PSG
Big changes for new look PSG!
There is a saying that goes sometimes you need to take a step back to go forward. PSG are a big club that have lost there way in top 100. Now only a division 3 club. I joined at the start of last season from a successful time at Basel. Fair to say there was some high ratings but apart from Antony , Sarr and Singo they were all in there 30's. I decided to go for the promotion give it a good go but as the season went on the results dried up and players like Lacazette dropped in rating and we dropped out of the playoffs. To be honest halfway through the season I started making changes. We needed something for the future as I couldn't see anything to look forward to. We managed to get Marc Guiu 82, 19 year old Chelsea Forward , Hartmann 23, 88 rated lwb. 23 year old 85 rated midfielder Fernandez who was playing in Saudi but has now joined Bayer Leverkusen and a few more. When last season ended I knew big changes were needed but we didn't have the players to swap to get the best young players around. We had to take some risks and go for more players around 22-26 age range and lower rated but with potential to get better . First off a list of the players who have left us.
Lacazette, Zielinski, Musso, Lenglet, Cristante, Harit, Martial, Biraghi, Alves, Correa,Djiga, we wish them well at there new clubs.
We are delighted to bring in the following players!
MICHAEL COOPER
25 year old Goalkeeper , Michael Cooper joined Sheffield United from Plymouth a few seasons ago and has been arguably the best goalkeeper in the championship. He was Linked to Premier league sides but decided to stay at Sheffield United for the new season. He will be our Back up gk this season. Hopefully our future Number 1 and potentially a England goalkeeper soon.
Stole Dimitrievski
One of only a few experienced players to join , 31 year old Stole 87 rated goalkeeper has come in as our first choice until Cooper gets to the level we feel required to start regularly.
Xavier Mbuyamba
Xavier Mbuyama was a highly rated youth who was on the books of Chelsea in his teen years and highly thought of. Now 23 he's playing for FC Volendam but he's just had the best season of his career and has been linked with a move to Rangers. It's a punt but we are excited to see how he develops.
Adamo Nagalo
Adamo Nagalo joins us on a cash deal. The 22 year old 84 rated cb has had a tough time with appearances for PSV but has undoubted talent. We are hoping he get a chance in psvs team, if he starts playing he could be a great investment.
Anselmo Garcia Macnulty
Anselmo 22 year old 80 rated cb/lb is an Irish defender who has played abroad from his youth career into his senior career. He has been developing very well and last season played 34 times for Pec Zwolle in the Eredivisie
Batista Mendy 25, 87 rated cdm/cb is a highly rated defensive Midfielder who is on loan at Sevilla with a view to a permanent deal from Turkish side Trabzonspor. He is a player I've been after for a long time so we are delighted to get it over the line.
Daniel Braganca
We beat quite a bit of competition to get Daniel. 26 year old midfielder 87 rated who is a regular for Sporting SP. In the last 3 years hes gone up from 82 gradually to 87. 3 Titles and 5 trophy's alltogether while playing for the club. We feel he can only get better.
Tyrhys Dolan
Tyrhys Dolan 23, 83 rated is an exciting pacey player with good dribbling skills. He left Championship side Blackburn recently to join La Liga side Espanyol so it's a bit of a punt to bring him in but if he succeeds at Espanyol we could end up with a very good player.
Tommaso Baldanzi
Tommaso Baldanzi is a talented 22 year old 85 rated attacking player who plays for AS Roma . He hasn't yet shown his true ability but you can see his potential. Hopefully he does bring out his ability this season.
Tim Kleindienst
Tim is one of two experienced players we brought in although younger than the player he replaced. TIM is a 30 year old 90 rated cf who scored 16 goals for Monchengladbach last season.
Julian Carranza
Julian is a 25 year old 85 rated striker, who plays for feyenoord. I've always been impressed when I've watched him but probably has not scored as much goals as he should of hense why he has joined Leicester city on loan. We hope he kicks on at the foxes.
