Marseille’s eagerness to secure reinforcements from the Premier League extends beyond a desire to re-sign the West Ham United forward Dimitri Payet, with the French club having indicated an interest in securing Yohan Cabaye from Crystal Palace.
Marseille are sixth in Ligue 1 but, having been purchased by the American businessman Frank McCourt in October, are seeking to add to Rudi Garcia’s options this month. The Montpellier midfielder Morgan Sanson was signed this week for £10.3m, while two bids have been submitted, and rejected, for Payet. The second was worth £20m but West Ham would only countenance a sale for a fee of more than £30m for a player who cost £10.7m when prised from Stade Vélodrome only 18 months ago.
The Marseille chairman, Jacques-Henri Eyraud, and the director of football, Andoni Zubizarreta, were in London this week hoping to reach a compromise with West Ham over Payet, and are expected to return with a third improved offer. Yet they have also made it known they have an interest in Cabaye.
The 31-year-old midfielder, who has 48 caps for France, is halfway through a three-year deal at Palace having been reunited with Alan Pardew, his previous manager at Newcastle United, when joining from Paris Saint-Germain for a potential £12.5m, then a club record, in the summer of 2015. But he has shown only flashes of his quality in the period since in a team who have struggled over the past 14 months, and was last directly involved in a Palace victory in the Premier League back in April. He started subsequent wins against Sunderland and Stoke City, but had been substituted with Palace trailing.
Cabaye worked with Garcia at Lille earlier in his career and is believed to be open to a return to France. Marseille had suggested they would be willing to spend around £10m on the midfielder, though Palace would push for a fee of nearer £16m. While Sam Allardyce, who replaced Pardew just before Christmas, has stressed a desire to retain the squad’s better players in this window, raising funds through Cabaye’s sale – and reducing the club’s wage bill – would offer him more leeway to pursue other options this month, including an improved offer of around £9m for Sunderland’s Patrick van Aanholt and the Montpellier centre-back William Rémy.
The manager has been surprised at the level of overhaul he feels is required to hoist the team away from trouble. A deal for Arsenal’s Carl Jenkinson has been frustrated after they failed to agree personal terms with the full-back despite lengthy talks with the player and his representative, although there is a chance the move could be revived before the end of the transfer window.