Marseille's chaotic season is getting worse and a Champions League place is slipping away

PARIS (AP) — Two coaches in a season. The best player sold. A new president. A sporting director who resigned then stayed. A change of captain. Team-bonding trips to Spain.

It's another chaotic season at Marseille with the club facing the dismal prospect of failing to reach the Champions League. Marseille is sixth in Ligue 1 with only the top three qualifying directly and only four games left.

Sporting director Medhi Benatia, who quit in February following the departure of coach Roberto De Zerbi only to change his mind, launched a scathing attack on the players after Saturday's 2-0 loss at Lorient. Benatia has made several rants before but the same problems persist.

Habib Beye replaced De Zerbi and has lost five of nine matches — including an embarrassing French Cup quarterfinal defeat at home to Toulouse. After the Lorient game, Beye said he was “very angry” and prepared to make big changes.

However, the Lorient loss came after Beye took his players on a team-bonding trip to Marbella for the second time since taking charge, and it made no difference.

In a complete U-turn, the players will have double training sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to sports daily L'Equipe, and will stay on site at the Marseille training camp from Thursday until Sunday's home game against Nice.

So what's going wrong at Marseille and who's really to blame for the ongoing chaos? Here's a look at some key points.

After every poor performance — Saturday's against Lorient; the 3-0 defeat at Bruges on the final day of the Champions League group stage that ended Marseille's hopes of making the playoffs; the humiliating 5-0 reverse at Paris Saint-Germain; the sloppy draw at Paris FC, or the 2-0 home defeat to lowly Nantes — the same phrase is repeated, whether by a player, a director, or the coach.

Namely that the performance in question was “unworthy of Marseille,” which used to be France's biggest club.

The first French team to win the Champions League in 1993, Marseille held bragging rights over PSG until the latter won it last year.

But the harsh reality is that Marseille is no longer a big club in Europe, and maybe not even in France other than historically. For Marseille has not won a trophy since the League Cup 14 years ago, and has not won Ligue 1 since 2010.

After winning a tight league game against Lyon last season, the players did a lap of honor and posed for a group photo. It only served to underline how Marseille is a team which overly-celebrates individual wins in the absence of trophies.

Yet the perception about being a big club still persists.

Marseille's poor defending has been evident for several seasons, with central defender Leonardo Balerdi making countless high-profile blunders. He was at fault for both Lorient goals on Saturday, failing to mark the striker each time, having made a similar mistake in the French Cup loss to Toulouse.

Bafflingly, he has been kept in the side by Beye — a former defender himself. Beye stripped him of the captaincy and gave it to midfielder Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, but to no positive effect.

France midfielder Adrien Rabiot was Marseille's best player last season and helped the club finish second behind PSG.

He played only one game this season before being transferred out along with forward Jonathan Rowe, following their locker-room brawl at Rennes.

“When you see behavior like that, you can't let it go,” Benatia said about Rabiot, who was sold to AC Milan and scored the winner on Sunday.

Rabiot has 57 caps for France and his assured presence and leadership qualities have been sorely missed. Marseille was bereft of leadership against Lorient and Benatia even accused his players of apathy.

“How many of the players after the game came (into the dressing room) and tipped the table upside down?” Benatia said. “None. Everything’s spotless. All the (water) bottles are in place. Which means that you play for Marseille and you accept a performance like that?”

Yet Rabiot was sold, although misguidedly, for showing fight.

Marseille recently hired Stéphane Richard as its new president. He will replace Alban Juster, who has been there on an interim basis since Pablo Longoria was replaced. Longoria's tenure was marked by a heavy turnover of players bought and sold.

“It’s incredibly difficult to get a team playing well when a third or half of the squad changes every year,” Richard said in a recent interview. “The first thing this club needs is a certain stability.”

That has not been the case.

Teenage prospects Robinio Vaz and Darryl Bakola were sold by Marseille in January even though both had impressed in the first team — with Vaz showing some great finishing skills.

