Newcastle's Remy Cabella poised for permanent Marseille move

A summer swap between Newcastle United and Marseille saw French midfielders Remy Cabella and Florian Thauvin switch spots, and while both have underwhelmed, Cabella is close to joining the Ligue 1 side permanently.

Cabella, 25, joined Marseille on loan, with a stipulation stating a permanent move would be finalised if the French winger made 12 league appearances for the club, according to reports.

The Corsican-born Cabella made his 11th appearance starting for Marseille - which currently sits 14th in the Ligue 1 table - in a 2-1 victory over Lille on Sunday.

The Gazelec Ajaccio youth product came to prominence at Montpellier during its league-winning campaign in 2011-12 with three goals and two assists in 29 appearances for the south coast side. Cabella played in 92 matches for Montpellier in all competitions before moving to Newcastle at the start of the 2014-15 season.

Since joining the Magpies, Cabella has featured 31 times in the league, but became surplus when Steve McClaren took over for out-of-favour caretaker manager John Carver in the summer, thus prompting his loan move to Marseille.