Month: January 2024

RMC confirm reporting from Fabrizio Romano that Real Madrid have made an improved offer for PSG attacker Kylian Mbappé worth €170m + €10m in bonuses, besting their initial €160m offer made on Tuesday.

PSG President Al-Khelaifi spoke with BeIN Sports moments ago live from Istanbul at the Champions’ League draw and had the following to say on the Kylian Mbappé situation:

“I am going to be very clear, everyone knows our position. That is very clear, we are not going to change it.”

Real Madrid’s latest offer is in theory PSG making back what they spent, but in practice it isn’t as the €10m is in bonuses, as Les Parisiens still owe AS Monaco €35m – we expect this new offer to be rejected unless Kylian Mbappé definitively tells PSG in the coming hours he’s not signing a new contract.

 

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Emery Taisne reports this afternoon that Bordeaux are set to let go of young Italian full-back Raoul Bellanova, who will join Serie A side Cagliari.

The 22-year-old signs on an initial loan deal, which includes a permanent option set at €750k, having been under contract with the Marine et Blanc until 2023.

Bellanova initially joined from Milan’s youth ranks in 2019, and has seen virtually no playing time with Les Girondins amid loan spells at Atalanta and Pescara.

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L’Équipe report that Sporting Director Juninho made a number of efforts to reinforce his Lyon squad on transfer deadline day, notably in attack.

He approached French international forward Anthony Martial about returning to his former club on loan without an option to buy for the rest of the 2021/22 campaign, but the player refused.

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Talks internally also occurred about 38-year-old winger Franck Ribéry, an idea that was liked a lot by manager Peter Bosz. But in the end Juninho decided not to seriously pursue a deal.

OL also tried to sign Pablo Sarabia on loan from PSG, but the Spaniard was instead pushed towards Sporting Portugal to enable Les Parisiens to close a deal for Nuno Mendes.

 

In an interview published in today’s L’Équipe, midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum discussed his arrival at Paris Saint-Germain amid interest from other club’s in Europe’s elite this summer, as well as his ambitions in all competitions this season.

The Dutch international also touched on manager Mauricio Pochettino’s plans for him, his role in the PSG squad, and his relationship with former Lyon man Memphis Depay.

Les Parisiens kick off their Champions League campaign tomorrow night against Club Brugge, before facing Lyon on Sunday night in one of Ligue 1’s major clashes.

On whether he could have joined PSG in 2015

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Yes, it’s true. The initial contacts go back to 2014, after the World Cup. PSG wanted me to come but I wanted to stay at PSV Eindhoven for another year to try and become Dutch champion before leaving. I also wanted to stay with Memphis [Depay]. I was injured for a long time the previous season and I felt a bit indebted to the supporters. I stayed and we won the league. I was more open to the idea of leaving after that, and Paris had come back. But at that point I didn’t feel a real desire to sign me. I chose to sign for Newcastle, who really wanted me and made that clear to me.

On his reasons for joining now

Like I say, you go with your feeling. A few months ago, I wanted to stay at Liverpool, but without going into the details, I didn’t get the feeling they wanted to keep me. In these cases, you have to move forward. Barcelona came up. I was really happy because, since I was a kid, like with the majority of Dutch players, it’s been the club of my dreams, even if I have to admit that my idol was Zinédine Zidane, a Real Madrid player! I was keen on the idea of signing for Barcelona. But the negotiations lasted a while and eventually PSG came forward. Unlike 6 years ago, the club showed their desire to have me. It was time for me to see something else.

On interest from other clubs

There were discussions with Bayern Munich but they started further back. I also spoke with Inter Milan, who made a very good impression on me, the sort that as a player you want to have.

Why Paris, then?

Because of the project that was set out, and because I was told that I’d be a part of it. The management did everything to convince me. PSG went through the negotiations very quickly, and before we did so I spoke with Mauricio Pochettino and Leonardo. They assured me that they wanted to build one of the best teams in Europe.

On whether he was guaranteed a place as a key player

No, but you know, it’s up to me to do what I can do become a key player for the team. Certain clubs can make lots of promises, but if you’re not good you won’t play, and that makes sense. There will always be competition in a team like Paris, and it’s better that way. They didn’t so much promise me I would be a key player as explain to me how I would become an essential piece of the project with my experience and quality. That’s the kind of conversation I had with Leonardo, the manager, and the president [Nasser Al-Khelaifi] later on. They told me I had time to think about it but I agreed straight away. I knew this would be good for me.

On whether he spoke to Memphis about the move

Yes, Memphis knew everything!

