"When I was aged 13-14, in the AC Milan youth academy, my coach told me to start following Marseille and Chris Waddle," Roberto de Zerbi discreetly disclosed after the French side's final game of the season.

"That's when I fell in love with Marseille. I started following the club because of Waddle." The England winger would win three Ligue 1 titles with Les Phoceens and help them reach the 1991 European Cup final.

De Zerbi's revelation followed a season full of lively - and at times fiery - news conferences at the Velodrome and the La Commanderie training ground. The Italian found in France's oldest city something that mirrored his past and his own temperament.

"The city of Marseille and the club of Marseille are similar to me in a way. I was looking for an environment that could make me dream," said the former Brighton boss in early February.

De Zerbi is a natural fit for the heat at Olympique de Marseille. His football demands conviction, and so does the city. As local poet Jean-Claude Izzo once wrote: "Here, you have to take sides. Be passionate. Be for, be against. Just be, intensely."

At the end of the season the Italian was caught up in jubilant celebrations, waving a flare with supporters that had greeted the Marseille squad at 4am at Provence Airport. "I was born an ultra," De Zerbi exclaimed to DAZN only weeks before.

It was not a title win - but finishing second in Ligue 1 and qualifying for the Champions League felt nonetheless dramatic.

The appointment of the passionate Italian was viewed as an "impossible dream" by club president Pablo Longoria when he made a call last summer after De Zerbi departed Brighton.

That dream teetered on the edge of chaos several times this season, testing the tactical and emotional limits of one of the most promising coaches of the past decade.