Marseille president says ex-Newcastle flop Thauvin worth over £150m

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Florian Thauvin was a disaster in the Premier League with Newcastle United but is finding life a little easier back at Marseille in Ligue 1.

Florian Thauvin has come a long way since struggling for game time at Steve McClaren’s Newcastle United.

The Magpies have a long and rich history of maverick French wingers but Thauvin was more Romain Amalfitano than David Ginola, Laurent Robert or Hatem Ben Arfa on Tyneside.

A £13 million signing from Marseille, the impish wideman started just three Premier League games, failed to score a goal or an assist, and rapidly returned to Ligue 1 just a few months later.

So it is fair to say Newcastle fans could be forgiven for raising their eyebrows at claims that the Marseille president is refusing to sell even for a nine-figure sum.

As reported by Sport, Jacques-Henri Eyraud claimed that he will not cash in on Thauvin ‘neither for 100 nor for 150 million’ with a number of big European clubs credited with an interest of late.

When you consider that Thauvin has 14 goals and 10 assists to his name in Ligue 1 this season, you can see why a resurgent Marseille are not keen to let him go. In fact, no French player in Europe’s top leagues has had a hand in as many goals this season as the one-time Newcastle United flop.

And that includes Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Paul Pogba.

A penny for Steve McClaren’s thoughts then.