Next year Luis Enrique will continue to shape the Parisians.
May 7, 2024 Paris Saint-Germain has once again exited the Champions League earlier than expected. Many might respond, with a shrug, that there is nothing new under the sun. Indeed, the relationship between the Parisians and the top European competition has now become a meme, also and above all due to the enormous amounts of money spent by the Qatari owners. Indeed, as everyone knows, since Al-Khelaïfi became the president of PSG, the balance of the transfer market has been definitively upset, apparently without any possibility of reversing the trend. By spending several hundred million in each session, Paris Saint-Germain dramatically inflated player prices, creating what some have called – perhaps wrongly – a speculative bubble.
Obviously this process cannot be reduced to a single person responsible, but it is certain that the Paris team had a decisive role from 2012 onwards. Just think that the two most expensive purchases in history of football – Neymar (222 million euros) e Mbappe (180 million) – both were scored by PSG, without considering the seven-figure wages that Al-Khelaïfi guaranteed to the champions who have come and gone over the years, Messi first.
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Returning to talking about the Champions League, however, neither the signings of Neymar and Mbappé, nor the arrivals of Donnarumma, Hakimi, Dembelé, not even the arrival of Messi, served to win the most coveted club trophy in the world. The reasons that can be found for this prolonged failure are varied and have been discussed for years. Certainly the various coaches who have followed one another during these years have had difficulty managing a locker room full of star, failing the alchemy necessary for great victories.
What this rich slew of coaches (made up, for example, of Galtier, Pochettino and Emery) had in common was the fact that they had little time available for their project, being sacked after one or two seasons. A unique is represented by Tucheleven lasted on the PSG bench two years and a half. It is no coincidence that the German is the one who came closest to triumphing in the Champions League, reaching the final. However, Nagelsmann’s Bayern Munich triumphed. Ironically, sacked by PSG in December 2020, Tuchel won the Champions League with Chelsea less than six months later.
The last few years, therefore, have told a story Paris spendthrift but unable to expand his dominion outside of France (and even to make it Really unbreakable in that context: the victories of Lille and Monaco in ’16-’17 and in ’20-’21 did not even allow them to come close to Lyon’s 2001-2008 record). The superiority within thehexagonin fact, it has not been enough in Europe. For a year now, however, things seem to really be changing. Since he arrived in Paris, Luis Enrique – declared Al-Khelaïfi himself just after the elimination against Borussia Dortmund, “He is building a long-term project and the future will be bright”. PSG’s revolution began in the last summer transfer window, but Mbappé’s unexpected stay has partly upset the Spanish coach’s plans. Let’s rewind the tape.
– “Will Luis Enrique remain PSG manager next season?”
– “But what question is this? Do you know anything about football?”
We were saying, PSG’s summer transfer window in summer 2023 was different compared to the previous ones, while not completely departing from the past. If in recent years the company had invested in players already ready and, when possible, already at ease on the most important stages (to the names mentioned we can add Sergio Ramos, Icardi and Wijnaldum), the project started by Luis Enrique, the true nerve center of the whole “revolution”, focuses decisively on players on the launch pad e on the very young, also trying to give a more French imprint to the team. Among the purchases we find several names of a completely different caliber compared to the Neymars, the Mbappés, the Messis of past years. The most glittering purchase was Colonel Muani, physical and explosive striker ex Eintracht Frankfurt; Then Gonçalo Ramosanother forward prospect taken from Benfica; Manuel Ugartea quality midfielder suited to the game proposed by Luis Enrique, who arrived from Sporting; Ousmane Dembelean already more high-sounding name but fresh from a – to be kind – fluctuating experience at Barcelona.
The attempt to reverse the course taken in past seasonsIt’s obvious. By focusing on a young project and purchasing players functional to a specific tactical context, preferring them to big names, PSG and Luis Enrique seem to have understood that investing enormous sums to acquire superstar often over thirty was not profitable either on the pitch or economically. Certain, Al-Khelaïfi ha invested a lot again this year (in total more than 450 million for ten players, of which 95 for Muani alone, partially offset by the Saudi sales of Neymar, 90 million, and Verratti, 45) ranking fourth in the ranking of the teams that spent the most in the summer transfer market session of 2023. In this case, however, the purchases were made according to a well-defined logic: rejuvenate the team, creating a French base on which to rely and get rid of the senators to have control over the locker room.
