Mailbag: PSG Supporters Are Fed Up With QSI!
Answering questions sent in by Paris Saint-Germain supporters around the world.
Welcome to the first mailbag feature, where I answer questions sent in by Paris Saint-Germain supporters.
If your question wasn’t chosen or you missed the above tweet entirely, don’t worry; we’ll do this weekly or until we have nothing to talk about…who am I kidding? This is PSG, after all. There’s always some drama to discuss. Let’s get started:
These are dark times for PSG, both on the pitch and financially. The club is coping with a second consecutive Round of 16 exit in the UEFA Champions League, and Financial Fair Play is ready to pounce at the first sign of overspending. For the first time really in the Qatar Sports Investments era, PSG will have to rebuild its squad and be fiscally responsible while doing it.
Last fall, PSG was hit with a €65 million fine by UEFA for breaching FFP rules. The club paid an initial €10 million; if they break the rules again, the remaining €55 million will be due.
To help avoid further penalties, it’s been reported that the club wants to reduce its wage bill by 30 percent by the end of the summer transfer window.
In order to do that, PSG will need to sell off many of the players returning from loan. The biggest reduction could come from separating ties with Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos. Both are in the twilight of their careers and earn enormous wages.
With all those departures, PSG will need to spend, but they’ll have to do it wisely. According to reports, PSG will have €80 million to spend without player sales. Keep in mind that the club will have to pay €30 million to make Hugo Ekitike’s move from Stade de Reims permanent, and Milan Škriniar’s free transfer to the French capital will eat into the wage bill.
So, to answer your question, it’s difficult to say how much PSG will have to spend this summer because it depends on the transfer fees they’re able to generate from outgoing players. If PSG can give Luis Campos a €100 million war chest, I think he could make PSG supporters very happy with his eye for talent, but we’ll just have to wait and see with this one.
This is certainly what many in the English media would have you believe. Because PSG plays in an “inferior” league, they can’t shift into high gear when it matters in the Champions League.
I tend to reject that premise because I watch Ligue 1 and I see how physical and tough it is. Not to mention the immense amount of young talent throughout France. I could mention any number of players who have publically stated how difficult Ligue 1 is, but I’ll just go with the most recent. Here is what Folarin Balogun, an Arsenal player on loan at Stade de Reims, had to say:
“Ligue 1 is really very difficult. I am very shocked when I hear people saying that the league is easy,” Balogun told Onze Mondial (via Get French Football News).
“I don’t understand why this league isn’t sometimes respected like it should be, especially on the internet. As a Ligue 1 player, I can say that it’s a very, very difficult division. There are lots of good, aggressive teams, and that’s without saying that the best players in the world are currently playing in this league, and despite that, they don’t win all of their matches.”
With that said, for me, I believe there are several reasons preventing PSG’s start-studded squad from consistently going on deep runs in the Champions League.
The first is an unbalanced squad. For years, the club has failed to build a world-class midfield around Marco Verratti. Then look at the current state of PSG’s defense. Injuries have exposed the lack of depth this season, and even when healthy, the center-back position is very weak with Marquinhos’ drop in form the last two seasons.
You mention stars, and I think that’s the problem as well. Since the Zlatan Ibrahimovic days, the players have always been thought to run the club. The manager has never been given full, autonomous control over the squad. He can’t bench a player for training poorly. Perhaps he can’t implement a new system because a star doesn’t agree.
Lastly, I have to say that PSG has been one of the unluckiest clubs in Europe. They face the toughest Round of 16 opponents of any other club, and it doesn’t even matter if they top their group or not. They often are on the wrong end of refereeing decisions, and VAR has been unkind as well.
I received a few questions about QSI, and it definitely feels like we’ve reached the point where fans in Paris and around the world are finally on the same page—everyone wants the owners out.
If you don’t even get into the sports washing and ethics of Qatar’s ownership of PSG, you would still come to the conclusion that they have no idea how to run a proper football club.
Far too often, it feels like the club is a sterile marketing product masquerading as a football club, and you’re never going to win the Champions League with that mentality.
So, to answer the first question, I think we all are shouting #NasserOut or #QSIOut.
You would think it would be far easier to remove PSG’s president, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, than get all-new ownership, but the two are intertwined in a way that I can’t foresee any changes any time soon, unfortunately.
The second question is an interesting one because it has many angles to it. Will QSI cash in on their investment and walk away? Will the Qatari purchase of Manchester United force them to sell PSG? Will the French Football Federation, under political pressure, force QSI to sell the club? Or, can the PSG Ultras cause enough of a distraction and make things uncomfortable enough to force them to sell?
Right now, all of those possibilities seem unlikely, and so I have to say that QSI will remain attached to the club for probably decades to come. If everyone stopped coming to matches, stopped buying merchandise, and UEFA banned them from the Champions League, I think that could force them out of the club, but anything short of that, I think they’ll retain ownership.
I feel for Luis Campos, I really do. I think he has an amazing eye for talent and he could use the financial firepower PSG has to build an unbelievably good squad. Unfortunately, he’s handicapped due to the poor decisions of QSI, Al-Khelaifi, and let’s not forget the damage Leonardo has done.
When you look at PSG’s squad, there are some really good bones to it. Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes might be the best full-back pairing in the world. Marco Verratti, when healthy, is a world-class midfielder, and Kylian Mbappé is the best player in the world. Not to mention some of the youngsters coming up, Warren Zaïre-Emery, for example, show some real promise.
