Bielsa quits as Marseille boss after season defeat

Marcelo Bielsa stunned French football when he quit as coach of Marseille just minutes after his team had lost their season opener 1-0 at home to Caen.

"I have resigned from my post as manager of Marseille," the Argentine announced at the end of his post-match news conference. Bielsa, 60, has been linked to the Mexico national team manager s role in recent weeks, and Marseille looked every inch a side affected by the off-field uncertainty surrounding his future.

Immediately after their lacklustre defeat, Bielsa, who had only been in charge at the Stade Velodrome since May 2014, announced his resignation. "I have finished my work here, I will return to my country," said Bielsa, who guided the former European champions to fourth place in Ligue 1 last season. "I thank the fans for always being behind me during games and on a daily basis.

"I am sad and frustrated. I cannot accept the situation of instability at the club," added Bielsa, who accused the club of changing the details of a contract he was ready to sign to commit himself to the team until 2017. Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda said Bielsa s resignation was a huge shock. "It s a massive, heavy blow," said Mandanda. "At Friday's press conference, everything was fine, it was all positive.

"He was an important part of the club, for the team. We are disappointed. We don t know the ins and outs of it, we don t know what has happened. But we respect his decision."

Marseille got off to a flying start last season -- winning eight of their opening ten matches -before fading to fourth, 14 points adrift of champions PSG. The only goal of Saturday s game arrived in the 27th minute and in spectacular fashion as Andy Delort fired a right-footed piledriver beyond Mandanda. Elsewhere, Leonardo Jardim s Monaco came from a goal down to win at Nice. The hosts struck early on thanks to a brilliant instinctive finish by Valere Germain, who is on loan from his parent club of Monaco.