Luis Enrique’s PSG, in fact, is the one with thelowest average age since 2012, which plummeted from 26.1 last year to 24.6. In the return match against BVB, the Asturian coach even fielded the youngest team to play in a Champions League semi-final in the last fifteen years. Suffice it to say that only one player has permanently entered the rotations over 30, Danilo Pereira. As we were saying, however, the desire to get rid of the big shots, the most cumbersome personalities: Messi, Neymar, Verratti, Sergio Ramos, Draxler, Wijnaldum and Bernat contributed largely to the rejuvenation of the team: all those over thirty were allowed to leavesold or on a free transfer, and it is no coincidence that all the over thirty-year-olds sold were foreigners: focusing on Dembelé, Barcola, Lucas Hernandez, Ekitité and Kolo Muani, PSG has decided to equip itself with a core French, perhaps to overcome the relationship problems between teammates and technical staff that have been seen in recent seasons. The direction, therefore, is clear and well underway: create a new cycle based on the vision of Luis Enriqueon and off the pitch.
Of all the big from the last cycle, however, one remained this year too: Kylian Mbappé. The phenomenon born on the outskirts of Paris has had a troubled summer, punctuated by rumors that he has already joined Real Madrid this season. Due to a lack of jointsHowever, Mbappé remained at Luis Enrique’s court for a while last dance with PSG. Probably the most important factor that determined the Frenchman’s stay were the Frenchman’s salary demands and the price requested by Al-Khelaïfi to sell his services. PSG had even left him out of the squad, to attract offers and try to monetize as much as possible, but the sums demanded by the 2018 world champion (240 million in five years, it seems) would have been too large an outlay to add to the approximately 250 requested from PSG for the card. Real Madrid, therefore, has decided to wait until 2024/2025, when they will have the opportunity to sign him as a free agent.
Although the team did not disappoint expectations in the national trophies (French Cup final reached and Ligue 1 won with three matchdays to spare), the relationship between Mbappé and Luis Enrique seems to have been one of the reasons for yet another fallimento in Champions League. It seems that the spark never struck between the two. This has been clear since the group stage: the last one match before the elimination phase it was the one against Borussia and – thanks to Milan’s victory in Newcastle – a draw would have been enough for PSG to go through. The scoreboard read 1-1 in injury time. Luis Enrique, from the bench, motions to his men to retreat in defense and try to maintain the result. Mbappé, on the contrary, he gesticulates dramatically from the other side of the pitch pointing to the opponent’s goal, to encourage his coach not to stoop and continue to look for the goal. The Spanish coach will say at the end of the match: “When a player is frustrated, my role is to manage this situation to avoid the risks resulting from this tension.”
The following months are spent with the press continuing to ask Luis Enrique questions relating to Mbappé. The coach, however, is not happy with his season, and is aware of the fact that he will no longer be able to count on him in the 2024/2025 season, with the start of the new year he begins to carry out tests without his champion on the field. In a match played on 27 February, against Rennes, Mbappé was replaced in the 65th minute despite being at a disadvantage. PSG still managed to snatch a draw (goaled by Gonçalo Ramos on a penalty), but the substitution surprised everyone. Luis Enrique, at the microphones, will sentence: “Sooner or later it will happen that he won’t be there and we will have to get used to playing without him”. Game after game these episodes repeat themselvesthe player does not like this treatment and is unable to hide his frustration about.
🚨🚨| Kylian Mbappé is loudly booed by PSG fans as his name is announced in the starting lineup.
— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) May 12, 2024
The stadium roared when the speaker named number 7 in the starting line-ups.
The Champions League semi-final arrives and a mixture of inaccuracy and bad luck condemns PSG to yet another elimination. In the two matches Mbappé hit a post and a crossbar, but was generally excluded from the Paris maneuver and was the protagonist of two dull performances. It can be said that, net of the complicated season for the reasons previously explained, this is the first blemish of the French champion’s career: not having been abletogether with the teams in which he played and the coaches who trained him, to win the Champions League with PSG. Luis Enrique, however, does not seem desperate at the idea of seeing his best player leave for Madrid. A few days after the elimination he claimed that next year they would be a stronger team, effectively dismissing the matter. Thus ends the experience of the former Monaco player in PSG: the fans, after years of negotiations and speculation on possible farewells of their favorite, expressed their disappointment regarding his future arrival at Real Madrid by booing him in his last match at the Parc des Princes .
In the 2024/2025 season it will be important and interesting to observe how Paris Saint Germain will move both on and off the pitch. How will they move on the market? What will Luis Enrique’s tactical choices be, finally without Mbappé? Will Al-Khelaïfi keep his word and continue to listen to the coach and sporting director, focusing on a project focused on young people? Probably the habit of tearing up multi-million dollar checks will be a constant, on the other hand if he can afford it, but PSG will certainly be a theme of the near future of European football.
2024-05-24 07:00:00
#PSG #transforming
