For Steve Marlet, the next
few days were always going to put the biggest decision of his career into
the sharpest focus. The Valley this afternoon, or Nou Camp on Wednesday
night? A south London derby in the Premiership, or the European Champions
League? Fame or Fulham? Marlet did what most talented French footballers
do. He chose to leave home.
At a transfer fee close to £12m, Marlet's
arrival ought to put beyond doubt Fulham's intention to make the top tier
their long-term home and a finish in the upper half of the table their expectation.
Their attractive, enterprising football in three Premiership matches so
far - one win, one draw, one close defeat - had already established their
bona fides; the recruitment of Marlet fills a gap in their resources that
had been preoccupying Jean Tigana, their manager.
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Steve Marlet
Fulham |
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His transfer
activity during the summer, he says, was frustrated by the desire of most
of his targets to be playing in Europe. Marlet, then, is a coup and a half.
Until a fortnight ago he was ready to lead Olympique Lyonnais's assault
on the Champions League, where they felt reasonably confident of making
the top 16 and perhaps going further. Their first assignment? Away at Barcelona.
Marlet admits he was tempted to stay for that alone.
In the end, money talked, although Fulham will have to wait until after
today to evaluate their new man. Marlet will miss the Charlton game with
injury, but hopes to be fit for next weekend. Fulham are paying him superstar
wages. At 27, and genuinely pressing Thierry Henry, Sylvain Wiltord and
David Trezeguet for a place in France's attack for the next World Cup, Marlet
looked at the figures on offer, and at the respected figure of Tigana, and
finally said: "Oui."
"I won't hide the fact that it's a decision based on financial as well
as sporting motives," he explained. "But there are sporting reasons.
Jean Tigana has an ambitious plan to have the club competing with the biggest
in England within two or three years. Fulham remind me of Lyon two years
ago. They're developing very quickly on every level and are built to last.
But it's also a financial choice. I will be very well paid." Thirty-five
thousand pounds a week is a conservative estimate. Marlet has become one
of chairman Mohamed al-Fayed's best-rewarded employees, and Fulham paid
a record fee to get him.
Tigana first tried to recruit Marlet when the club was running away with
the First Division title last season; but Lyon were making progress in the
Champions League. "It was the logical decision to stay with Lyon at
that stage," Marlet said. "But my heart is in this move. The challenge
is very exciting."
He comes with a high reputation and can, given a fair wind, expect to go
to the World Cup next year with the world champions ahead of the likes of
Nicolas Anelka, Youri Djorkaeff, Christophe Dugarry and Frédéric
Kanouté. He also stands ahead of the phenomenal Louis Saha, Fulham's
goalscorer par excellence, in the national estimation. Saha means to challenge
that.
The partnership should guarantee a few visits to Craven Cottage by Roger
Lemerre, France's manager, a man with enviable decisions to make on his
final striking options next year.
Marlet was part of the France squad that won the Confederations Cup during
the summer and he won his fifth cap in the 2-1 loss against Chile last weekend,
when he told journalists that he expected more caps, even if settling at
a new club meant possible upheavals. "I don't think I'm taking a big
risk," he said. "Roger Lemerre knows my qualities and I know I've
got the potential to make it in England."
The association with Saha excites him: "I used to follow his progress
when he was playing for Metz. He's a super player. Last year he scored 32
goals. We'll get on well."
For Tigana, who may yet be offered the chance to succeed Lemerre, the signing
represents a watershed. Fulham had pursued several international strikers
over the summer, including the mammoth Czech Jan Koller. Germany's Oliver
Bierhoff was linked, as was Hakan Sükür, the Turkish beanpole.
Three guesses as to the particular qualities Tigana was after. Saha apart,
Fulham's strikers are not dominant in the air. Although it was no handicap
in the First Division last season, when pace and guile brought Saha, Barry
Hayles and Luis Boa Morte stacks of goals, the manager thought it a potential
frailty in the Premiership.
Marlet is a strong header of the ball, has a good turn of speed and was
admired for his unselfishness at Lyon, where he played alongside the Brazilian
Sonny Anderson. His record in the French First Division is 38 goals from
143 games; in European competition, eight in 20. He began his career at
Red Star Paris, and moved to Auxerre in 1996. Lyon paid about £3.5m
for him only last year. They were sorry to lose him, but, by anybody's standards,
they have done very good business.
French club football has long been resigned to losing its leading players,
who mutter about the ghastly tax rates at home when asked about the exodus.
Nowhere is the appetite for French players greater than the Premiership.
Half of the France squad with whom Marlet travelled to Chile have English
experience.
And Fulham are becoming as francophile as Arsenal or Chelsea. Al-Fayed has
bought into a culture of success. "It's the way they do things in France,"
John Collins, the Fulham midfielder, always says. "It's the way players
look after themselves, it's so professional."
No sooner had Marlet checked in to Fulham's training headquarters at Motspur
Park last week than he was meeting the club's busy English teacher and catching
up with a few old friends. Tigana's recruitment since May has focused heavily
on his old clubs, Monaco and Lyon: Marlet joins former Lyon teammate Steed
Malbranque, and midfielder Sylvain Legwinski, who played under Tigana at
Monaco.
Add Saha and the central defender, Alain Goma, and you get a predominance
of Frenchmen in Fulham's first team. Christian Damiano, Tigana's deputy,
used to work at France's feted youth academy.
They have an interesting week of derbies ahead. Charlton today and Arsenal
next weekend, a fixture already arousing a good deal of interest in France.
The agendas are many: Tigana versus Arsène Wenger, the manager he
succeeded at Monaco; Marlet and Saha against Henry and Wiltord; Malbranque,
the France under-21 international midfielder, against Robert Pires, his
senior equivalent.
In between those games, Marlet will glance at what Lyon get up to on Wednesday:
"Playing Barcelona at Nou Camp in the Champions League was tempting,
but I don't regret no longer being there.
"I always said that the two leagues which appealed to me were the Spanish
and the English. I'm going to get to know one of them now. I'm also sure
Fulham will be sampling the Champions League soon."
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