Mr McCourt,
We want to start simply: thank you.
Thank you for the money you have invested since your arrival. Thank you for covering the losses and continuing to support the club despite the disappointments. You have put in far more than you originally announced, without receiving the titles you hoped for in return.
That effort deserves recognition. We say this without irony or calculation.
It is precisely because we do not deny what you have brought to OM that we must also speak frankly about what you have allowed to happen.
The transfer window closed yesterday. In OMLeaks’ view, OM have just completed the worst transfer window in their history.
The moves made in the final hours do not change our judgement. The club prepared for the season without reinforcements, sold several important players and began the league campaign with a coach who still did not know what his final squad would be.
Above all, you sold Mason Greenwood, the team’s best player, without having his replacement ready.
Selling him without first preparing his replacement is shameful.
A great club can sell a great player. It plans ahead, finds a replacement and protects its sporting project. OM did the opposite. The club weakened itself throughout the summer, explained that it still had to sell and asked for patience until the final day.
This transfer window is the bill for the years that came before it.
You were the owner
You did not negotiate every transfer or choose every agent. The executives must answer for their decisions.
But you appointed them. You approved the budgets, funded their strategy and decided how they would be supervised. When the same mistakes kept happening, you could intervene. When a budget went off course, you were the one who put more money in.
Pablo Longoria knew the player market very well. He had far less experience running an institution the size of OM on his own. Handing him the club was a gamble. That gamble required strong oversight.
Under his presidency, transfers, squad overhauls and coaching departures piled up. This pattern does not prove fraud. It shows why much stricter control was necessary.
Allegations are now circulating about certain agents and certain deals. We will not turn those allegations into a verdict. We are asking you to commission an independent audit of the transfers, mandates and commissions from that period. If nothing improper happened, the audit will also protect those being accused.
The final responsibility remains yours. You cannot present the current situation as an inheritance of which you are merely another victim.
Give the new team a real chance
The new leadership appears more coherent.
Stéphane Richard brings executive experience that his predecessor did not have. Grégory Lorenzi showed at Brest that he could build with limited resources. Bruno Genesio is an experienced coach who can improve a squad. Alban Juster must bring the financial control that has been missing for far too long.
Yet they have inherited a sanctioned club, a weakened squad and a transfer window that has already failed.
Genesio acknowledged that he did not expect to find such a difficult situation. An important decision involving his captain was also imposed on him even though he disagreed with it. This is not yet a breakdown, but the warning is clear.
We have seen OM wear down too many coaches before giving them a team suited to their plans. Do not do it again.
Richard must have the authority to put the accounts back in order and give Lorenzi a clear margin to work with. Let Genesio manage his squad. Juster must be free to control decisions before the problems become impossible to repair.
We are not giving them a blank cheque. We will judge them by their actions. But they must be allowed to work without paying forever for the mistakes of those who came before them.
OMLeaks is not a website against you
We have nothing against you personally. OMLeaks was not created to defend a former executive, promote a takeover candidate or lead a campaign against the owner.
We will examine your decisions just as we examine Longoria’s, those of the new leadership, agents, institutions, media organisations and supporter groups. No one should have immunity around OM.
We even believe that transparency can help you. A better controlled, more credible and less opaque club will be more stable, more successful and more valuable.
We therefore hope that OM will answer our questions, publish the documents that can lawfully be disclosed and correct us when we are wrong. We will publish its replies fairly.
Cooperation will not make us less independent. It will simply replace rumours with facts. We are not your enemy. We want to be useful to OM, with you if that is what you want.
Tell us now what you intend to do
Publish the exact limits that governed this transfer window. Explain why OM could not replace their best players and how much room the club still has.
Commission an audit of the Longoria years and publish the commissions paid to agents in a form compatible with the law. Tell supporters who decided, who signed and who exercised oversight.
Present a sporting and financial plan that people can understand. We want to know what you are still prepared to invest and what the club will now have to finance itself.
Supporters can understand that you no longer wanted to sign unlimited cheques. They cannot accept discovering the truth after the league has begun, once Greenwood has been sold and the transfer window is over.
If you want to continue, genuinely support the new leadership. Give it reasonable means to rebuild the club, accept transparency and stop the interventions that blur responsibility.
If you no longer want to invest, sell. Set a realistic price, organise a responsible transition and accept the loss created by your own decisions.
You cannot ask Marseille to pay for your mistakes before giving the club back to the city.
We sincerely thank you for the money you have committed. But this transfer window is your failure. It is time to decide whether you still want to repair this club or entrust it to someone else.
Marseille has already waited long enough.
OMLeaks editorial team