Striker Bamba Dieng was involved in both goals for Lorient against Marseille over the weekend. He burst onto the scene with a flurry of goals for Marseille four years ago, including one in the Europa Conference League semifinal against Feyenoord.

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FILE - Marseille's head coach Roberto De Zerbi prior to the French League One soccer match between Lens and Marseille in Lens, France, Oct. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)

FILE -General view of Stade Velodrome stadium during the Euro 2016 Group A soccer match between France and Albania in Marseille, France, June 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, File)

FILE - Rennes' head coach Habib Beye smiles during the French League One soccer match between Rennes and Nice, Oct. 26, 2025 in Rennes, western France. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez, File)

FILE - Marseille players warm up prior to the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Union SG and Marseilles in Brussels, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man was charged with murder Friday in the stabbing of “Jumanji” and “Top Gun: Maverick” actor James Handy, who was in a relationship with the suspect's mother.

Michael Gledhill, 44, was charged after police say officers found the 81-year-old Handy stabbed in the chest and lying unconscious outside a home in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Handy was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead.

Gledhill did not appear at an arraignment Friday afternoon in Los Angeles Superior Court and no plea was entered for him. Javier Trincado, Gledhill’s lawyer, said his client is “unable to assist” in his defense and told the judge that the sheriff’s department did not bring Gledhill to the courtroom, but did not provide a reason.

Superior Court Judge John H. Reid ordered that Gledhill be sent to mental health court and undergo psychological evaluations. Another judge will decide whether he is competent for trial.

Authorities say Gledhill was arrested after telling police he was the person they were looking for. Police had responded to the home after a 911 caller stated: “I am the son of man, I just killed the man of sin,” according to the department.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said Handy deserved to enjoy his later years with his loved ones and that the person who took his life should be held accountable.

“This is not how anyone’s life should end, stabbed in the chest and left dying in the front yard of a home,” he said in a statement.

Handy was a character actor in films and on TV for decades, including appearances in a variety of television crime procedurals.

Actor Brian Delate knew Handy for more than four decades after meeting him at a Vietnam veterans theater company in New York. Delate described him as someone with a great sense of humor who was always curious.

Delate told The Associated Press that a few times over the past couple of years, Handy mentioned in passing that his girlfriend's son had mental health problems.

“I didn’t think much of it, because he just kind of mentioned it casually,” he said.

Handy's girlfriend had fixed up the garage so her son could live there, Delate said. Handy had his own home.

Bail was set at $2 million for Gledhill, according to authorities. If convicted, Gledhill faces up to 26 years to life in prison, according to the district attorney’s office.

Emails sent to Trincado and officials from the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office were not immediately answered.

Born in New York, Handy appeared in films and TV shows for decades.

He was known for his role as an exterminator in the 1995 film “Jumanji” and more recently as the bartender Jimmy in the 2022 film “Top Gun: Maverick,” according to IMDB. He’s also appeared in some of the top TV crime dramas, including “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “The Closer” and “Cold Case.”

“I could not have asked for a more talented, humble or gracious client and friend than James Handy,” Pam Ellis-Evenas, from the Ellis Talent Group, said in an email to The Associated Press.

Jeff Hawks, who said he's been friends with Handy for about 10 years after they met at an audition, described him as a hilarious man who had a habit of belting out doo-wop songs when they'd go out to bars.

“I can’t imagine who would ever have a beef with him," he said. "To me, it’s impossible. He was just really a decent guy.”

With Vietnam in mind, Delate lamented how his friend died.

“If he’d just passed away from an illness or something like that, this would be a very different experience,” he said. “But because of the nature of how he died and the fact that we lived in an arena of killing back in the '60s, it has a different resonance.”

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Associated Press journalist Philip Marcelo contributed from New York City.

This image made from video provided by KABC shows the scene at a home where authorities were investigating the fatal stabbing of actor James Handy on Wednesday, June 3, 2026, in Los Angeles. (KABC via AP)