PSG’s Qatari overlords were on the brink of pulling the plug after the Barca disaster. Instead they doubled down and kicked off the biggest spending spree football has ever seen
By JOHN McGARRY
WHEN Sergi Roberto’s outstretched foot guided Neymar’s heat-seeking pass beyond Kevin Trapp in the 95th minute, the hearts of sports editors the length and breadth of France must have missed a beat. Just how do you adequately convey the enormity of what had just transpired? How do you immediately put it in historical context? To recap, Paris Saint-Germain had arrived in Barcelona the previous March day for their Champions League last-16 tie leading 4-0 from the first leg. No side in the history of the European game had ever surrendered such an advantage and, given the bottomless pockets of the Parisians’ Qatari backers, few were considering the form book being ripped up. If three goals inside 50 minutes had briefly brought the seemingly impossible into view, Edinson Cavani’s strike on 62 minutes meant all bets were surely off. With two minutes of the 90 remaining, Barca still needed three goals to qualify. Neymar’s free-kick crossed one off. His penalty in the second minute of stoppage time took care of another. By the time he played in Roberto — the last action of the game — those PSG supporters sitting in the top tier of the Nou Camp were already watching a nightmare play out through the cracks in their fingers. INQUALIFIABLE! screamed the front page of L’Equipe, a reprise of their headline after Bulgaria famously eliminated France from the 1994 World Cup. Unthinkable, right enough. Amid the shock and devastation, there seemed universal acknowledgement that the consequences would be devastating and long-lasting.
France Football, which described the result as ‘The Incredible Shipwreck’, suggested the entire Paris project might be abandoned as a result. ‘Everyone is annoyed,’ said PSG president Nasser al-Khelaifi with no little exaggeration in the aftermath. ‘Is (Unai) Emery in trouble? That is not even a question.’ Speaking as his club prepared to enter an international break, the man who doubles as the chairman of Qatar Sports Investments might well have held up a notice saying ‘new manager required’. Yet, for some unfathomable reason, not only did the former Sevilla manager live to tell the tale, he was seen as the right man to guide PSG from the darkest of places back to the light — with money simply no object. By the end of the campaign, the club’s devastation at crashing out to Barcelona had been compounded by finishing eight points adrift of champions Monaco in Ligue 1. The French Cup and the League Cup were scant consolation. The overriding feeling was that Zlatan Ibrahimovic and David Luiz had not adequately been replaced. But no one outwith the corridors of power at the Parc des Princes could possibly have guessed at what was coming next. When word was leaked to the French press that PSG were prepared to meet Neymar’s £198million release clause — £109m more than the record sum Manchester United paid Juventus to be reunited with Paul Pogba — the small print was equally revealing. Were Barca and/or Neymar unwilling to play ball, the names of Robert Lewandowski, Sergio Aguero, Marco Reus and Eden Hazard featured prominently in Plan B. This was unprecedented sabre-rattling. In the end, following weeks of often acrimonious negotiations, they got their man. Happy to cough up wages of around £520,000 a week — almost doubling the player’s salary while shelling out more than £30m to agents and the player’s father for simply
facilitating the move — the Qataris made the biggest statement of intent the game has ever seen while simultaneously thumbing their noses at UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules. And they weren’t finished yet. As an integral part of the Monaco side which won the French title and reached the semi-final of the Champions League, Kylian Mbappe was feted by Arsenal, Real Madrid and Manchester City before an increasingly familiar figure entered Europe’s high rollers’ room. Announcing the arrival of the 18-year-old — who was unveiled yesterday — on an initial seasonlong loan which will lead to a £165m fee changing hands next summer, PSG reduced their domestic title race to a farce while leaving the competition around the continent imploring the powers-that-be to act over the blatant financial chicanery. ‘PSG is a habitual offender and has been violating UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations for years,’ claimed La Liga president Javier Tebas. ‘It is important that UEFA doesn’t just look at the most recent player transfers, but at PSG’s history of noncompliance. ‘The transfers are merely the result of years of financial doping at PSG.’ Last Friday, UEFA broke their deafening silence by opening an investigation into PSG’s finances, but anyone expecting stiff action is liable to be disappointed. They have freely disregarded the rules which allow only £30m to be spent on top of earnings in the past and have been met with a fine, a spending cap and only being allowed to register 21 players for the Champions League in 2014. No reason to fret, in other words. Sweeping the matter under the carpet is all the easier for a governing body when PSG gain justification for their actions from a footballing deity. Speaking this week about Neymar’s switch to the French capital, no less an authority than Pele claimed it was an eminently sensible move for his fellow Brazilian. ‘At the moment the best player in Brazil is Neymar and I think the move for him was very good because there was huge competition with Messi at Barcelona,’ he said. ‘I think it’s a good opportunity for him and he needed to move because now he can really play and show what he’s capable of. But it’s also very dangerous when you get given that responsibility.’ With Emery’s front line now comprising Neymar, Mbappe and Cavani — with Angel di Maria, Thiago Motta and Adrien Rabiot providing the supporting cast — identifying and eliminating the danger is a task opponents are likely to find easier said than done. In their four impeccable league games already this season, Emery’s side have scored 14 goals and conceded just twice. And that’s before Mbappe makes his debut at Metz tomorrow evening. Brendan Rodgers, whose Celtic side face PSG in Glasgow next Tuesday, described the French side as ‘11 motorbikes’ at the weekend. Quite how the Scottish champions cope with the pace and panache of the visitors will be fascinating. For PSG, creating the tapestry for the most brash and ostentatious project in the history of the beautiful game means that failure is simply not an option this season.