No side has ever treated a Scottish club with such utter on-field disdain
FORGET the money for a minute and focus on the facts.
Admittedly half a billion pounds is difficult to turn a blind eye to but price tag aside PSG are the best side to arrive on these shores on European business.
Why not take it a step further – the best club side to be assembled on the planet. Never before have the sum of all parts aligned with such superstar perfection.
Tuesday exposed an inconvenient truth about finance in football and a disparity between a Celtic side that can’t dream of competing with the Continent’s most talked-about powerhouse.
No side have treated a Scottish club with such utter on-field disdain as Unai Emery’s and here’s where the statistics come in. PSG rolled into Glasgow with a backline which is all but the Brazilian national side in Dani Alves, Marquinhos and Thiago Silva – and that was just for starters.
Thiago Motta exuded a superiority of thought, touch and composure in front of his compatriots alongside the graft and craft of Marco Verratti and Adriene Rabiot.
Then comes the most costlyassembled strike force on the planet and again, try to the potential to become one of the greats.
Arsene Wegner has already branded the on-loan Monaco star the new Pele. But at £166million it’s not about his price – watch his pace, poise and clinical precision.
Every club that operates on a higher plane has a jewel in their crown. For Barca it’s Messi, Real Madrid have Ronaldo and PSG have Neymar. The Brazilian is still in his mid-20s and coming into his prime.
He’s the catalyst that takes this team into a different stratosphere, a panic-inducing explosive force with a deftness and inventive menace not even the best can contain – never mind a rookie in the shape of Antony Ralston.
Celtic haven’t won a Champions League group stage match since 2013. Good sides and bang average have inflicted defeat to the Hoops in the east end of the city. But never before has it been in such a dismantling fashion.
It’s not always about the money as nobody covered the green stuff with more style than PSG academy product Rabiot and he was the least celebrated player in a blue shirt. But he was a fair shout to have been the most accomplished player on the park.
There are mitigating circumstances for Celtic. They were already hamstrung by a summer recruitment own goal in failing to make defensive provisions for the step up in class.
It all played into the hands of a side better than any other.
There have been huge names playing in Glasgow – just look at the likes of Gianluca Vialli, Angelo di Livio, Alessandro del Piero, Paulo Sosa and Fabrizio Ravanelli who helped Juventus to a 4-0 win at Ibrox back in1995.
On another famous night in Govan I was witness to see a Dynamo Kiev side with an assortment of outrageously-talented guys like Oleg Blokhin, Igor Belanov, Alexei Mikhailichenko, Vasili Rats and Oleg Kuznetsov beaten by a star-studded Rangers.
But Tuesday night closed the book on the best club side debate.
It used to be Barca but PSG’s recruitment of Neymar and Mbappe means it’s the Catalans ney mair.
Never before have the sum of all parts aligned with such superstar perfection