On whether he could have joined Memphis at Barcelona

No, Memphis isn’t the kind of guy to go “I’m going here, follow me”. He told me to go with what I felt. I explained my situation with Barcelona, Paris and the other clubs to him. Of course it would be a dream to play in the same club together after being separated in 2015, but fate has decided otherwise. Then again, we play together for the national team. We have a great relationship, we call each other often. Whenever we have some free time, we try to meet up.

On what Pochettino told him this summer and in 2016, when he tried to sign him for Spurs

He didn’t say, “listen, this is how we’re going to play”, because I already knew how he works. Even if there’s always adjustments to make depending on your squad. Back in 2016, he set out how he manages, the style of play he likes, and so on. Because of that, this summer’s conversation was actually quite short. He asked me whether I was open to what Paris were offering, and spoke to me about the project and what they wanted to do. 

I was transparent, I told them I’d been speaking to Barcelona but that an agreement hadn’t been reached. If I had signed something, I wouldn’t have gone back on it, but here that wasn’t the case.

On how Pochettino plans to use him

When we spoke in 2016, he talked about a match between Spurs and Newcastle where I played on the left wing and did well. He said, “I’m not a coach who wants to put their players in fixed positions. Of course there are baseline tasks, but I want you to feel free to bring everything you can do to the table”. That worked perfectly for me, I don’t like to be stuck in a fixed position.

On his first impressions of Ligue 1

I’ve found that teams were very defensive against us. They leave very few spaces in between the lines, so it’s very difficult to find the intervals. I was expecting it, but to be honest not at that point. I take it as a mark of respect on the part of these teams for PSG, and truthfully, when you look at our team, it makes sense that the opposition isn’t going all-out in attack. I think it’ll be different in the Champions League, we’ll be playing teams who will also want to dictate the game.

On his ambitions after winning everything at Liverpool

To be part of such an ambitious project is one of the reasons I signed. It’s even the most important. Considering all of the great players here, people are only talking about the Champions League. But I didn’t sign here to only win that competition, I came here to win it all.

Obviously, the Champions League is massive because the club hasn’t won it yet. It reminds me of Liverpool in the league – they hadn’t won since it changed its name to the Premier League and it became an obsession. I get the feeling that it’s the same here. But we shouldn’t ignore the other competitions. The Champions League is what, 13 matches? There’s more to a season than 13 matches. I want to be in a team that wins everything, like Guardiola’s Barcelona.

L’Équipe report this afternoon that Lionel Messi sustained a knock after being kneed during last night’s 2-1 win over Lyon at the Parc des Princes. Paris Saint-Germain manager Mauricio Pochettino had taken his compatriot off midway through the second half for Achraf Hakimi, in a move that drew a grimace from the six-time Ballon d’Or winner.

Pochettino had made the change with PSG’s crowded fixture list in mind, and this morning the former Barcelona man arrived in training hobbling, spending the whole day in the treatment room.

The club will assess the forward’s medical condition tomorrow, with Messi having sustained the issue on his left knee – the same area on which he was injured on Argentina duty in September against Venezuela, in a tackle that saw his opponent red carded. 

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Nantes have today announced that the reserve player who suffered a heart attack in training on Thursday and was rushed to hospital has woken up from his artificial coma.

The unnamed player remains hospitalised and is being monitored, with the club indicating that he is “slowly” recovering. RMC Sport report that the incident took place at the end of Thursday’s training session, after which reserves manager Stéphane Ziani and a young physio on site had performed CPR on the player for a while, before emergency services arrived.

The 19-year-old was later placed in an artificial coma, and the reserve team’s match against Andrézieux, initially scheduled for Saturday, was postponed.

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Eight wins from eight league games may not sound like the rockiest of starts for a title favourite, but Paris Saint-Germain lead an existence defined by duality and contradiction. In France, by and large, PSG are critiqued based on their quality of performance with the title often seen as a formality by some. In Europe, however, it’s all about results. It’s early on both fronts but Paris are yet to truly convince in either regard.

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Despite that perfect domestic record, a lead of nine points and a goal difference of plus 15, Parisian performances have been repeatedly disjointed, complacent and worryingly static defensively. Promoted Troyes were unlucky not to collect a point on the opening day having taken the lead. Strasbourg fought back from 3-0 down and might have also nicked a draw against a haughty Paris side. Brest and Romain Faivre went toe-to-toe for long periods before being edged out 4-2.

Lyon, learning from Club Brugge’s aggressive, hard-pressing Champions League display in taking a point from Paris, had a likely win stolen by a flabbergasting VAR call. Metz, meanwhile, capitalised on a lazy PSG display only to lose the game on the last kick. A routine 4-0 win over promoted Clermont was perhaps the only comfortable and wholly deserved Paris triumph so far, even if a gung-ho Clermont managed 14 shots to PSG’s 13.

