Three defeats in four matches: OM's worst start since 1985

Olympique de Marseille collapsed at Rennes on Friday night (1-0), recording their third consecutive Ligue 1 defeat following losses to Monaco (2-0) and Paris FC at the Vélodrome (2-3). With one win and three defeats in four matches, Bruno Genesio has equalled OM’s worst start since summer 1985.

Adrien Thomasson scored the only goal of the evening at Roazhon Park, enough to deepen the misery of a side that had nevertheless launched their league campaign in style with a heavy victory over Strasbourg (4-0). Since then, the machine has seized up and the Marseille manager has made little effort to hide his resignation facing a squad he himself judges limited in talent.

The situation is all the more concerning as Frank McCourt’s club failed to reduce its wage bill over the summer, forcing sporting director Grégory Lorenzi to operate without any recruitment whatsoever. The Vélodrome will host PSG in a week’s time for a Classique that looks treacherous in this context.

To find such a catastrophic start in the club’s history, you have to go back to summer 1985. Yugoslav Zarko Olarevic, an OM striker between 1983 and 1984 who was reconverted to coaching, had then led a team comprising Joseph-Antoine Bell, José Anigo and a young Christophe Galtier to three defeats in their first four outings: Le Havre (1-0), AJ Auxerre (2-0) and Brest Armorique (2-1), for just one victory against Nice (2-1) at the Vélodrome.

Olarevic did not survive that failed season. It was Bernard Tapie, appointed president before the Coupe de France final lost 2-1 to Girondins de Bordeaux under Aimé Jacquet, who removed him from the bench — thus opening one of the most prosperous periods in Marseille’s history. Forty years later, OM is still waiting to find a way out of crisis.