The Neymar situation is a difficult one because you’re right, he doesn’t want to leave PSG, and with his wages and injury history, it will be next to impossible to sell him this summer. Campos is likely praying that Messi decides he wants to leave for MLS or Saudi Arabia. Two of MNM can work, but not all three. That much has been proven.
PSG will get a massive boost when Škriniar arrives, but Campos will likely need to sign another solid center-back, a midfielder who can compete with Vitinha, and build squad depth with young, hungry players who want to prove their quality.
Hopefully, the days of mega-signings or luxury signings are over, and Campos can go about building a squad with players who complement Christophe Galtier’s style of play. If not, Campos and Galtier will likely leave and we’ll start the cycle all over again.
This question ties into the ones above because I don’t think we’ll see the team evolve any time soon under QSI leadership, and I definitely don’t think the “money-grabbing” mentality will end under their reign, either. I mean, the club was just knocked out of the Champions League and they thought it was a good idea to announce a collaboration with something called Clown Skateboard. You can’t make this stuff up…
I don’t think the club will ever get serious about football, unfortunately, because Al-Khelaifi has proven he can’t resist meddling in the make-up of the squad. We don’t have serious football people running the club, so don’t expect PSG to learn from its mistakes. PSG may luck its way into a Champions League final like they did a few seasons ago, but I don’t think we’ll see PSG in the semi-finals or beyond consistently under QSI ownership.
A lot of questions here. I’ll try to address one at a time.
In regards to Christopher Nkunku and Moussa Diaby, both were sold in the summer of 2019, for a combined transfer fee of €28 million. Nkunku went to RB Leipzig, and after a breakout season, Chelsea is expected to pay upwards of €70 million for the Frenchman. Diaby could leave Bayer Leverkusen for just as much, if not more.
Why did PSG sell those players for so little? Again, we don’t have serious people running the club. Both players came up through the PSG academy and were receiving first-team minutes.
Leonardo had just been appointed as director of football and made those two sales a priority. In that same window, Leonardo signed Abdou Diallo (€32M), Idrissa Gueye (€30M), Pablo Sarabia (€18M), and Keylor Navas (€15M). Today, Diallo is on loan at Leipzig, Gueye returned to Everton, Sarabia sold to Wolves last January, and Navas was loaned to Nottingham Forest. It might go down as one of the worst transfer windows in PSG history.
Let’s talk Verratti now. You asked about why PSG hasn’t signed a player of his caliber to play alongside him or as a backup in case of injury or suspension. It’s a great point, and something fans have been screaming about for years. Verratti is a fantastic player but largely unreliable. Multiple sporting directors have tried to pair him with players with similar talent, but PSG hasn’t had a world-class midfield since Thiago Motta and Blaise Matuidi.
Campos may be on to something with Vitinha, but the jury is out. Personally, I think PSG needs some height in the midfield. Both Verratti and Vitinha are short in stature, which makes winning aerial duels difficult. A tall, physical defensive midfielder should be on the shopping list this summer, and I have faith that Campos can find the right fit.
In regards to Paredes, our columnist, Jonathan Johnson, believes that he will be sold following his return from Juventus. Your criticism of Fabián Ruiz is fair, but I’m willing to give him another season to see if he can flourish under Galtier. We forget that Messi didn’t hit the ground running at PSG and he’s the best to ever lace them up. I don’t think Ruiz should be a regular starter, but on the bench for depth or Coupe de France matches, I would be fine with that.
Lastly, for MNM to work, I believe you need to have the best midfield in the world. I’m talking about pairing Verratti with Kevin De Bruyne, N'Golo Kanté, Rodri, or Joshua Kimmich. You need relentless work rate, the ability to keep possession, and distribute. The front three of Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi, and Neymar Jr. don’t work as much as maybe they should defensively, so they leave a lot of gaps, and you need a midfielder to sort of paper over those cracks. A goalkeeper who is good with his feet and can distribute quickly and efficiently wouldn’t hurt, either.
I guess the real reason is whether or not you believe Romain Molina. According to him (via Get French Football News), “Carlos Soler’s move to PSG from Valencia was facilitated because Peter Lim called Nasser Al-Khelaifi (the pair are good friends) and explained that the Spanish club was having financial problems, enquiring if Al-Khelaifi could help.”
That sounds like something that could absolutely be true, and I bet it happens a lot more than we think in football.
PSG did need to add depth to its midfield at the time of his signing, but Soler has been so poor that I tend to believe the report from Molina. He’s not anywhere near the quality that PSG needs, and I guess his signing was a function of PSG’s charity department.
I told you PSG supporters are fed up with ownership…
This is the part I don’t understand. The problems at PSG are so obvious, but the solution is even more blatant. Hopefully, Al-Khelaifi subscribed to PSG Talk Extra Time because this is how you fix the club:
Let Messi leave the club.
Sell Neymar if you can.
Sell all the players returning from loan.
Build up a world-class scouting department and fill the academy with young, French players.
Fix the medical and training staff.
Build around Mbappé, Hakimi, and Mendes. Everyone else, including Verratti and Marquinhos, can be sold for the right price.
Sign the best players in Ligue 1 who are hungry to make a name for themselves at a big club like PSG.
PSG should make the proclamation that they are building a true football project and they’re not concerned with winning the Champions League right now, but maybe in a couple of years.
Resist the urge to buy aging star players with nothing to prove.
Thanks for all the questions this week! Look for your chance to get involved next week and let’s hope PSG can get a win against Stade Rennais on Sunday! Allez PSG.
— Ed