OM on Sunday evening's friendly 1-0, but it was no walk in the park for Marseille and coach André Villas-Boas is convinced that his squad remains short of two key signings, and he made no bones about it after the match.

"Of course I'd like us to invest, but that's not going to happen, so we're getting on with our work," AVB explained. "The objective is at least to stick with the same squad, which has now been expanded with the arrival of [Leonardo] Balerdi and Pape [Gueye]. But we're missing options for Dario [Benedetto] and [left-back Jordan] Amavi."

Sell to buy

OM are working with strict financial strictures and any future signings can only come in the wake of current players being sold on - or if the club finds some more creative options.

"We can look for loan deals or free players, in case we don't sell anyone. According to what has been communicated, we're going to be obliged to have sales, so we're waiting for that moment. We don't have any offers yet," said the Portuguese. "It was like that last year too, but we're dealing with it."

Case in point

Villas-Boas' point was clear to see after Benedetto was forced off injured in the win over Nîmes. While the knock taken by the Argentine does not seem to be too serious, it did underline the limited nature of the options available to last season's Ligue 1 Uber Eats runners-up.

"It's his tendon, he had a problem with it last year. We have to let him recover, we need to manage the situation," said AVB. "I think he'll be there for Stuttgart [in a friendly on 14 August], unless we don't want to play him to make sure he can be there against Saint-Etienne [on the opening day of the Ligue 1 Uber Eats season]. But we need to find an understudy for Dario, that's clear."

(Photo: OM)