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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/

[macbath]

PSG is primed to dominate Ligue 1

When France's Ligue 1 kicks off this weekend, it will likely attract more attention than any Championnat since the early 1990s, when Marseille ruled the roost and Monaco was led by a lanky, bespectacled young manager named Arsene Wenger.

Now you have Paris St. Germain, whose net spend in the past 15 months is around a quarter of a billion (with a "B") dollars. And if recent reports linking PSG to Lucas Moura are to be believed, it could go even higher. In terms of financial muscle, it's on a par with anyone in Europe right now.

Of course, it takes more than economic might to achieve success. And while Ezequiel Lavezzi, Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic -- added to last year's newcomers Thiago Motta, Javier Pastore, Jeremy Menez, Alex and Salvatore Sirigu -- mean that manager Carlo Ancelotti now has a powerhouse at his disposal, there's a long way to go before the gap with the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern and the Manchester clubs is closed.


PSG manager Carlo Ancelotti has a powerhouse at his disposal, including new arrivals Ezequiel Lavezzi, Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
How and if the pieces fit together and whether Ancelotti can make them click remains to be seen and is, perhaps, a column for another time. (Personally, I think few managers can match the former Milan boss when it comes to extracting the best from a group of big-name superstars.) What's interesting here, though, is whether PSG can lift the rest of the French league or whether being in Le Championnat turns out to be a bit of a millstone.

Marseille and Lyon, which historically ought to be PSG's rivals for the title, are treading water. Both are in tricky positions financially and both have played "small ball" in the transfer window. Elie Baup, who replaces the French national team-bound Didier Deschamps, will be working with the same set of players who collapsed so dramatically late last year (two league wins after January). There's no reason to think he's going to do any better. Lyon, once the gold standard of good governance, spent most of the summer trying to get rid of its high earners so they could be replaced with cheaper youngsters. Kim Kallstrom and Ederson moved on; Aly Cissokho and Michel Bastos have not, at least for now.

The one club that has tried to push on is Lille, for which coach Rudi Garcia has performed annual miracles and remains one of the most underrated bosses around. Last season, after winning the title in 2010-11, Lille lost Gervinho, Moussa Sow, Adil Rami and Yoann Cabaye, yet still managed to finish third. This summer, it was Eden Hazard's turn to make tracks, yet with Marvin Martin and Salomon Kalou coming aboard you feel Garcia can pull off another minor miracle and keep Lille in the running. With a new 50,000-seat stadium opening soon, Lille could soon have the financial clout to actually hang on to its stars and, perhaps, even get in PSG's way.

Then, of course, there's the defending champion, tiny Montpellier, whose fairytale run to the title last year was Disneyesque, given its puny budget. With the big target man, Olivier Giroud, off to Arsenal and defensive stalwart Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa possibly also on his way, it's hard to see lightning striking twice.

On paper, it looks as if only Lille can stand in PSG's way, and even then it's a long shot. The question, though, is whether this will be good for the French league in the medium term. And the answer is far from clear.

Having a big spender around can lead to a classic trickle-down effect, with Qatari money finding its way, via PSG, to the rest of the clubs. The problem is, since the Qataris took over and installed Leonardo as director of football, PSG has done its spending abroad, mostly in Serie A. At the same time, PSG's presence is likely to lead to wage inflation, which is never a good thing for the competition.

Speaking of wages, there's another huge, dark cloud on the horizon.

Francois Hollande, France's president, has vowed to impose a 75 percent tax rate on anyone earning more than a million euros ($1.25 million) a year. And while millionaire footballers generally don't rank very high on anyone's sympathy list, it's bound to hit Ligue 1 hard. Many players either negotiate their contracts in net (after-tax) terms or have clauses that protect them from sudden spikes in income tax. (And those who don't will make their feelings known as soon as it's time to renegotiate their deals.)

Currently, a footballer's take-home pay in France is around 50 percent of his gross wages. Bump the tax rate to 75 percent and you don't need to be a genius to figure out the havoc it could wreak. A guy making $5 million gross a season will need to nearly double his pre-tax wage to around $10 million to get the same net paycheck as before.

PSG, of course, can seemingly absorb the tax shock without batting an eyelid (there are major Financial Fair Play implications, but it seems as if they'll cross that bridge when they get to it). It's a different matter for the rest of the league. A 75 percent top tax rate is obviously a political decision, and this is a sports column, so I'll leave it to others to debate its merits. But one undeniable side effect is that it will hit the French game hard.

Possibly hard enough to negate some of the beneficial effects of the recent investments, including the building and refurbishment of new grounds ahead of Euro 2016 and the big TV deal with Al Jazeera. And that suggests that even if PSG attain success domestically and in Europe, we may not have that rising tide lifting all boats.

ESPN
http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/story/_/i...-france-ligue-1