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[parcdesprinces]

PSG = Pastore, Sirigu & Gameiro



Back in the early mid nineties I enjoyed watching some French football. As a Rangers fan I hated Marseille but I liked seeing PSG and then Monaco. PSG were an exciting but also strong with top players like Youri Djorkaeff, Alain Roche, George Weah, Bernard Lama, Paul Le Guen and the very gifted Brazilian Rai. Monaco then came on the scene complete with young stars like Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet as well as those two the has a Scot in john Collins and had players like Enzo Scifo, Sylvain Legwinski, Fabien Barthez and Sonny Anderson who I admired from a far. Then my French appreciation declined when Lyon dominated in Ligue 1.

Well now in 2011 as the new season gets ready to start, my interest has been rekindled. PSG have been bought over by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) who are owned by Crowned Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Now I will concentrate on this new Parisian revolution in this article but I should mention that this exciting 2011/12 Ligue 1 season will not involve Monaco as they were relegated at the end of last term… Things certainly have change in France.



Now Qatari influence has been creeping into world football for a few years now The Qatar Foundation became the first sponsors of European champions Barcelona in a deal worth a staggering $200m , they tried to buy Manchester United, Their TV network Al-Jazeera has bought up a lot of TV rights over the world, then there was their successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup and the recent fiasco with FIFA which led to Qatari official Mohammed Bin Hammam being banished from the far from squeaky clean world football governing body.

So its no surprise they have now acquired a European club but has the decision to buy PSG been a surprise?

Well in some ways yes and in others no.

First why yes?

Well the Qatari people love to make the biggest impact so people may have thought that the would go into the Spanish, Italian or English markets with Everton being obvious targets. These leagues give ultimate exposure and have been dominating European football for almost twenty years.

So why no?

Well by purchasing Paris Saint-Germain and by running them properly they will expect European/Champions League qualification each and every season. In France there are less financial competitors to worry about. Ligue 1 has always been a very good league and a place were stars hone their skills before becoming world class talents. Then there is Paris itself, one of the worlds top top cities yet their team have never totally dominated European football. So that is the challenge make a team from the beautiful French capital beat the likes of Barca, Man Utd, the Milan sides and Real Madrid on a regular basis. The city and money can attract top players as it has before but this time they will be able to keep them too!



So what can PSG fans expect now?

Well the new owners have not been slow in getting their new project up on its feet. After helping the club to a top four finish last season former player Antoine Kombouare has kept his job as First Team Coach. I hope he remains there as he is a talented boss who gets the players playing for him. I remember Antoine joining Aberdeen for a few years towards the end of his career and even then he was coaching the players around him and organising the defence in a very structured fashion. He has passion for his job and he seems like a deep thinker. But his new employers have brought in another former PSG player to help him out in the form of former AC and Inter manager Leonardo. An appointment which will surely have Kombouare sleeping with one eye open and he will only truly be satisfied that his job is not already the Brazilians when he gets through a bad spell of results without being sacked.



Leo has came in as Sporting Director, a job he preformed at AC Milan for a few years and for me a job that is more suited to forty-one year old. His links in Brazil and Italy are extremely strong and his ability to spot a player are fantastic just look at the job he did in bringing in Kaka, Alexandre Pato and Thiago Silva to AC. All three counted Leo as a reason for going to Milan. He also becomes very friendly with the players which is maybe why he wasn’t totally successful as a coach as you need that distance, although his tactics could be called into question too. As a Sporting Director he can spot which players to bring in, become their confidant and not interfere with first team affairs and by doing that he be a huge success in Paris. The fact he speaks at least six languages helps immensely as well.

Look out for the French giants now being linked with Neymar, Ganso and Sao Paulo’s Lucas in the future as the QSI will hope Leonardo can persuade some of his countries next generation superstars to join him in Paris.



Leo has already used his links to great affect with Jeremy Menez, Mohamed Sissoko and Salvatore Sirigu all coming in from Serie A. They have also added established Ligue 1 stars with French Internationalists Kevin Gameiro and Blaise Matuidi joining from Lorient and St-Etienne. With those players joining the likes of Mamadou Sakho, Peguy Luyindula, Mathieu Bodmer, Sylvain Armand and Nene then surely PSG were always going to challenge current champions Lille, Lyon and Marseille for next seasons championship.

But the QSI group wanted to make a major statement, they wanted to purchase that marquee signing that would make the whole of European football sit up and take notice. So Menez is talented, Sissoko will strengthen the midfield and Sirgu is a keeper with a huge future but Leo and the Qatari owners needed to make a splash that would get everyone talking.

They took a look around the globe and decided to do battle with Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea for the signature of Argentine International Javier Pastore. They were already dealing with Palermo supremo Maurizio Zamparini over the purchase of Salvatore Sirigu and came up with a £39m deal to be paid in three instalments which the Italian club accepted. It was reported that a similar bid from the London side was also accepted and it was a choice between the two for the twenty-two year old. If true then Paris offered a more suitable package to Javier as it looks like the attacking midfielder will be paraded as a PSG player this week. The deal created the desired affect as all of the football world are now talking about Paris Saint-Germain and their new squad.

So why would Pastore sign for PSG ahead of Chelsea?

Well as cities there is not a lot to choose between London and Paris. Money would be very similar. As projects PSG’s is new and looks exciting with owners up for the challenge of making their side one of the best in Europe, while Chelsea’s look a bit stop start with a lack of direction. At PSG Pastore comes in as the top player and like Rai back in the 90s he can expect most of the attacks to come through him, at the Blues he would not be the main man and would be forever battling with the likes of Frank Lampard, John Terry, Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres for the headlines. Even when negotiating with Palermo, you had a sense that Chelsea really wanted Spurs midfield maestro Luka Modric and maybe Javier got that sense and decided to make the move to France. Plus there is that man Leonardo who Pastore would have met and probably fell in love with!

