Paris Saint-Germain’s 2021-22 campaign ended with a historic Ligue 1 championship, but the capital club came up short in their quest for UEFA Champions League glory.
Failing to advance past the Round of 16 of the tournament after a summer transfer window that brought Lionel Messi, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Sergio Ramos, Achraf Hakimi, and Georginio Wijnaldum was seen as a failure and everyone at bestbettingsites.com knew there would be changes this summer.
The first order of business was convincing Kylian Mbappé that he should sign a new contract and remain in the French capital. Miraculously, PSG’s hierarchy was able to do just that and the Frenchman signed a contract that would keep him at PSG through the 2024-25 season.
The next order of business for PSG was sacking Leonardo, the club’s sporting director, and finding a replacement. Leonardo had an up-and-down tenure in his return to Paris. He can be credited with signing players like Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi, but he also oversaw a lot of really poor (and expensive) signings, like Mauro Icardi and Wijnaldum.
To replace Leonardo, PSG turned to Luis Campos who is credited with building the 2017 Monaco side that beat PSG to the Ligue 1 title and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League. He was also the architect of the 2021 Lille OSC squad that won the Ligue 1 title.
Campos is exactly the type of sporting director PSG needs at this stage in the project. With stars at every level, Campos will be tasked with finding talented players who can be brought in on modest wages but contribute at a very high level. Complimentary players if you will. Players that can do the dirty work in the midfield or on defense while letting the superstars shine.
The next step for PSG is to replace Mauricio Pochettino with a new voice in the dressing room. OGC Nice’s Christophe Galtier is the favorite to replace the Argentine and while some fans believe he lacks the resume and experience at the top levels of football, I believe he is exactly what PSG needs.
Galtier was the manager of the Lille side that beat PSG to the Ligue 1 title in 2021, and while he may not have experience managing players like Neymar, I think PSG’s superstars will have to respect a manager that was able to beat them with players who aren’t as talented.
Ultimately, if Galtier is to be the manager of PSG, it would mean that Mbappé signed off on the decision. The 21-year-old is the cornerstone of the PSG project and there’s no way that a new manager would be brought in without his approval.
In terms of the transfer market, there are some rumors bubbling up but PSG has yet to make an official signing. With Campos and eventually Galtier at the helm, I think we’ll see much less of what we saw last summer and more strategic signings of players many fans aren’t familiar with but hopefully, by the end of the season, we’ll all be signing their names as PSG lift the Champions League trophy.
