Why Paris Saint-Germain Needs to Reevaluate Their Approach

Ever since Qatar Sports Investments took over sole ownership of Paris Saint-Germain in March 2012, they’ve demonstrated their willingness to spend on transfers in order to improve their squad. While PSG has built quite a superteam in the process, they have little to show for their spending besides their success in the French domestic league.

Despite winning eight of the last ten French Ligue 1 championships, QSI’s venture in Paris has been quite disappointing, considering their lack of success in European competitions. At this point in the club’s development, PSG’s owners need to reevaluate their approach and shift away from their current strategy. Below I will highlight the main problems and reasons why Paris Saint-Germain needs to reevaluate its approach.

Lack of Results in European Competitions

When QSI first took over PSG, they had one goal in mind, win the Champions League. Despite coming close a number of times, the Paris club has never been able to climb that final hill. They’ve been able to qualify for the Champions League in each of their last eleven seasons but have left each time empty-handed.

Not only have they been able to qualify for each of the past eleven seasons, but they’ve been able to reach the knockout stage in each of those seasons as well. Making it to the knockout stage is no easy task, and this track record demonstrates that PSG truly do have a talented squad. However, QSI built a squad capable of winning the European competition, and the highly expensive squad they’ve put together has been unable to do so up to this point.

Exorbitant Spending

Paris-Saint Germain has an estimated net player value of around 960 million dollars, which makes it the 5th most valuable club in the world. For the amount they spend, they should be contending for the Champions League year in and year out. PSG also holds the record for the two most expensive transfers in the history of football.

Their first massive transfer fee came when they bought Neymar from Barcelona in 2017 for 236 million dollars. They followed up this move with a transfer of Kylian Mbappe from AC Monaco in 2018, 192 million dollars. Two of the best players in the world cost just less than 500 million dollars and have brought PSG no closer to achieving success. Although their squad has gotten better, they’ve allocated their resources quite poorly and have not put themselves into an advantageous situation.

Loaded Superstar Attack

Paris Saint-Germain has built one of the most legendary attack trios in the history of football in Kylian Mbappe, Neymar, and Messi, but after recent results, it’s becoming apparent that they may have put too many eggs into one basket. Their potent attack scored the 4th most goals out of any team during the group stages, but their lackluster supporting cast recorded 0 clean sheets while conceding ten goals in eight matches.

A squad that has Mbappe, Neymar, and Messi should never go 4-2-2 in eight matches and hopefully will show PSG’s owners that their strategy isn’t working and won’t work until major changes are made. Although losing any of their three attackers would be disappointing, it may be the only option in order to add new talent and give PSG a fighting chance to be crowned victors of Europe.

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