Adam Dennehey WAFU manager
It’s no secret that following their sale from Colony Capital to Qatar Investment Authority, PSG have done nothing but spend money. Having already added the likes of Kévin Gameiro, Javier Pastore, Jérémy Ménez, Alex, Thiago Motta and Maxwell last season, they’ve been heavy in the transfer market once again this summer.
With the additions of Thiago Silva, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, it makes sense that players would be attracted to the prospect of playing at a club with untold riches lying in wait. Over the past two seasons, Paris Saint-Germain have spent €213 (£168) million. But why did Lucas snub Manchester United for the French capital?
The answer lies in QIA’s most savvy move in the backroom since taking over at le Parc. Leonardo has been a watershed signing for PSG’s backroom and has been the major reason for the signings of arguably the best centre-half and centre forward in the game at the moment. Lucas admitted as much to the press when he was asked by Globo Esporte why PSG was a better fit.
“I talked to Thiago Silva and Leonardo, they said many good things about the club, the project they are implementing there.”
Manchester United simply don’t have a South American, or more importantly, a Brazilian with the pull of the likes of Leonardo in the backroom. Also, it will be much easier for Lucas to become part of an unstoppable force within a domestic league at PSG than he would at United. With Lyon getting older by the day, Lille selling off their best and brightest with Montpellier surely to follow suit and the likes of Bordeaux and Marseille falling out of relevance, Paris Saint-Germain have the financial backing and management team in place to own Ligue 1 for years to come.
PSG are the perfect storm for a super club. They’re the only club in the top two leagues from one of Europe’s biggest cities, they have unlimited funds backing them and they’re in a relatively weak domestic league. Couple that with the fact that France’s youth setup has been producing some top-quality talent as of late, PSG are a monster in the making.
There had been voices around the Manchester blogosphere that stated PSG wouldn’t be able to buy Lucas because of the limit on the number of non-EU players in a squad. The fact that Lucas won’t go to Paris until January must have been the perfect situation for both PSG and São Paulo.
It allows for Milan Bisevac, one of the four current non-EU players, to gain dual citizenship and thus open up space for Lucas. It also means Lucas will be able to finish the current Campeonato Brasileiro with São Paulo; they’re currently seven points behind league leaders Mineiro. Of course the Brazilian club would be more helpful in that sort of situation; more money and being able to keep one of their top players in the squad for the remainder of their season.
So where does this leave our grand club? If we’re unwilling to pay the sort of money other top clubs are paying for talent, we’ll continue to lose out on the world’s best. The market is a fluid thing, the value within the market for the asking price must also be fluid.
There is no moral victory in knowing we didn’t overspend for a player, there are only the victories in the results sheet that those players bring the club. In order to compete at the top level, we must be willing to bring in the talent necessary.
By Billy McCroy @Billy_McCroy