Their is a new Arab revolution in European football with PSG, Man City and Malaga all splashing their oil laden cash but maybe the purchase of the Parisian club has been the most astute as they were already a big club in their country, have a European history and are probably the most likely to win their league first.

The Ligue 1 championship will be the main target for this maiden season for the mega-rich new owners but a top three finish will get PSG a Champions League spot which is the minimum they want this campaign. But the main aim is to challenge for the top Euro honours which they hope to be doing in within five years.

http://www.thefootyblog.net/

[laleto]

A True Change of Era at PSG

A true change of era
December 30, 2011
By Alexander Netherton

"Antoine who?" French football magazine So Foot asked when it became apparent that the former Paris Saint-Germain manager Antoine Kombouare would be replaced by the former Chelsea and AC Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti. While there was some mock indignation - along the lines of the press reaction in England when Claudio Ranieri was discarded for Jose Mourinho at Chelsea - on balance there has been an acceptance of the decision.

The realisation is that Paris Saint-Germain really are right to bring in a new manager to meet ever increasing ambition. Stagnation is not enough to succeed in European football. This is because, though PSG are the autumn champions, the key question is, as the same magazine puts it, of whether they are to "stay good or become better". Given Kombouare's weaknesses, and Ancelotti's strengths, it seems that sporting director Leonardo has decided that merely being good, instead of excellent, is Kombouare's limit. The French press' reaction is one of reluctant accord rather than wailing at the former manager's removal.

Antoine Kombouare leaves with "neither a fabulous nor terrible record" (So Foot again). While he may have won 12 of his 19 games this year - twice the win ratio of his two predecessors, who won 27 matches in 76 games - Kombouare convinced nobody of his ability to lead PSG in the Champions League or manage Champions League players. It is possible to compare Chelsea's self-destruction away at Monaco in 2004 with PSG's failure to advance from the group stages of the Europa League. Both were not total disasters, but both were an indication of the coaches' limits. Chelsea, ceding advantage to the home side when they were on top, lacked the necessary ruthlessness. For all the opprobrium at the time, Ranieri's subsequent record has backed up Abramovich's judgment that he was not the manager to give limitless resources. There is no need for PSG and Leonardo to take the same risk.

Carlo Ancelotti, on the other hand, has a track record not of doing just enough but of winning the ultimate prize in European football. He has won the Champions League twice, and would have made it a five-year hat-trick were he not shocked by a freakish Liverpool comeback in Istanbul. Ancelotti also picked up two Scudetti, and won the league with Chelsea in his first Premier League campaign in 2010. Given the various financial constraints put on him as Silvio Berlusconi became less willing to spend at AC Milan, and given the immediate success required to keep a job at Chelsea under Roman Abramovich, Ancelotti's approach will appeal to the hugely ambitious owners at PSG. As he is quoted in Liberation, "I would like to find tactical solutions as brilliant as Arrigo Sacchi's, but there's less and less margin of error. I rely on the genius of the players." While Kombouare struggled to make a team play to its strengths, Ancelotti made the most of his Milan and Chelsea veterans. Remember, too, that Ancelotti can work under extreme pressure. Though QSI expects the utmost success, the Italian manager would have to field regular phone calls from Silvio Berlusconi - then not just his boss, but his Prime Minister.

It's this philosophy that could be the key to success, and the biggest initial problem, for PSG's new man in charge. To rely on the genius of Javier Pastore would have looked reasonable at the start of the season, with some deeply erotic volleyed goals and his Danone-smooth passes, but since then he's faded in his first French season. This is a minor obstacle, though. Pastore's talent is undoubted and with youth on his side you can expect he will come good once he settles in. However, the larger problem is that elsewhere in the side genius is not merely faltering but barely exists. The defence is shonky, often saved by its goalkeeper Sirigu, who has proved little more than his competence. In midfield, there is no player who can destroy, intercept or pass impressively. Their other maverick, Jeremy Menez, has the self belief of Nicklas Bendtner and, sadly for him and Paris Saint-Germain, about the same level of ability.

It's not just his track record as a coach - rewarded by a 'Ligue 1 record' monthly wage of €500,000 (L'Equipe) - that has secured Ancelotti the job. His relationship with Leonardo, a former player of his at AC Milan, secures a strong relationship at the top, pulling in the same direction. Le Monde points out: "Paris Saint-Germain have a chequebook without limit. It's a sign that PSG and French football is now in another dimension."

The new money had for Antoine Kombouare afforded them the chance to sign the best of the second-tier talent, but with Ancelotti new signings seem more reasonable. Alexandre Pato, unsettled in Milan, Florent Malouda, happy to leave Chelsea, and David Beckham, free to do what he likes, are all suggested as potential signings now. Along with another possibility, Kaka, they are all more likely to join PSG not just for money but because they have all experienced success under Carlo Ancelotti at one time or another. Pato's agent put it best when asked of the proposed move to PSG: "Ancelotti is a champion, Leonardo is a hyper competitive director ...and PSG are becoming a huge club."

PSG might now be in a new dimension, but the consensus in the press is that they won't be able to stay in it without Ancelotti. His appointment is, as Le Monde states today, "a true change of era" for PSG.




Alexander Netherton is editor of surrealfootball.com

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story...-at-psg?cc=5901