Olivier Ntcham’s move to Marseille has caused a genuine rift at the French club.

The Celtic midfielder made the switch to France and it directly led to the resignation of manager Andre Villas-Boas.

He claimed that he had not greenlit the move and resigned on principal.

And it now appears that he could have moved to Newcastle United instead.

Ntcham made a total of 147 appearances for the Scottish club, scoring 24 goals and registering 13 assists, and the Magpies are said to have made a move to bring him to St James’ Park.

Sport Witness carries a report from La Provence, claiming that the club tried to snap up the former France U21 international.

Newcastle, though, were in a position where they needed to move players on in order to fund a move and subsequently ran into a brick wall.

Marseille are said to have then swooped in and reached an agreement with Celtic.

Newcastle subsequently signed Joe Willock on loan from Arsenal, strengthening their squad following their failure to land Ntcham.

GIVEMESPORT’S Harry Sherlock says…

This would have been an excellent signing for Newcastle.

Ntcham is an experienced midfielder and he played a key role in Celtic’s multiple title wins since his arrival.

Bringing in a player on a permanent basis would have surely been preferable to bringing in a youngster like Willock on loan.

Ntcham seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place now, though, with Villas-Boas not actually wanting him.

Maybe Newcastle would have been the right move for everybody involved.