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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]

An interesting article in the sense that it makes some valid criticisms, but unfortunately rendered null by the fact he makes several mistakes in his arguments (such as the pass to Matuidi or some of Ancelotti's choices given the squad at his disposal).

What I'll say is, I don't know whether he'll fit in better amongst some of Culturepsg's members or over at omplanete.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Croissants and raw minced beef
Alexander Netherton

Paris Saint-Germain have begun this season as they finished the last: inexplicably muddled given the talent and time afforded to get their house in order. They have now adopted the necessary pose for the modern moneyed club with flags and goal music, the epitome of football's public enemy. PSG: nouveau nouveau riche. It was more evident where the fans were concerned than it was in the football as they offered up a confusing performance to draw 2-2 with Lorient at the Parc des Princes on Saturday night.

They started, as every petroteam must, with a smattering of new players on the pitch. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marco Verratti and Ezequiel Lavezzi all started, and all played as if they'd barely met any of their new colleagues in pre-season. Understandable to an extent but, for PSG, it was a depressing memory of the performances after the first transfer window under their new owners, bringing in Jeremy Menez, Javier Pastore and Diego Lugano, and their second, inexplicably buying Alex and Maxwell, two fundamentally bad defenders. PSG: deja deja vu.

This was overseen by Carlo Ancelotti, beginning what should - Leonardo permitting - be his first full season as PSG manager. The first half was a debacle. Maxwell scored an own goal in the first few minutes after Lorient waltzed into the penalty area. PSG then pressed ineffectively, using Zlatan Ibrahimovic as an ersatz Andy Carroll, rubbing him up the wrong way by asking him to chase one inaccurate long ball after another. Problems integrating several expensive new signings? So far so Chelsea. As the half ended 2-0, the uglier side of a new sense of entitlement was expressed. The fans booed their team off. At half-time. In the first game of the season. It's perfectly justified to boo a perceived moral slight from one of your players - see Manchester United fans booing Wayne Rooney - but to boo a team after less than an hour betrays an understanding of football that would shame even Gary Lineker. [ x1]

Ancelotti had faffed his way to an effective front three after six months of toil last year in Nene, Pastore and Menez, but then started with just Menez. It was only when Nene was introduced in central midfield for Marco Verratti that the side started playing at a level that may be deemed vaguely commensurate with their abilities. It's too soon to judge the potential of the team, clearly, but it's fair to suggest that the manager remains ignorant of his best team [ x2]. With neither of the Thiago twins - Silva and Motta - available, he doesn't have the luxury of finding a settled side for a couple of months at least.

With a few choice words from Ancelotti, the players started with not just a new intent but also gave the impression that they had at least remembered they were playing football. Ibrahimovic scored a little after an hour. This was, however, not a good moment for PSG. Granted, they had halved their lead and were playing with a verve that suggested that future opposition should likely have more to worry about over the course of an entire game, but it led to something horrific. Goal music. There is little that is not cloying about the rise of a club newly buff purely from financial doping, but it's not just the instant head start - it's the soulless branding. Goal music is bad enough, but before the game they provided jaunty little flags to every fan. Hang soul or atmosphere, let them wave flags. PSG used to have hooligans; now they have the Black Eyed Peas and cheap tat. [ x3 to infinity]

It's not all decline. PSG used to have a mardy Nicolas Anelka in attack but now they have the markedly superior mardy Ibrahimovic []. He began the game isolated but transformed himself into a sonic Dimitar Berbatov in the second half. He controlled one hoofed ball that had been sailing 12 feet in the air with an outstretched toe to start one attack, and finally sealed the game not just by converting a penalty, but with a through-ball that compelled the defender to bundle Blaise Matuidi over to win it. An injury-time equaliser, a second goal from their new superstar, with time left to win the game, and what do the fans do? Leave early to get a jump on the traffic. []

Ibrahimovic's performance sums up what he may bring to the side. Not on his team-mates' wavelength in the first half, he only made a difference when he took it upon himself to control the game. If PSG are to not only win the league but make some impression in the Champions League this year, his contribution will have to be as driver rather than passenger. This is less to do with the team lacking goalscorers - Pastore, Nene, Menez and Lavezzi can all help here - but because the defence remains patchy.

Nicolas Douchez replaced Salvatore Sirigu, probably PSG's most consistent player last season, in yet another example of the inscrutable selections from Ancelotti. Possibly to be sold before the transfer window ends, Mamadou Sakho looked to be treading water instead of developing last year, and in the process lost the trust of his manager. Diego Lugano meanwhile looked like he was treading through concrete in his first year. Alex is just denser than concrete. Either side of them, Maxwell was sold by Barcelona even while Eric Abidal prepared for a liver transplant - the kind of endorsement best left to the second page of the CV - and Cristophe Jallet's massive bald head attracts even more attention to his inability to cross or pass. [Boom! Headshot combo! ]

PSG are the club that had to buy their own furniture. They did it in the '70s, and they're doing it again. PSG will still probably win the league. Last year's winners Montpellier are a marginally weaker side, and nobody else is particularly impressive. The rub is: if they win the league peppered with giddy little tunes and flags, and a carousel policy instead of a rotation one, that won't be particularly impressive either.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story...germain?cc=5901