CRISIS CLUB IN RACE FOR CELT

CRISIS club Marseille have joined the transfer deadline race for Celtic outcast Olivier Ntcham.

Newcastle have already been in touch with the Parkhead outfit about taking the midfielder on loan until the end of the season, as CQN reported yesterday.

Now the troubled French outfit have registered an interest in the player who cost Brendan Rodgers £4.5million when he joined from Manchester City in June 2017.

Ntcham has been overlooked by Neil Lennon for most of the season and wasn’t even in the squad for yesterday’s 2-1 loss against St Mirren at Parkhead.

The Hoops would prefer a cash sale for the 24-year-old, but could agree a temporary switch with the St James’s Park side with a right-to-buy clause in the contract at the end of the campaign.

Marseille could be forced into the market to appease their raging support who forced the league game against Rennes to be postponed yesterday just three hours before kick-off, as reported in Sky Sports News.

A section of their angry followers marched to the club’s training complex to protest against poor results.

Videos circulating on social media and posted by local newspaper La Provence showed trees burning outside the entrance to La Commanderie with fans throwing flares and trying to force their way in.

Sports daily L’Equipe’s website reported that Marseille’s players were present at the time and that defender Alvaro Gonzalez was hit on the back by a projectile when he went to speak with supporters.

A Ligue 1 statement said no new date has been set for the match, but Marseille’s next home game will fall under close scrutiny since it is against bitter rivals Paris Saint-Germain next weekend.

“Olympique de Marseille strongly condemns the unacceptable attack suffered by the club in the middle of the afternoon inside the Robert-Louis Dreyfus training centre,” a Marseille club statement read.

“Despite the intervention of the police, an unjustifiable outbreak of violence endangered the lives of those present on site. Thefts were committed and vehicles were damaged. Five trees were burned with the sole desire to destroy. The damage inside the buildings amounts to several hundreds of thousands of euros.

“These irresponsible and unacceptable actions must be condemned with the utmost severity. Olympique de Marseille has all the evidence, and this was immediately forwarded to investigators.”

“I know everything about this club, I know the love and the frustration it can generate,” said Marseille captain Steve Mandanda.

“But today’s events sadden me and are unacceptable. We are football players and a sports crisis can in no way justify such a surge of violence.”

The incident comes nine days after fans turned on the players at Stade Velodrome before a home game against Lens, which Marseille lost 1-0.