Newcastle winger Thauvin re-joins Marseille in loan deal

Oli Fisher
Florian Thauvin: Seals return to Marseille on loan

Florian Thauvin: Seals return to Marseille

Newcastle United have confirmed that Florian Thauvin will re-join Marseille after his loan spell there during last season.

The winger will make the move back to the Ligue 1 club on a one-year loan deal, with an obligation to buy at the end of the 2016/17 season.

The 23-year-old left the Stade Velodrome for Tyneside back in August 2015 for a fee of around £15 million on a five-year deal.

Thauvin was widely regarded to be a disappointment however, and moved back to Marseille in January after failing to make 20 appearances for the Toon.

There was much speculation about what the future held for Thauvin, with clubs such as Inter Milan linked with making a move for him, but in the end he departs once again for France.

The departure is not entirely a surprise, as Thauvin revealed he did not settle in to the English game well in an interview with GFFN after re-joining Marseille.

“Firstly, I could not have signed anywhere else other than Marseille because you can’t play for three different clubs in one season. After that, you have to live it to understand it. This is a club that is carried by its fans. I was certainly missing that adrenaline.

“I need to be left to play my football, to be left to work. I still have my entire career in front of me.

“I had a new experience, a new league, a new way of life. It allowed me to reflect a little on the two years that I had at Marseille, to understand certain things.

“In England, at each home game, you need to come to the stadium in a suit. It is the tradition. But on that day, Alan Shearer violently criticised me by saying that I was making myself out to be someone that I wasn’t even though I was not the only one wearing a bowtie! Why me again? I would like to be left alone…”