Mauricio Pochettino may only be nine months and 44 games into his PSG reign – although that’s arguably plenty of time to mould a side of such talent to something resembling the required shape – but issues seen in his first loss to Lorient in January persist.

Thomas Tuchel’s incarnation of PSG managed to balance the top heavy nature of the squad – even often deploying what seemed like an unworkable 4-2-4 to good effect – and the intensity, organisation and proactive style needed to combat an often undermanned midfield and the space naturally left between defensive and midfield lines when turning over possession. Pochettino’s team, meanwhile, lack the intensity and fluidity to make a similarly positive set up work. This PSG are too easily unbalanced and even look a little flustered when teams pinch the ball high up the pitch or find space on the counter.

The fact that Tuchel was sacked mid-season by PSG before taking their former captain, Thiago Silva – whom Tuchel had asked to club not to release, and their new club Chelsea to the Champions League title – PSG’s Holy Grail – in the same campaign amounts to the most embarrassing moment of the QSI era. The improvements made by Chelsea and the differences in Paris since also underline how intelligent and precise the German coach can be and that he was right all along in a number of regards, not least Silva.

Although Ángel Di María, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé weren’t always scintillating in their combination play under Tuchel, they consistently looked to be united in terms of ethos and game plan. PSG were usually effective, if not always effervescent. Although the addition of Lionel Messi means that the now four-man attack needs to reorganise once more, and admittedly they’ve only played together once so far, in 2021 a variety of combinations deployed by Pochettino have too regularly appeared out of step. As if Neymar, Mauro Icardi, Mbappé and Di María have all been given slightly different game plans.

Although Neymar and Mbappé’s natural understanding can mask some of those jagged edges, PSG have often relied upon individual brilliance in the bigger games under the former Tottenham coach. Paris have truly only impressed when not expected to impose themselves on a game against a comparable force, using their pace, individual quality and the Neymar-Mbappé partnership on the counter. Pochettino is clearly at his best in designing a side to play a fast and direct style, what the Spanish might call ‘vertical’. Both the Barcelona and Bayern Munich wins in last season’s knock-out stages were aided by such a style, while Mbappé’s Nou Camp hat-trick was an example of individual quality seeing Paris home.

Oddly, the arrival of the greatest player of all time at the Parc des Princes pulls Pochettino even further away from his comfort zone. Although Di María may be dropped for balance’s sake and a much-theorised (but yet to be seen) three man defence with added Sergio Ramos may provide the required security in Europe, Messi’s arrival makes Paris even more top-heavy and encourages more teams to defend deep against Pochettino’s side, heightening the need for a formula that can navigate a low-block – an idea the coach always struggled with at Tottenham.

Bizarrely, Pochettino’s style makes him best suited to set out a team to play against PSG, rather than corral PSG’s celebrity forwards to break down a stubborn opponent.

Positives remain, however. When fully fit and settled, Messi’s presence and otherworldly ability to navigate the tightest of spaces alone could be enough to override any issues Pochettino has against deep-sitting, well-organised teams. Meanwhile, Paris’ midfield has shone so far this term, even if their ability against Europe’s elite remains uncertain. Although the lethargic Georginio Wijnaldum has bordered on disastrous so far, Ander Herrera is in the form of his life and has been ably assisted by a rejuvenated Idrissa Gueye. Having again proven his unique qualities in helping Italy to EURO 2020 glory, Marco Verratti’s return could complete the trio and provide the balance PSG have been searching for.

Worryingly for Pochettino, however, in 2021, PSG’s opponents have fathomed another way to compete. While Lorient and Nantes both stole deserved but more traditional backs-against-the-wall style wins, both Lyon and Club Brugge have shown that a more measured approach, complemented by an aggressive press, also exposes Parisian weaknesses. Despite their form this term, without Marco Verratti’s waspish belligerence and supreme technical ability, Gueye and Herrera (who’s also been charged with covering gaps left by Achraf Hakimi’s marauding runs from right-back resulting in further imbalance) were often picked off and gaps in front of Marquinhos and Presnel Kimpembe exposed too easily. PSG could, perhaps should, have lost both games.

As PSG and Pochettino found out last season, individual attacking class and a seemingly ill-defined game plan has a limited shelf-life against the very best as Manchester City suffocated Paris and ran out easy winners in their semi-final tie. Although Paris impressed in beating Bayern and Barcelona, even with Messi on-board Barcelona were a long way from their best and Bayern might have edged a tight meeting had Robert Lewandowski been fit.

