How Can PSG Make Progress in the Next Two Seasons?
Since Qatar Sports Investments’ (QSI) arrival in the French capital in 2011, Paris Saint-Germain have come a long way on and off the pitch.
Prior to the takeover, Les Parisiens had won the Ligue 1 title just twice and reached the UEFA Champions League semi-finals once—back in the 1994-95 season.
In the four years that have followed, PSG have amassed seven more pieces of silverware. The capital club have now been winners of Le Championnat five times; they have also taken their Coupe de la Ligue tally up to the same number.
They won their first Coupe de France since the 2009-10 edition last season, and they have also added two Trophee des Champions to their Parc des Princes collection.
Despite those impressive—albeit expected—strides on the domestic front though, PSG are still yet to advance past the quarter-finals of the Champions League. In each of the last three seasons, the French giants have fallen at the last-eight stage.
After completing the first-ever clean sweep of French silverware last campaign, the current Ligue 1 titleholders’ ambition for the next two seasons will be to maintain their current level of domestic dominance and to advance to the semi-finals of the Champions League or better.
It is a tall order, considering that progress in the continent’s elite club competition depends a lot on the group and latter stage draws. However, there is also little doubt that there is enough talent in Laurent Blanc’s current squad to make it to the semi-finals or better.
At present, one major factor preventing PSG from making it past the quarter-finals for the first time since 1994-95 is the fact that the squad, while boasting a strong starting XI, still lacks strength in depth when you scratch beneath the surface a little.
One of the main things that the Ligue 1 giants’ two-legged defeat to ultimate winners Barcelona in last season’s competition proved was that Blanc does not have enough quality strength in depth at his disposal.
Even had PSG not been missing Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Marco Verratti, Thiago Motta, Lucas Moura and Serge Aurier for one or both games, they may well have still lost to one of the best attacking sides in recent memory.
However, only being able to call upon the likes of Yohan Cabaye and Adrien Rabiot, while having to play other key players out of position and forcing the likes of David Luiz to play through the pain barrier, demonstrated that PSG do not possess the same quantity of top talent as Barcelona do.
The only real way for Les Parisiens to fix this and challenge for future European glory is by developing their own young players and giving them genuine squad roles so that they can make up that depth in quality.
Paris is a vast hotbed of footballing talent, like almost every other city on the planet. However, too much of the local talent has slipped through PSG’s fingers in the past.
It is only now, since the arrival of QSI, that the youth academy is finally getting the attention that it craved.
Paris-based talents are being snapped up far more frequently than they were in the past and fewer potential stars are getting overlooked and choosing to sign for other Ligue 1 clubs, as was often the case.
Currently, starlets such as Jean-Kevin Augustin, Presnel Kimpembe and Christopher Nkunku are impressing in the USA during the International Champions Cup (ICC), demonstrating just how strong PSG’s future could be if they put some faith in their latest batch of exciting and precociously talented kids.
If Blanc can bleed in the likes of Augustin, Kimpembe and Nkunku while continuing to develop gifted young homegrown midfielder Rabiot, the French champions could have the spine of a dominant future squad in place.
From there, those talents can add depth as they gradually acquire enough experience to eventually break into the starting XI themselves.
That is not the only area in which PSG need to progress over the next two seasons though.
A crucial moment for the capital club will be when they separate from current star man Ibrahimovic.
The Swede will be 34 in October, and although he has contributed an awful lot to the club since arriving in the summer of 2012, last season was the strongest indication yet that his team-mates are relying on him less and less.
That dependency on the talismanic striker still exists, just not as much as it has done in the past.
Strike partner Edinson Cavani, playmaker Javier Pastore, midfield terrier Verratti, speed demon Lucas and composed defender Marquinhos form the spine of a relatively young and very talented PSG side—especially in attack—but they still have need for Ibrahimovic’s influence.
The former AC Milan man is into the final 12 months of his contract, and the chances are that his deal will not be renewed. Instead, the towering striker is likely to move on elsewhere, and Blanc’s men will be left to fend for themselves without their dominant figurehead.
Ibrahimovic’s stay at Parc des Princes coming to its natural end will be an important moment for PSG in their progression over the next two years. At that moment, the keys must be handed to Cavani, Pastore, Verratti, Moura and Marquinhos, with the team being built around those key figures in the future.
On top of the ageing Swede, there are some other members of Les Parisiens’ old guard who will also need moving on over the next two years.
Ibrahimovic’s long-time close friend Maxwell will be out of contract next summer and has already announced that this will be his last season in Europe, while Motta is another who is out of contract at the end of this campaign.
At 30 years old, captain Silva is not quite old enough to be placed in that group, and his skills have not declined to the point where he can be considered a liability.
However, Marquinhos has proved already that he is ready to succeed his fellow Brazilian as the rock at the heart of the PSG defence whenever the skipper either decides to move on or Les Parisiens forcibly remove him from the starting XI.
When the best part of this collection of seasoned individuals—assembled at great cost—are moved on, PSG need to stop obsessing over star names and instead buy players who fit into the footballing philosophy that is starting to emerge under Blanc.
The appointment of former Barcelona youth academy chief Carles Romagosa as technical director of the French juggernaut’s youth academy is a step in the right direction regarding that. All future youth talents will be educated with a style of football similar to that of the Spanish giants.
Once the benefits of this educational system start to kick in, PSG will no longer need to buy players to aid the club’s image or reputation, those stars will simply be raised within and all the club will need to do is add the occasional player—who fits the philosophy—to the squad.
If PSG can accomplish, or at least start to work toward all of this in the next two seasons, then considerable progress will have been made.
However, while it is not absolutely vital for the club’s development, it would be nice to see more French players representing the country’s strongest domestic team.
The youth academy should continue to produce plenty of gifted youngsters to make a greater Gallic influence possible, but the acquisition of one or two top French internationals—capable of holding down a starting XI role—would be a boost for the club’s image too.
Bleacher Report is Official Media Partner of the International Champions Cup North America.
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