Former Paris Saint-Germain captain Thiago Silva recently spoke with The Guardian in an in-depth interview with the English media outlet. One of the topics that the Brazilian touched on was his time with the Ligue 1 side.
Silva was one of the players that the Qatari-owned club brought in to win the UEFA Champions League. PSG reached the Champions League final in 2020 but fell to Bayern Munich.
Nonetheless, the veteran center-back notes that Qatar Sports Investment has made mistakes since purchasing the French club in 2011.
“You’re not going to achieve everything just because you have a lot of money,” Silva told the English media outlet. “That is not how football works.
“If you don’t have a clear plan of what you want, things won’t work out. First and foremost, you have to be respected inside your country in order to be respected outside. We didn’t do that. We did the opposite. We wanted to be loved abroad, but we didn’t do anything to be respected at home.”
Silva would go on to win the Champions League with Chelsea the following season. The Brazilian left PSG in 2020, signing with the Blues as a free agent. Afterward, he and Thomas Tuchel would lift the trophy in 2021.
PSG has shifted its transfer philosophy from bringing big-name players like Neymar Jr. and Lionel Messi to players who fit into a team.
While they want a star player like Kylian Mbappé, the capital club wants complementary pieces and not just a group of players as they had with Mbappé, Messi, and Neymar.
The Parisians hope that this shift in perspective finally allows them to build a team that can contend and win the Champions League.
