The great omens of spring: daffodils in bloom, days getting longer, and Paris Saint-Germain in deep crisis with the manager on the brink and supporters tired of a bloated football team.
Sunday marked their eighth loss this year, with their post-World Cup form taking an almighty nosedive, even by the standards of a club that has been derided over the past decade for its late-season performances.
Lyon’s 1-0 victory at the Parc des Princes on a bitter evening in the French capital was notable for its lack of surprise. “Paris has stopped responding,” read the front page of L’Equipe, perhaps insinuating manager Christophe Galtier couldn’t get a response from his team, which has burned through managers with a much higher profile than him.
That has been PSG’s direction since Ligue 1 was bought by the Qataris more than a decade ago.
Having only won two league titles prior to 2012, they have since won eight.
Paris Saint-Germain lost its eighth defeat after the World Cup against Lyon on Sunday evening
Lionel Messi was met with boos and whistles as he toiled against Lyon
Kylian Mbappé is struggling in Neymar’s absence and motivation seems scarce
Ligue 1 is far from over, especially with a home draw against second-placed Lens on April 15, although the apathy that has sprung up following the European departure begs the question: does anyone really care?
Sunday’s game didn’t see the empty seats seen at other home games this season, but with increased attendance comes more, louder and more widespread fan fury.
Their eighth defeat this side of the World Cup, their fifth in the league, with the others in the Coupe de France and Champions League, has roused them to join the ever-growing line to harass the club – with the players and property on the receiving end this time.
Rumors this season have begun to surface among the club’s ultras, with a barrage of whistles – and in some cases outright insults – aimed at the club’s big superstars, including Lionel Messi and Neymar.
Since taking over the club at the start of the 2011–12 season, Qatar Sports Investment (QSI) has overseen a transfer spend of nearly £1.5 billion. The signings of Neymar and Mbappé caused great excitement at the time, but supporters have rounded up the wild spending this season.
The club is in one of the most mature football talent factories in the world, with Paris perhaps only rivaled by Sao Paulo and London for the sheer number of players it produces. But in recent years they have let the likes of Ibrahima Konate, Christopher Nkunku, Mike Maignan and Kingsley Coman slip through their hands.
There is no doubt that the club’s production of youth talent has suffered from their attempts to build a Champions League winning team at the expense of a long-term project. The ultras themselves have complained so much this season.
‘This is a club that piles up the stars like a spoiled child, with no concern for a coherent sporting plan. This is a club that dreams so big that it feels like the season starts in February, while despising domestic trophies,” the Collectif Ultras Paris (CUP) said in February.
Lyon recorded a famous victory at the Parc des Princes – with the home supporters leaving angrily
Lyon have struggled at times this season, but they have exposed the deep-seated problems in Paris
Players like Christopher Nkunku have come to define the club’s mismanagement
Neymar was carried off in February’s victory over Lille at the Parc des Princes
“We no longer recognize our club, which seems to have lost its DNA.”
There has been a sense of disenfranchisement among supporters for some time now, with their vision of the club far removed from those who run it. There was a whistle during Sunday’s game against Lyon, and it certainly wasn’t directed at Rayan Cherki or Alexandre Lacazette.
Messi and Mbappé, the lightning rods for the club’s failures in the absence of the play’s alleged villain Neymar, were widely criticized.
L’Equipe described PSG as “clumsy” without the ball, a friendly way of criticizing a team that makes little effort to retrieve the ball.
“I think the whistle against Leo Messi is very loud,” said Galtier. “Leo is a player who gives a lot. He also gave a lot in the first part of the season, but it is also up to other players to fill more functions.
A response from supporters might say that in a functional, modern elite team, all 10 outfield players have to work as hard as each other. The remarkable tracking of Jack Grealish to prevent what appeared to be a certain Liverpool runner-up at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday has been noted by many observers.
Galtier has defended his players at countless intervals this season, including after last month’s defeat to Rennes when he banned suggestions that players were not doing their best.
“You feel like the players haven’t given their all, but that’s not how I feel,” he said. Galtier has chosen to assist his players throughout. It remains to be seen if he will be offered the same.
The forwards have now stopped producing further down the field – seemingly an essential payoff in an agreement not to do any defensive work. The club’s last two home league results read as a 1–0 defeat to Lyon and a 2–0 defeat to Rennes, marking the first time they won the double against PSG since 2008–09.
It was hinted ahead of the World Cup that the club may have had a problem with their three star players so crucial to three countries coming to Qatar with high hopes of victory.
Mbappe had been crown prince in Russia four years earlier, but was Didier Deschamps’ main man in Qatar; it would be Messi’s last chance to claim the prize he most desired and Neymar’s legacy, some say tarnished by his decision to move to Paris in 2017, rested on his performances in the Middle East. Only one of them was able to return delighted. That’s life.
Since then, the motivation of all three – and the effectiveness – can be questioned. All have experienced a decline, some more significant than others, in their offensive output.
Mbappé played 20 games in the period before the World Cup and scored 19 goals. Since then he has made 14 appearances and scored 12 at a rate of a goal every 90 minutes. Certainly not to smell. The youngest of the three by some distance, it’s no surprise that his performance levels have remained at a reasonable level.
Neymar played nine post-World Cup games prior to his injury, scoring just three times with a goal every 246 minutes. Compare that to before he flew to the Middle East, when he scored a goal every 108 minutes.
Argentina’s Messi has gone through a similar slump as Neymar. He enjoyed by far his best spell in a PSG shirt ahead of Qatar, scoring a goal every 138 minutes and grabbing a goal (a goal or assist) every 64 minutes. Since the World Cup, those minutes have grown exponentially to 210 and 140.
Tools aren’t so much down as down, and there are question marks over whether that can legitimately be considered surprising or alarming. As pointed out by PSG’s own supporters, the emphasis placed on winning the Champions League is such that when that doesn’t happen – and they’ve only come close to realizing that dream once – the season is all but over feels.
Club figures must wonder if they are closer now than they were in 2020, when they lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich thanks to a Coman goal.
Signs that they would not triumph in Europe’s premier European club competition this season were apparent in the opening games of their draw with the same German opponents in February.
One of the reasons given for Julian Nagelsmann’s brutal dismissal by their opponent two weeks ago was that his side was not pushing hard enough in games. Coman had given them the lead in Paris, but with Galtier’s side on the ropes, they could have punished them.
A side that had lost Neymar and never quite believed they had what it took to overcome a deficit in Europe fell to arguably the most inevitable of 2-0 defeats in the second leg.
Across the two legs, the German champions had 30 shots to PSG’s 19, although the gap in terms of running, application, in-game tactical and awareness was much wider.
Christophe Galtier has defended his players at almost every turn – although soon he might think otherwise
The defeat to Bayern Munich exposed the glaring failures from top to bottom at the club
Bayern Munich – not a perfectly functioning institution themselves – pushed their opponents aside
Neymar’s injury, sustained in a smashing comeback win against Lille at the end of February, didn’t help proceedings, but his supply among supporters had collapsed to the point that his absence was not mourned as one might expect.
Mauricio Pochettino, the club’s former manager, broke through the problems at the club during the World Cup.
“It is a blessing that Barcelona has Messi or Cristiano for Madrid,” he said. “But if you use too many players who all need their place and want to be number one, confusion can arise. When you end up playing, it’s 11 players with one ball. There was a penalty, and who will take it? It’s not even a coach’s decision.’
Like the seasons, PSG’s cycle follows the same pattern every year. However, it is significant that their winter of discontent always comes spring.