Timmmmber......that is the sound that is resonating from the Boulogne area of Paris. The Capital's only top flight football club (interesting Paris is the only major European city with only 1 top flight football club). This is just another chapter in the malaise that is PSG.
PSG has gone through 2 extremely difficult seasons...PSG has not recovered from selling Ronaldino. When PSG was able to sign the Brazilian phenom it was clear that the buck tooth footballer was only going to spend a few seasons in the city of lights before a larger club snatched him up. The issue was PSG did not have a clear plan on how to leverage his time at the club, what to do post Ronnie and a general strategy for the club. If I really want to push this I would say that PSG has not been the same since Wenger stole Anelka from under their noses. When Anelka was a youth in the PSG system, the Parisian club was challenging for the Ligue 1 title, they were a few seasons removed from winning the Cup winners Cup (for those who are not aware, there used to be 3 European cups - Champions Cup, Cup winners Cup and UEFA cup). The season that Anelka left, PSG made it back to the finals of the Cup Winners Cup to face Barca, only losing a tough match 1-0. Since then PSG has won 2 French cups, yes, but done little of anything else. In the mean time, Lyon has emerged as the class of the French Ligue 1.
So what is the root cause of this malaise? I think first the lack of competition...and I do not mean in Ligue 1, because it is evident that PSG gets clobbered by that competition, but I think not having another viable club in Paris hurts the team. Their one "derby" match is against a team on the south coast of France - Marseilles. While that is a great rivalry, it does not give PSG a local club they need to compete for the minds and hearts or Parisians. Every big European club has both league rivals as well as local rivals...even in France - Lyon vs St Eteinne, Marseilles vs Nice, Lens vs Lille.....In England - Manchester United vs City, the London clubs Arsenal Chelsea Tottenham are all bitter rivals, In Spain - Real vs Atheletico. In Italy - Juventus vs Torino, AC vs Inter Milan, Lazio vs Roma....and the list goes on. If Paris St Germain had another club in the city they would need to be more savvy about the business of running a club.
Another aspect is the apparent lack of direction of the club. They have been through, what appears to be, 27 different managers the past 3 seasons....where are they heading? They have the money but do not seem to make the correct talent assessments, do they build around Pauleta...a bit long in the tooth, Rothen? Has not lived up to his immense talent demonstrated while at Monaco. Who is the last academy player that PSG has brought up to the big team???
While some teams (see Chelsea) can buy their way to a title, PSG does not have the deep wallet nor structure in place to emulate that strategy. Nor do they find a way to acquire young players such as Arsenal or Barca and nurture them. They resemble a poor man's Real Madrid, grasping for second tier stars, over paying for them, and throwing them on the pitch with out any rhyme or reason. Maybe a trip to Ligue 2 would be the shake up the club need to live up to the amazing potential PSG possesses....
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