CHRONIC. After missing two consecutive transfer windows, the sports director of the Parisian club is annoyed at the edge of the field. An attitude that challenges.
By Adrian Mathieu
© FRANCK FIFE / AFP
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On knew Paris Saint-Germain were a regular source of entertainment, but Sunday’s matchday pushed certain boundaries even further. If we will remember this PSG-Lille (4-3) for a long time for its show and its totally crazy scenario, the backstage of this meeting will undoubtedly leave traces.
A more striking image than the others: that of Luis Campos, sports director of the capital club, who comes down from the stands to put pressure on everyone. No, you’re not dreaming, we are in Ligue 1 and not in the district.
Galtier: “I have no problem with that”
Weakened for a month, Christophe Galtier wanted to play down this situation while his sidekick exceeded his duties, in addition to rooming a delegate who had not asked for anything at the end of the meeting. “Obviously there are images circulating. But Luis (Campos) is passionate, a competitor. And that shows a great desire to succeed collectively. Luis is part of the technical and sports management, that doesn’t pose any problem for me since there is no intervention on a technical or tactical level. There is passion. Passion. “In his time in Lille already, Campos had shown himself from time to time on the verge of a nervous breakdown near the pitch. He has not mellowed with age.
Annoyed as ever in the face of the jagged results of his team and a dynamic unworthy of the supposed rank of PSG, Luis Campos can only blame himself. It was he who rebuilt this team last summer to try to achieve yet another revolution on the Camp des loges side. However, if he was praised for his flair in Lille or Monaco, the Portuguese leader is, this time, completely missed his recruitment.
What if we took stock calmly? Hugo Ekitike simply does not yet have the level of the capital club, Mukiele and Renato Sanches are often injured, Carlos Soler and Fabian Ruiz are cannonballs, while Portuguese hope Vitinha has gradually died out after his flamboyant month of August.
A winter transfer window that left its mark
It is also difficult not to return to the last transfer market, this winter, which saw Paris Saint-Germain being carried away by Chelsea in the last moments of the transfer window, thus missing the recruitment of Hakim Ziyech. If the signing of the Moroccan international unfortunately fell through, Luis Campos still had thirty days to anticipate and succeed in bringing in at least one player. For someone who has been presented as the best recruiter on the planet, it’s a stain.
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Fortunately for him, PSG can always count on a stratospheric Kylian Mbappé since his World Cup and on a bang from Lionel Messi to get out of it hard. However, the French striker will eventually get tired of all this circus and the Argentinian is not eternal: the club has a vital need for new leaders and, for the moment, the Portuguese has not had the compass in the eye.
Difficult to see where the Parisian ship is sailing, which has never rocked so much for a good decade. The problem in all of this? It’s because we don’t even know who the real captain is anymore.