PSG – Neymar and Messi: what if it was time to radically change course?

Wednesday evening, Neymar participated in his second poker tournament of the day before having a culinary interlude in a fast-food chain accompanied by friends. Nothing is forbidden while the Parisian workforce was on rest the day after a C1 match. Symbolic more than problematic, this mismatch between words and deeds raises questions at a time when Paris is already preparing for its next summer.

The Galtier-Campos project had been imagined without Neymar

He was visible, as usual. Voluntary too, like his many races in the void, shouting in an inefficient solitary pressing and not claimed by Galtier. Neymar has again missed a big meeting in C1. A habit since his arrival at PSG and the impression that the player who walked on the L1 at the start of the season left part of his desire in Qatar with this new national disillusionment.

In Paris, his departure has no longer been taboo for several seasons. Already last summer, Luis Campos had imagined a squad without the Brazilian, just to give the keys to the attack to the Messi-Mbappé duo. Last year, before Mbappé’s XXL extension, the Brazilian was still the highest paid Parisian player with an estimated net annual salary of 36 million euros. At a time when Paris must reduce its payroll by 30%, he looks like the ideal candidate to start next summer.

Problem, it was also the case last summer but no one had really knocked on the door. The Brazilian, given his performance and his emoluments, is out of the market. His contract, automatically extended until 2027 last summer, had moved away the prospect of a separation linked to a lease approaching the end. Result: Neymar had stayed and the same story could repeat itself.

Messi, no extension?

Sportingly, his case is less worrying. If his defensive investment was still insufficient, he forms a much more complementary duo with Mbappé than that formed by the Frenchman with Neymar. His professionalism has never been discussed internally and it is a Messi who is much more involved in the life of the locker room than the Parisians have learned to discover this season. Still, his salary, at 30 million euros a year, is also a thorn in the side of PSG at the time of financial fair play. Close to “Ney”, he would also have misunderstood the desire of the Parisian club to get rid of a talent like that of the Brazilian.

So, should we consider a revolutionary summer at PSG? We’re not there yet. But the idea would have the merit of clarity and respect for the promises kept, with Kylian Mbappé the sole head of a more French-speaking and more collectively coherent project. Burying the MNM would be a form of logic for the Parisian sports project, not necessarily for its overall project. Because, basically, Galtier arrived at the same conclusions as Pochettino before him by evoking his attacking duo.

“You cannot change the characteristics of the players who make up your group this seasonhe explained at a press conference on Tuesday. It’s like that. You have profiles of players who more often receive the ball at their feet and then liven up the game. I am thinking in particular of Ney and Leo, who receive the balls at their feet and do not do a lot of vertical runs“. Those that Paris would have badly needed.