Liverpool, beware: How PSG discarded ‘bling-bling’ to become a serious Champions League force | OneFootball

In Liverpool’s preparations for Paris Saint-Germain, the staff have already come across quite a difference to their last meetings, in the 2018-19 group stage. The French champions are now a team that come at you with everything. They are stripped down and lean, brimming with youthful energy like that of French winger Bradley Barcola. Even Ousmane Dembele, once as unfortunate a symbol of football’s excess as Neymar, isn’t wasting anything.

That marks quite a difference to when Thomas Tuchel stood in the Anfield dressing room in September 2018, and has since told people he couldn’t believe what he heard. As detailed in this writer’s book ‘States of Play’, the German tried to exhort his €600m team to just run more, only to receive the response “why?”

“Because it’s Liverpool and it’s Anfield, one of the best teams in the world in one of the most demanding stadiums in the world,” an exasperated Tuchel responded. By the time PSG got onto the pitch, Tuchel couldn’t believe what he saw. He stood on the touchline shouting, “Guys, what is this?!”

Liverpool won 3-2, Roberto Firmino scored a 91st-minute winner. They were able to run for longer and further than PSG.

That is unlikely to be the case over this Champions League last-16 game, certainly not with Luis Enrique in charge. It’s not just about the manager, though. It’s about a squad that actually fits the manager, for maybe the first time in PSG’s Qatar ownership. Luis Enrique prizes youthful intensity and he’s got that in abundance.

At an average age of 23.6, PSG have the youngest squad left in the Champions League, and the second youngest of all 36 clubs that started the competition after Salzburg’s 22.9.

This is a world away from the 2013-23 era of ‘Les Galactiques’. Throughout that period, which saw PSG locked in an unspoken Gulf Blockade-related race with Abu Dhabi’s Manchester City, the Qatari-owned club became an illustration of the other side of unlimited wealth. If a properly run football operation like City showed the extremes of success that could be reached with such resources, PSG just showed extremes of waste - not least with talent.

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Desire Doue represents a change in philosophy at PSG (EPA)

Stories of indulgence and petty squad politics reached absurd levels, to the point that football figures from within PSG disparaged it as everything from a “vanity project” to “a circus”, and certainly not a football club.

It couldn’t go on, despite the club appearing to deny the significance of several “nadirs”, from the Barcelona 6-1 in 2016-17 to the collapse against Real Madrid in 2021-22.

A number of wake-up calls happened at once.

One was City beating them to the Champions League in 2022-23. UAE president Mohammed bin Zayed, whose family has long had tension with Qatar’s ruling Al Thanis, even attended the Istanbul final to bask in the glory. That happened as PSG had seemingly gone to their own maximum, beating City to the signing of Lionel Messi.

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Paris Saint-Germain's Qatari President Nasser Al-Khelaifi at at the Parc des Princes on 1 March (AFP via Getty Images)

The presence of perhaps the greatest player ever just exposed how, most of all, none of it was working. The club became fed up with Neymar’s lack of focus and Kylian Mbappe’s constant agitation. President Nasser Al-Khelaifi eventually declared that “superstar behaviour is over” and that they didn’t “want flashy, bling-bling anymore”.

Some within the club insist that entire “bling-bling” period was really only intended to create the new brand, bringing an incentive to initially overspend. The problem was that it probably went on too long.

Al-Khelaifi has even admitted since that it was a mistake to say the target was to win the Champions League within five years.

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PSG's Gianluigi Donnarumma with Ousmane Dembele during training (REUTERS)

There was another significant factor, that Mbappe should really have showcased. Although PSG were constantly paying the most money in football for stars from abroad, they were sitting in one of the most fertile grounds in the game. Paris is only matched by Sao Paulo and south London in terms of geographical areas that produce the most players. PSG had instead watched youth like Mbappe go to Monaco.

This was despite the fact that using local talent could have played into other strategies, especially with the way the club’s Qatari ownership very deliberately increased the size of “Paris” in the club’s logo. They wanted the crest to be like New York caps.

They are now making up for lost time.

All of 18-year-old Warren Zaire-Emery, 18-year-old Senny Mayulu, 18-year-old Yoram Zague, 17-year-old Ibrahim Mbaye and 17-year-old Axel Tape are from the Paris area, and have together made 62 appearances this season. Zaire-Emery and Mayulu have been key members of the team, complemented by the 22-year-old Barcola of Lyon and Portuguese talents: 20-year-old Joao Neves and 22-year-old Nuno Mendes.

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Senny Mayulu has benefited from PSG's change in philosophy to integrate the Paris youth (REUTERS)

Luis Enrique has honed this group with impressive speed of his own. PSG have gone from the inexperienced inconsistency of youth in Autumn to a 10-game winning streak that included a 4-2 comeback against City. Dembele has meanwhile been revitalised with 26 goals in 33. A new direction was summed up with how the 27-year-old was still dropped for the 2-0 defeat to Arsenal after Luis Enrique said he “did not comply with the expectations of the team”, and that at a time when the entire new project was being questioned. Dembele responded in the right way. PSG held firm.

This is going to be a huge challenge for Liverpool, and perhaps the tie of the round.

“We are in the best period of the season,” Luis Enrique said, and maybe the most impressive period in PSG’s modern history. This is proper club-building, rather than just excess. A common line is that “the superstar is now the team”.

There is also a bigger picture. Football industry figures talk of how this prudent approach suddenly fits with talk that Qatar is starting to scale back on sport. Aside from a realisation they can’t match Saudi Arabia, it has already been reported that Qatar Sports Investment are considering reducing its stake in PSG, amid Al-Khelaifi having been placed under formal investigation in a complex French business case.

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Paris Saint-Germain's Spanish coach Luis Enrique speaks before the Liverpool tie (AFP via Getty Images)

It is at least conspicuous that the change in strategy came immediately after Qatar got what they most wanted from football through the 2022 World Cup, complete with PSG stars Messi and Mbappe dominating a historic final.

Against that, those within PSG would point to how there are plans to move stadium - including meetings the day before the Liverpool game - and a willingness to spend, just in a more calculated way. There was a big pitch to sign Bruno Fernandes in the summer, with Manchester United convincing him to stay, and they followed that with maybe the most eye-catching purchase of the January window: Kvicha Kvaratshkelia. Many rivals wanted to sign the Georgian playmaker, but struggled to negotiate with both Napoli and his camp. PSG got it done.

Now, even if they go out in the last 16, they actually look closer to winning the Champions League than ever. It is more about letting this group develop, rather than hoping stars produce on any given night.

The feeling within is that it’s “a season too early”. And yet the timing may work. PSG are on the tougher side of the draw, but have none of the calendar issues of wealthy rivals as they romp to another French title.

This time, their manager, Luis Enrique, won’t have to tell the team they have to run.