Greenwood’s signing was criticized by the mayor of the city of Marseille, however, while speaking at Thinking Football Summit, Longoria said: “The comments of the mayor reinforce what we did, [they did] not have all the information.
“We took the decision internally. OK, there was some opposition, that was objective, but at the same time that gave us power to maybe not investigate, because I am not a judge, but to use all the information to take the best decision, which I think we did.
“In our very first conversation with the coach [Roberto de Zerbi] we mentioned Mason’s name.
“The coach knew Mason from the past and it was a very quick conversation at the start between all of us because we believe in the talent of Mason.
“There were a lot of conversations between all of us in the weeks leading up to his move. He is behaving fantastically with us and we are very happy to have him playing in our team.”
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THE BIGGER PICTURE
While Marseille have accepted the 22-year-old into the club, the same is not the case with the English national team as interim boss Lee Carsley has revealed that Greenwood is not in consideration to play for the Three Lions. To which Longoria said: “I don’t want to answer that kind of question out of respect to everybody.
“I prefer to talk about what Mason is doing in France and Marseille and we are very happy with the kind of performances that he is doing during the first weeks as well.”
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WHAT NEXT FOR GREENWOOD?
Following the end of the international break, Greenwood will resume training with Marseille and will be a part of their next Ligue 1 clash against Nice on Saturday, September 14.