“Marseille has all the time been the port of exiles… Right here, anybody who arrives someday on the port is inevitably at dwelling,” Izzo additionally wrote about Marseille.

After an eighth-placed end final season, the membership kicked off a radical overhaul – welcoming an eclectic assortment of misfits and skilled gamers attracted by De Zerbi’s new mission. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Neal Maupay and Adrien Rabiot all arrived citing De Zerbi as an element.

English pair Jonathan Rowe and Mason Greenwood joined the Anglophone contingent on the membership together with Canada worldwide Derek Cornelius.

“The large distinction was Roberto de Zerbi calling me out of the blue. I used to be a bit stunned by it as a result of it is the primary time a supervisor has gone out of his technique to name me and say he needs me,” former Norwich winger Rowe informed BBC Sport.

“The coach has been a bit extra intricate with the main points: your physique form, the way you go into video games, the way you assume and keep targeted in a sport. There’s quite a lot of data to soak up.”

“He is very demanding, the most effective coaches on the earth. He is one of many explanation why I got here right here,” added Greenwood earlier than the ultimate sport of the season. “We’ve got an ideal relationship and he places me in the perfect place in order that I can specific myself.

“We have additionally needed to be taught when to be affected person, when to play a bit faster when we’ve quite a lot of the ball and break down defences. So he is taught me quite a bit about methods to play my sport.”

Greenwood joined the membership from Manchester United final summer season in a deal value as much as 31.6m euros (£26.6m). Severe expenses in opposition to him, together with tried rape and assault, have been dropped in February 2023.

“We took the choice internally. OK, there was some opposition, that was goal,” stated Marseille membership president Longoria in September. “However on the identical time that gave us energy to perhaps not examine, as a result of I am not a decide, however to make use of all the knowledge to make the perfect choice, which I feel we did.”

Greenwood scored twice on his Ligue 1 debut in a 5-1 win over Brest and went on to complete with 21 targets, breaking the report of probably the most targets in a debut season for a Marseille participant within the twenty first century, forward of Bafetimbi Gomis (20) and Didier Drogba (19).

His targets received 16 further factors for the membership – the best of any participant in Ligue 1 this season, in line with Opta.

Marseille’s capacity for attacking explosivity on the pitch below De Zerbi was considerable from the beginning of the season. Les Olympiens broke a number of goalscoring and possession information, scoring 74 targets in 34 video games this season, with solely an all-conquering Paris St-Germain facet netting extra in Ligue 1.