Marcelino feels Olympique Marseille will always struggle because of the influence of their ultras.

The former Valencia coach was forced out of the club after just weeks in charge due to pressure from fans.

He told AS: "Nobody expects that situation. Neither the president nor the board nor anyone who was inside. It was following a meeting agreed upon at the club headquarters when the personal threats occurred.

"It's not normal to sit with those people, the truth is, we're not used to it. It already happened to us in the preseason that at the training camp there was a meeting of the squad and the staff with them. It surprised me, but I accepted on the recommendation of the club. It was normal, apparently. What does not fall within normality is the threat to four directors in the face and in full facilities. Those are big words.

"They always talk about the importance of the ultras there, but I thought it was in numbers rather than power. They want to control Marseille, when the club should be controlled by its directors. The ultras want to control everything and that prevents the evolution of Marseille. It ends up getting smaller.

"I thought he (OM president Pablo Longoria) had this situation under control. He knew about the influence of the ultras, but not to the point of wanting to manage who is and who is not in the club. The first meeting surprised was him. He told me so. The situation took him by surprise.

"He had everything orchestrated for a long time. In reality, I didn't even have five training sessions with the entire team and the results weren't bad either. We wanted to lay the foundations for a solid project. At a sporting level there were no arguments to do this, really. That wasn't the reason. For some other reason, the ultras wanted the current leaders to leave the club."