Andrew Gibney

The player’s former coach is happy to see him playing well for Marseille.

Newcastle United decided to let Remy Cabella head away from the club in the summer. Snapped up from Montpellier last summer, for a fee reported by The Telegraph to be in the region of £10 million, the mercurial Frenchman failed to settle into English football and decided to switch him for fellow French attacker Florian Thauvin.

Cabella headed to Marseille on loan, along with a chunk of cash, and Thauvin came in the other direction.

Both struggled to settle in their new surroundings but whilst Thauvin continues to fail in his job at convincing Newcastle fans of his talents Cabella is coming good at Marseille.

His former coach at Montpellier is not surprised. Roland Courbis has made it clear that he blames Newcastle for Cabella’s English disappointment, telling Le Phoceen:

“After being part of the 23 for the World Cup, he made ​​a bad choice of career by joining an already complicated club, but especially with the coach who left him shortly after.

“However, he can not have lost his qualities in one season.”

Newcastle have had some hits from the French leagues down the years but Cabella was certainly a miss. With Thauvin looking like going in the same direction the attacking midfielder needs to improve and soon if Newcastle are to continue in justifying ventures into the French market on such a scale.

In other news, ‘Never wanted him’: Villas-Boas leaves Southampton free to sign £18m ace