Why PSG must recruit more in Ligue 1 / Ligue 1 / J29 / Monaco-PSG / March 20, 2022 / SOFOOT.com
Did you know ? PSG has not recruited a player in Ligue 1 for almost five seasons and a certain Kylian Mbappé. Worse, since the summer of 2012, only five players have joined the capital from a Ligue 1 team. And if the time had come to change that?
This Sunday at the Louis-II stadium, it is a man on the way out who is preparing to challenge the still failing midfield of Paris Saint-Germain. In another world, Aurélien Tchouaméni could have joined the club of the capital to strengthen a sector of play in decline for too long seasons. But according to the Spanish press, the tricolor international should rather join Real Madrid this summer. Another capital in which he would find Eduardo Camavinga, another nugget to have hatched in Ligue 1 before leaving to shine under other skies, without PSG failing to attract him. Simple question of means or bad will?
head elsewhere
It’s a fact, since their arrival at the head of the club at the end of the 2010-2011 season, the Qataris have hardly relied on players from France. Not flashy enough internationally, perhaps. Apart from the summer of 2011 – which saw Matuidi and Biševac land after the transfers of Douchez and Gameiro completed by Colony Capital – the total since then has been bleak. They are indeed only five to have succeeded in seducing the leaders of the capital club in Ligue 1: Serge Aurier, Lucas Digne, Layvin Kurzawa, Hatem Ben Arfa and therefore Kylian Mbappé, the latest to date (while Alexandre Letellier has since arrived from Orléans). That was almost five years ago. Reading these names, one thing is clear: with the exception of the Bondynois and his immense talent already widely perceptible at 18, few are the sure values of Ligue 1 who have come to strengthen the ranks of the residents of the Parc des Princes.
From Leonardo to Antero Henrique via Patrick Kluivert, everyone looked abroad when bringing in the loudest names in the squad. And rather than letting other clubs in France directly benefit from its petrodollars, by signing nice checks to acquire their best players, the owner preferred to highlight a certain trickle-down theory through the acquisition of stars from France. ‘elsewhere. But why such a refusal of the made in France so dear to Arnaud Montebourg? The French clubs would be too greedy in front of the wealth of the club of the capital. But investing millions in young shoots that are still very fresh in Italy, Spain or even Brazil has never scared Parisian decision-makers. And when it is not invested in young people on the rise, the Qatari fortune goes into the pockets of planetary stars already accomplished and sated with titles.
Develop your style
Yet for more than ten years, the world champion country has seen the birth of a pack of young players, each more talented than the next. At a time when the Parisian management and its recruitment policy are more than ever singled out after the disillusionment of Madrid and a year after a summer transfer window in the form of the peak of bling-bling, the time may have come to change strategy. Beyond Aurélien Tchouaméni, there is no shortage of interesting profiles in this League of Talents, which is rarely so exciting at all levels.
Not to mention that the opportunity would be too good to look for very specific profiles to allow the coach in place to develop his own style of play. “This summer, other types of players have arrived and they may force you to take more time to establish the style you want. Or, if it is, you will never reach it” pointed the finger at a concerned Mauricio Pochettino last fall in the columns of The Team. Response from a Leonardo ready to « Accept one’s mistakes » no later than the beginning of the month, still in daily life? “In our squad, OK, we have stars like Messi, Neymar, Ramos, Mbappé, Di María, Navas, but we also have Mendes who is 19, Hakimi 22, Donnarumma 22. Marquinhos is living his ninth season, Verratti his tenth , Kimpembe East « not » here. We are building something that will last. » But without any player from a Ligue 1 club.
The Parisian leaders, still as concerned about their sacrosanct image, would certainly find there a way to combat this disenchantment of the French public which has followed them since their arrival in France. If tomorrow names like Téji Savanier, Seko Fofana or Jonathan David came to support Marquinhos and others, who knows what would happen to the club’s popularity rating within France? Olympique Lyonnais has never been shy about helping themselves cheerfully from their neighbors for more than ten years, like Bayern Munich in Germany or so many others before them. Failing to be still and always bigger, the dream would be all the more beautiful.
By Tom Binet