City and Pep Guardiola out-thought, out-maneuvered and out-played Pochettino’s charges by being too adept in possession to give up chances to counter as willingly as those before and too skilled in counter-pressing and quickly find their shape to allow chances to coalesce when those fleeting opportunities arrived. Tuchel’s Chelsea, meanwhile, won three games in a row against City last season, including the Champions League final. PSG have lost the last three against the Premier League champions and have yet to beat City in the QSI era.

After the draw with Brugge, PSG are already a long way from winning their Champions League group which includes Brugge, City and RB Leipzig, a potentially crucial feat given the likely opponents on offer after Christmas otherwise. Although Paris are likely to improve as the season goes on and a fully functional Lionel Messi could theoretically change everything, Pochettino is already struggling for solutions to problems he’s been unable to solve across more than a decade as a coach. Now into his second season at the Parc des Princes, Pochettino’s already running out of time.

AW

Lyon attacking midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri has been caught up in controversy relating to an independence dispute involving Kosovo.

On Saturday evening, whilst Shaqiri was giving his post-match analysis of Switzerland’s 2-0 victory over Northern Ireland to broadcaster RSI, a man came out of nowhere to put a jacket on him. This jacket had the UCK logo, the UCK being the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Shaqiri was born in ex-Yugoslavia, in Zhegër, which is currently part of Kosovo. The Swiss FA responded angrily to this event occurring on the pitch:

“It is unacceptable that people want to use football stadia, in this case during a post-match interview of a player after a match, for political propaganda. Xherdan Shaqiri responded in exemplary fashion, and remained calm and did not react. The man was questioned by police and was immediately given a stadium ban.”

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L’Équipe report that two individuals have been arrested and placed under police custody following last night’s Marseille-Lorient match for setting off smoke bombs inside the Stade Vélodrome.

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The match, which saw Marseille run out 4-1 victors over the Brittany side, saw the arrests as the home side have a suspended one-point deduction still ongoing following incidents during the trip to Angers.

In addition, several Marseille fans had used tear gas against opposition supporters at the end of the match, but the individuals in question are yet to be identified by authorities.

 

TROYES – 1 (Baldé 4)

Gauthier Gallon, 6

Adil Rami, 6 – Came on for El Hajjam following injury in the first half and, despite being aging and barely fit, was solid largely untested.

Jimmy Giraudon, 6

Yoann Salmier, 6

Giulian Biancone, 8 – Provided a precise low cross for the opener and was a constant threat and willing runner from wing-back. Unlucky not to score too and bullish at the back – although was lucky not to concede a first half penalty.

Youssouf Koné, 6

Rominigue Kouamé, 6

Xavier Chavalerin, 7 – The low-key coup of the window in France, Chavalerin ran the midfield for Troyes and was key to move progression and stretching the Nice defence with his passing.

Renaud Ripart, 7 – Hardworking, physical and not without quality as always, his superb back heel invited Biancone to cross for the opener.

Mama Baldé, 6 – A handful as always having been underrated at Dijon last season with his power and pace across the front line, nipped in to slam home the opener. Faded after the break and was withdrawn.

Yoann Touzghar, 5 – Typical for the Tunisian, worked hard and his movement was solid but his finishing remains weak to inconsistent and could have done better with a handful of chances. Comically, an outrageous backheel finish was deemed offside.

Others: El Hajjam 5, Suk 6, Domingues 5, Kaboré 6, Dingomé 5.

NICE – 0

Walter Benítez, 5 – Made one brilliant save from Touzghar just after half time but it might have spun in were it not for Atal.

Youcef Atal, 5 – Prominent from right-back in the circumstances in the first half and made a super sliding goal line clearance just after half time but failed to truly affect the game going forward and faded after the break.

Jean-Clair Todibo, 4

Dante, 5

Hassane Kamara, 4

Mario Lemina, 6 – Made a crucial first half block at 1-0 to stop Biancone from making it two.

Pablo Rosario, 4

Calvin Stengs, 2 – Did he even play?

Hicham Boudaoui, 3 – Adds balance and solidity in what could become an overly attacking set up but isn’t needed in games like this where Nice need to be positive against more stoic sides and was ineffective here.

Kasper Dolberg, 3 – His link up play was erratic and wasted a clear second half opening, caught in two minds.

Andy Delort, 3 – An oddly limp and quiet outing from Delort, he clearly prefers playing with Gouiri in attack.

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Others: Gouiri 6, Thuram 5, Claude-Maurice 5, Guessand 5, Schneiderlin 5.