Marseille's chaotic season is getting worse and a Champions League place is slipping away

PARIS (AP) — Two coaches in a season. A new president. A sporting director who resigned then stayed. A change of captain. Team-bonding trips to Spain. It's another chaotic season at Marseille with the club facing the dismal prospect of failing to reach the Champions League. Marseille is sixth in Ligue 1 with only the top three qualifying directly and only four games left. Sporting director Medhi Benatia, who quit in February following the departure of coach Roberto De Zerbi only to change his mind, launched a scathing attack on the players after Saturday's 2-0 loss at Lorient. Benatia has made several rants before but the same problems persist. Habib Beye replaced De Zerbi and has lost five of nine matches — including an embarrassing French Cup quarterfinal defeat at home to Toulouse. After the Lorient game, Beye said he was “very angry” and prepared to make big changes. However, the Lorient loss came after Beye took his players on a team-bonding trip to Marbella for the second time since taking charge, and it made no difference. In a complete U-turn, the players will have double training sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to sports daily L'Equipe, and will stay on site at the Marseille training camp from Thursday until Sunday's home game against Nice. So what's going wrong at Marseille and who's really to blame for the ongoing chaos? Here's a look at some key points.

Living in the past

After every poor performance — Saturday's against Lorient; the 3-0 defeat at Bruges on the final day of the Champions League group stage that ended Marseille's hopes of making the playoffs; the humiliating at ; the at , or the 2-0 home defeat to lowly — the same phrase is repeated, whether by a player, a director, or the coach. Namely that the performance in question was “unworthy of Marseille,” which used to be France's biggest club. The first French team to win the Champions League in 1993, Marseille held bragging rights over PSG until it last year. But the harsh reality is that Marseille is no longer a big club in Europe, and maybe not even in France other than historically. For Marseille has not won a trophy since the League Cup 14 years ago, and has not won Ligue 1 since 2010. After winning a tight league game against last season, the players did a lap of honor and posed for a group photo. It only served to underline how Marseille is a team which in the absence of trophies. Yet the perception about being a big club still persists.