Tsimikas and Oleksandr Zinchenko fell through, he became a realistic choice. The London club wanted to offload him and agreed to a symbolic fee of 1,000,000. Marseille was so pleased to resolve the left-back position with Emerson that they handed him a one-year contract with an option for another year.

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But that’s not the end. Marseille is working on another signing who could cover both center-back and right-back. Their initial target was Lutsharel Geertruida from Leipzig, but Sunderland snapped him up. Now Marseille is trying to arrange a loan for Benjamin Pavard from Inter, but that seems unlikely, since the Nerazzurri want only a permanent transfer for at least 30,000,000 and aren’t open to a loan. Alongside all these names, let’s recall that during this transfer window, Marseille also brought in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Angel Gomes as free agents, Timothy Weah and Hamed Traore on loan, while Igor Paixao was bought from Feyenoord for 30,000,000. Practically, a whole new team of signings.