The (in)explicable debacle of Paris Saint-Germain, the team of millions and the three best players in the world

The best Argentine footballer, the best French footballer and the best Brazilian footballer walk into a dressing room… It could be the beginning of a line from Negro Álvarez or Cacho Garaybut it is also the trigger of the great question that torments the supporters of Paris Saint-Germain these days: why did a team that has the stars of the top three picks on the planet, according to FIFA rankings, and with exuberant financial backing, fail for the second consecutive season? Finding that answer will be the first step that the institution’s management will have to take to design a better future. although definitely He will do it now without Lionel Messi in their ranks.

the rosary, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar They were the vertices of the triangle on which the Qatari Investment Authority (QIA), owner of the club since 2011, tried to build the whole that would allow it to make the definitive leap towards the goal it has been pursuing without success for more than a decade : The Champions League. The Argentina national team captain arrived in August 2021 and joined the Brazilian, who arrived from Barcelona in 2017 in the most expensive pass in football history (222 million euros), and the Frenchman, whose record was acquired by Monaco in 2018 in the exchange for 180 million euros. That constellation was never enough to make a team curdle.

We saw it this season, in which the Parisian team prematurely said goodbye to the Champions League in the round of 16, eliminated by Bayern Munich; he was left by the wayside in the same Coupe de France instance, defeated by Olympique de Marseille; and has to work much longer than expected to secure the Ligue 1 title, a mediocre competition in which he shouldn’t find too much opposition. Sunday’s setback at the Parc des Princes against Lorient, the sixth for the domestic tournament in 2023, reduced the lead over Olympique de Marseille to five points with 15 remaining to play.

After the return of several of his players who had gone to Qatar to play the World Cup, the modest structure that the coach had managed to build Christopher Galtier in the first months of work (he arrived in July from Nice) he began to waver. In recent months it has been a dull and unbalanced team, which has not fully adapted to the 4-4-2 proposed by the coach and which has paid for those weaknesses and failures when demand has grown.

The most serious problems have been seen in defense. The numbers, in this sense, are convincing. For the first time since 1989, PSG have conceded at least one goal in eight consecutive home games in the domestic league. In 2023 only Angers (lost 2-0 on 11 January) left the Parc des Princes without converting. And despite being the leader of the contest, Galtier’s cast has only the fourth best defense in Ligue 1with 34 goals conceded in 33 games, behind Olympique de Marseille (32), Nice (31) and Lens (25).

A lot of emphasis has been placed in this sense Gianluigi Donnarumma, who made mistakes in important games such as the one that facilitated the goal of the French Kingsley Coman in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League against Bayern Munich and with which the Teutons prevailed in the French capital. Even if the Italian goalkeeper (immovable for Galtier) failed a lot, his teammates with defensive responsibilities didn’t help him much either.

At the other end of the field, things have been a little better, although the drop in performance has also been noticeable in the last four months. With Neymar (a VIP patient of the Parisian infirmary since his arrival) Inactive since March and until the end of the season due to an operation on his right ankle, Mbappé supported the attack of a team that saw Messi fade in the face of negative results.

The former Barcelona player has been less and less involved in the team’s game, lacking intensity and sometimes marking the pitch. In the last period he has shot less on goal, he did it with a worse aim and he made less contact with the ball, especially near the area. Before the World Cup, Leo had 12 goals and 14 assists in 19 games. After the consecration in Qatar, he contributed 8 goals and 5 passes-goals in 18 presentations.

“We need collective and individual awareness. To win the title we will have to show a different face, with more personality, more character. There are too many players below your level”, Galtier wondered on Sunday, after the defeat against Lorient. “There was a lack of concentration from several players,” he added. The darts were aimed at the men in shorts. However, whoever wears a suit and gives instructions is also under the magnifying glass.

The 56-year-old from Marseille, already Ligue 1 champion with Lille in the 2020/21 season and fifth with Nice in 2021/22, has been chosen by the Qatari management to replace Maurice Pochettino. He never finished making his mark on the team and also didn’t seem to have the most ductile doll to manage the locker room and manage egos in a squad full of numbers. The Vanity War found a lull as results accompanied. When the tables were turned, a negative environment emerged which the DT could not minimize.

To make matters worse, for just under a month the questions against DT have diversified: it’s no longer just about the performance of his team, but also accused of racist and Islamophobic conduct. This is due to the revelation of an alleged email that Julien Fournier, who was the sporting director of Nice (the club that Galtier then managed), allegedly sent in August 2021, in which he reported the manager’s complaints about the amount of blacks and Muslims players who made up the squad of the Côte d’Azur club.

There is no indication that Galtier will keep his job after the end of this season, but until then he will have to keep the helm as firm as possible. “The players continue to support the coach, I’m sure they will,” he guaranteed louis fields, football adviser to the capital club and responsible for the recruitment of the DT, after Sunday’s defeat against Lorient. “I expect a reaction from everyone: from the players, from the coaching staff, from all the people who work at PSG,” he demanded.

Even Campos can’t make too much fuss these days, as his management is also in the crosshairs. The Portuguese joined the club’s structure in June 2022, replacing the Brazilian Leonardoand he tried to give a different imprint to the procurement policy after several slips with the purchase of famous players who have never responded in harmony, such as Donnarumma, the Spanish Sergio Ramos or the Dutch Georginio Wijnaldum.

The bet was for young players, with fewer posters and less expensive. None of them gave the team a quantum leap. The Portuguese Vitinha (he came from Porto) was almost always the owner and gave a more substantial contribution to the cause. The rest showed too many ups and downs and some had a disappointing job like the Spaniard Fabián Ruiz.

This whole combo has caused quite a few inconveniences to the team’s fans on days when the oven is not ready for focaccias in Pariswith a citizenry that has massively and recurrently taken to the streets to protest against the regressive pension reform launched with a decree by the Government of Emmanuel Macron. To the boos that players have heard in the background music at every match at the Parque de los Príncipes, new signs of animosity have been added in the last few hours.

On Monday, dozens of members of the Collectif Ultras Paris (CUP), the largest organized group of supporters, has transferred its discomfort to the Camp des Loges, the club’s training centre. There they displayed several banners with eloquent messages: “No one respects them anymore. Why should we?”, “They do not represent our city in any way. Who recognizes themselves in this PSG? Get out of here!” AND “Resignation Address”.

The temperature rose on Wednesday, when around 400 fans demonstrated in front of the club’s headquarters. There they requested (unsuccessfully) a meeting with the club’s leadership and distributed criticisms of troche and moche, with particular emphasis on Lionel Messi, Neymar and Nasser al-Khelaïfipresident of the institution. “We are fed up with mercenaries, Messi must be fired”, asked one of the fans who shouted aided by a megaphone. Another sign that some things have broken and can no longer be fixed.