What Does the Future Hold for Blaise Matuidi and Paris Saint-Germain?

Paris Saint-Germain will go into a strange situation this winter, with a decision needing to be made on the future of France international Blaise Matuidi.

"Fabio Paratici's still mad at me," the midfielder's agent, Mino Raiola, revealed to RAI Sport (via Goal) after Juventus' sporting director failed to close a deal with PSG for Matuidi in the summer.

This is the Toulouse native’s sixth season in the French capital, but at 29 years old, it could be deemed the best possible time to say goodbye. But at what cost?

It nearly happened in the summer. A move to Juventus looked all but done, and if the €30 million fee reported by Goal’s Romeo Agresti and Loic Tanzi is to be believed, it represented superb business from the Ligue 1 champions.

France team-mate Moussa Sissoko explained to Agresti:

"

I was often with him in the room. 

I could see that he wanted to leave [Paris Saint-Germain] and certainly wanted a new challenge. 

Juventus were interested in him. It was something exciting for him. But, unfortunately, PSG were against his departure.

I know what it's like when you want to leave a club, because I was in the same situation—I wanted to leave [Newcastle United]. 

I felt the same as he was feeling. We supported each other.

"

Matuidi had played 167 Ligue 1 games for the Parisians going into the new campaign, and just like PSG in that time, he has grown. The former Saint-Etienne man has blossomed into one of the best box-to-box midfielders in Europe.

Even when Zlatan Ibrahimovic was in his prime—especially during the 2013/14 campaign—Matuidi was easily just as, if not more, important to how Laurent Blanc’s team played.

He may not be the most technically gifted player in the world—Matuidi definitely doesn’t score as many goals as you would expect from such a talent and is far from an assist machine, either—yet what he does give you can’t be measured in stats. You won’t see it next to his impressive numbers on WhoScored.com.

He is the heart of this PSG team. He is their soul. Matuidi, as manager Unai Emery quickly realised, is vital.

“It was important for Matuidi to stay with us," the Spaniard told radio station RMC (via Football Italia). "I told him that three times. After that, it was up to him to work it out with the club, and he told me he was happy to stay here.”

Regardless of the game, or the situation, Matuidi will run his heart out. He sets the tone that everyone else has to aspire to. He struggled last season, but he was a victim of his own success.

His importance to both club and country meant he was picked constantly for both.

Back in March this year, playing away at the Amsterdam Arena as part of France’s UEFA Euro 2016 preparations, Les Bleus took on the Netherlands.

Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images

After Antoine Griezmann had given France the lead, Matuidi set up his team's second. His hunger and determination saw him climb highest to win a header on the edge of the box, knocking it down for Olivier Giroud to sweep home.

The Oranje fought back, giving the 46,000 fans something to cheer. Luuk de Jong made it 2-1. Then in the 86th minute, Ibrahim Afellay equalised for the home side.

Step forward Matuidi.

He probably shouldn’t have still been on the pitch. The friendly was a chance for France boss Didier Deschamps to have a look at someone else, to perhaps play N’Golo Kante from the start or at least give Matuidi a rest. But the PSG star was critical to how France played, and he would show it in the dying moments of the game.

A draw against the Netherlands, in a game that commemorated Johan Cruyff, would have been more than respectable. However, France’s No. 14 had other ideas.

With two minutes left, France attacked down the left. Matuidi burst past the forwards, latched on to a pass from Anthony Martial and blasted a left-footed effort beyond goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen.

No one else in that squad had the capacity or ability to make those runs so late in the game, and it’s the same for Emery’s team this season.

According to Canal+ and L'Equipe, player power at PSG has seen the Spanish coach return to playing 4-3-3 (h/t Jonathan Johnson of ESPNFC). Bizarrely, after 4-2-3-1 worked so well in pre-season, the players want the stale formation that worked with mixed results for Blanc.

For it to work, Matuidi becomes the most important player in the midfield.

Without a No. 10, you are relying on the wide players coming inside to create chances, but you also need someone to break from the midfield and make those darting runs beyond the forwards.

Marco Verratti—no matter how much you want him to become that type of player—is much more comfortable sitting deep. Thiago Motta is struggling to make runs beyond his own midfield, and Grzegorz Krychowiak is happier as the protector and destroyer.

Adrien Rabiot certainly has the ability to play in that same mould as Matuidi, but again, he’s happier getting the ball to feet and creating that way.

The elder of the two French midfielders, Matuidi is perhaps the only one with the instinct and the ability to play and move intelligently without the ball.

Against Ludogorets Razgrad in the UEFA Champions League, PSG were dreadful in the first half, creating virtually nothing and being tested by the Bulgarians on the counter. It was Matuidi who sparked them into life.

DIMITAR DILKOFF/Getty Images

His run down the inside of the defence was picked out by Verratti, and the 29-year-old did the rest. PSG won comfortably, but you have to wonder whether the result would have been the same had Matuidi moved on this summer.

"In January, if I get the opportunity, I will do everything possible to take Matuidi to Juventus," Raiola told La Gazzetta dello Sport (via Jonathan Johnson of ESPN FC).

It will likely be difficult for the Italian giants to prise Matuidi away from the French capital in January. He is cup-tied in the Champions League, and you are unlikely to pay the same price for a player who is also five months older.

At 22, 23 years old, that might not be an issue, but as he turns 30 in April, is he still worth it to a new club? Perhaps not.

PSG also have to factor in how much it would cost to replace the midfielder. He’s not the type of player who comes around very often.

Matuidi understands the virtues and values of the club. The fans love him, and even when he’s playing badly, you still get the effort of a top professional.

There is no one else in Emery’s team who embodies everything Les Parisians want their club to represent. That’s more important than any transfer fee.

If the player openly wants to move, there’s not much the club can do, but PSG should make sure he knows he will always have a home at the Parc des Princes.