PSG: the champion of European failures
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Three years in a row in the knockout phase, and two of them shamefully. Will the sheikh continue investing money in the Parisian painting?
Paris Saint-Germain added a new failure in Europe. The French team was again anchored in the last 16 and was eliminated in their own stadium against Manchester United.
Leer en español: PSG: el campeón de los fracasos europeos
On the one hand, despite the low scores in the 'Red Devils' of men like Paul Pogba, Alexis Sanchez, Jesse Lengard, Alexis Sanchez or Antonio Valencia, the Parisian team could not beat his rival, who mostly had juveniles or substitutes On the other hand, the PSG could not count on Neymar and, by disposition of the coach, Edinson Cavani stayed on the bench. Unbelievable!
It is the sixth major defeat suffered by the French team in the Champions League since it was acquired in 2011 by the Qatari business group Oryx Qatar Sports Investments, headed by Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the current executive director. Since the appearance of the millions from this powerful economic group, stars such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Angel di Maria, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Edinson Cavani, and more recently Neymar and Kylian Mbappé have come.
Therefore, no one can explain how PSG fails so much, despite the investments and competitive payrolls that it builds each season. There are some who have even spoken of a curse against the Parisians. In this regard, in an article published in Infobae, the journalist Sergio Levinsky also tries to give some explanation. First, he points out the change of sports director Patrick Kluivert for Antelo Henrique and the substitution in the technical bank of the Spanish Unai Emery for the German Thomas Tuchel, who had achieved great results in Germany's Borussia Dortmund.
About Tuchel, he emphasizes that with him the PSG had achieved a tactical form and with greater order, but the shelf came down with the constant injuries of its main figure, Neymar, and the conflicts with Adrien Rabiot. Subsequently, Tuchel himself tried to explain the hard and unexpected fall, because, in statements collected by Besoccer, he pointed out that the elimination was an "accident" and they did not deserve to lose: "sometimes this game is unfair. If you look at the figures, it was impossible for us to lose."
However, the elimination is complete and adds to the PSG's list of failures in Europe. The journalist Jonathan Wilson, who works for the weekly Four Four Two and the magazine The Blizzard, made a crude criticism in an article for The Guardian and made it clear that the money does not buy titles and described what was done by the Parisians as an "an extraordinary spectacle, a lesson in the corrupting effect of money and arrogance "
In direct relation to the game, the defender and captain Thiago Silva admitted that he and many of his teammates could not deal with the pressure that was on them regarding the obligation to advance to the next phase, which ended up influencing their performance on the field and that they did not comply with Tuchel's instructions properly.
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Money overboard?
Nasser Al-Khelaifi landed at PSG in 2011, after buying the club from US investment group Colony Capital. Since then, he has appealed to his thick checkbook to have competitive templates that would allow him to win beyond the League or the French Cup. According to the website Pasión Futbol, in the last nine years, Al-Khelaifi and his Qatari group have invested at least 1,170 million euros in the club, with which they have brought figures such as Ibrahimovic, Neymar, Mbappé, Cavani and even David Luiz that in his moment was considered the most expensive defender of the planet.
He has also invested in managers, as in Carlo Ancelotti's case, who landed in Paris at the end of 2011. With the Italian, PSG could hardly celebrate a French League, while the dream of the Champions was again frustrated. At the moment, there are many doubts about the future of the club, given the great investment made and the few results achieved so far. For the next season, the team considers the name of José Mourinho, also according to Pasión Fútbol, to occupy the manager bench.
The Portuguese is Khelaifi's 'obsession', because something that the Portuguese is good at is winning. To all the teams where he goes, he raises cups and not only that: at Champions level, he reached the cup with teams that were not candidates for anyone like Porto and Inter Milan.
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A lot of investment, few achievements
Since the PSG is owned by Qatar Sports Investments, the Parisian team has won five Leagues, four French Cups, five League Cups and six Super Cups, according to data revealed by Marca. In addition, they have spent fortunes on players who have not helped in the cause of winning the Champions: Javier Pastore (42 million euros), Lucas Moura (40), Julian Draxler (36), Ezequiel Lavezzi (30), Gonçalo Guedes (30 ), Grzegorz Krychowiak (30), Yohan Cabaye (25) and Jesé Rodríguez (25), but the real media hit came with the hiring of Neymar and Kylian Mbappé. For the Brazilian, they paid Barcelona 222 million euros and, for the youthful world champion, 180 millions to Monaco. More than 400 million in two players!
LatinAmerican Post | Yeinson Fajardo Bohórquez
Translated for "PSG: el campeón de los fracasos europeos"
