There are matches and leagues right across Europe which are too close to call. Where the difference between the leading teams at both ends of the table is so miniscule that you can barely separate them.
Ligue 1 is quite the opposite if truth be told.
Indeed, this has been the case ever since Paris Saint-Germain was bought a decade ago.
Firstly, QSI acquired a majority stake in June 2011 and then became the club’s sole owner in March 2012 which, effectively meant, it became a state-owned club, the only of its kind, and thus one of the richest teams in the world.
With that they started gobbling up some of the best talent around, both managerial and playing wise, and have dominated domestically with Ligue 1 highlights galore.
The very fact that Monaco (2017) and Lille (2021) stopped them, despite having a fraction of the Parisians’ budget, speaks volumes for what they achieved but also how PSG have still stalled in their nouveau-riche era.
The latest blow to their aspirations came in March when a player considered, alongside Erling Haaland, to be the potential heir to the throne of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, did his best to knock out eventual winners Real Madrid in the Champions League but saw the soft underbelly of some of his team-mates exposed.
After settling the first leg with a last-gasp goal, a brilliant strike from a sizzling French forward, he did the same again in Madrid’s backyard in what was almost a symbol of what he is fast becoming and why Madrid want him to become their next megastar.
Of course, it didn’t work out like that and Kylian Mbappe was one of the few players not to be booed by their own fans when PSG returned to domestic duties the following weekend.
Effectively, that result cost Mauricio Pochettino his job and he has this week been replaced by Christopher Galtier – a name few know outside France but with a decent pedigree.
The 55 year-old was the man who led Lille to the Ligue 1 title in 2021 and left Nice last month after guiding them to fifth in Ligue 1 and to the final of the French Cup last season.
More pertinently though, he is PSG’s seventh coach since the Qatari takeover of the club and, with the number of superstars in the PSG squad – at one point there were seven left-backs and two ‘number one’ keepers – harmony is what is needed to achieve the best chance of success.
Delivering that was one of Pochettino’s main achievements in Paris and no problems emerged out of the dressing room – at least not publicly.
He also managed to win a League title and French Cup, yet that is seen as the minimum requirement.
As respected football writer Guillem Balague so eloquently explained, at PSG the mentality is Champions League success or disaster and the fans have that attitude too.
Operating against a backdrop of a fans’ revolt, with supporters wanting rid of sporting director Leonardo, of the chairman and booing Neymar and Lionel Messi, were factors which made life difficult for Pochettino and is something Galtier will now have to tackle while, all the time, ensuring success at home and abroad.
The internal bother certainly never seems too far away as shown this week with Messi and Mbappe seemingly at loggerheads over future of Neymar.
The former Barcelona star has been linked with a summer exit, having seen his influence at the Ligue 1 champions dwindle over recent years. Neymar completed a world-record switch to the French capital in 2017 but has been usurped as the club’s leading star by the emergence of Mbappe.
So at PSG, you don’t just manage the team and the directors’ aspirations but also egos.
The SBOTOP Ligue 1 betting odds will favour them by a massive distance and they should win the title again at a canter in 2022-23 but the uneven playing field in a league considered generally weaker than most means that it not the achievement it once was.
Nowadays the club will be judged by greater success as new football adviser Luis Campos will be aware as he is set to oversee transfer business with a centre back, central midfielder and younger, hungrier squad players among those required.
Campos is the actually man who built the last two teams to deny PSG the title. He was behind the Monaco side – featuring a young Mbappe – that won the league five years ago and then signed the players who turned Lille into champions in 2021.
It is unlikely there will be a repeat of last year’s transfer window when superstars in the twilight of their careers like Messi and Sergio Ramos were the marquee signings.
But if Campos can replicate his earlier success in the same vein, then PSG will likely gain respect in the way another state-owned club, Manchester City, has managed and, just maybe, finally claim the prize they crave.
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