Others to join PSG are Karamoko Dembele 78, Danilo Veiga 83, Tommy Setford 70 (youth) Lucien Mahovo 75 (youth) Ji-soo Kim 77 (youth) Anrie Chase 80 (youth) Julio Diaz 76 (youth) Pau Prim 75 (youth) Jaydan Kamason 70 (youth) Heriberto Jurado 82 (youth) Jemiah Umolu 65 (youth) Victor Musa 65 (youth)
As you can see it's a massive change around. We are now predicted to finish 15th which shows the ratings drops we have had to make. Patience is key but hopefully the future is bright for psg.
PSG - THE FUTURE
It was a big decision for me to move to a club, which even at that early stage of season 16 were likely to be going down. Particularly as I am a manager that likes to develop a sqaud and Division 1 is not a good place to start.
So as the weakest of the four teams that were relegated, season 17 is going to be a tough with many better teams that us, so my main aim/ hope is to avoid a secondary drop.
After taking over I bought in 2 players who I thought would help us in the future -Weston Mckennie and Donny Van De Beek. During the close season I decided to move them on and try and fine 1) strong defender 2) someone who could score goals - which last season was a big problem. I am hoping the experience of Filip KOSTIĆ will help with the goals and Gabriel MAGALHÃES will be my main man at the back. We will also rely heavily on De Gea in goal, but knowing SM he get 5s in most matches.
Elsewhere I have tried to bring in a number of younger players who will provide a longer term future for the club. As I have said my aim is to ensure a strong foundation for PSG, not just while I am manager but for whoever follows me. As they say only time will tell.
À vaillant coeur rien d’impossible
We pick up our story following a band of merry Parisian footballers back in mid January 20 games into the season, the squad had just taken to the top of D2 for the first time after 20 games, but a 4 point reduction in the first 11 after reviews and sales to the first team meant that lead was precarious …
Post Xmas the boys had arrived back overweight and bloated by to many glasses of Chateux nef du pape, and our form was collapsing, the high of reach the league pinnacle was becoming a distant memory. A 1-0 home defeat thanks to Liverpool was the start of the 3 game blip including 2 defeats and a draw – that coincided with losing 2 youth cup fixtures, suddenly he lovely green run we were on was looking a very ominous red. The new signings weren’t gelling quickly and the rating drops began to play on my mind, maybe rather than sell him I should’ve personally flown to see Godin and asked if he would very much of minded not leaving Inter Milan IRL rather than playing for relegation threatened Cagliari who my own knowledge of was seeing them get tonked weekly on football italia on channel 4 in the 90s. Come to think of it maybe Godin was playing back then as well based on his age.
A turn in fortune was needed and of course I had full faith in the lads, I promised them all a lovely jambon joint if they pulled their collective fingers out and restarted the promotion chase. And I guess they all like ham as things began to click. We put our foot down stopped conceding and went on a lovely little run which saw us win 6 out of 6, concede just once and return to the top of the division.
Our nearest chasers were all beating each other and while it was nice being top we had to keep an eye on the run in which would see us play most of the top 6 in the final weeks.
Valentines day arrived and as everyone knows Paris is the city of love. This fact somewhat distracted the boys who found themselves caught up in a national scandal involving a 6 players, a brothel, a bathtub full of custard and a single cucumber.
The board were furious and demanded we rotate the squad. What followed was 3 straight draws the last of which was a dogged 0-0 vs Hamburg who left Paris with a well deserved point.
Fate however was on our side as while we picked up single match points the chasing pack also stumbled and slowly the lead at the top became 6 points and dreams of sealing promotion at the first attempt started to look like a solid possibility.
March 7th will forever be the day etched into folklore for the club.
Mahrez still out injured long term with a strained buttock muscle (no relation to the brothel incident) was a big loss but the boys were now unbeaten in 11 league games. We were up against Liege away, a team themselves right in the playoff mix.
Suso was the man to make a hero of himself, goals after 18 and 36 minutes meant the away fans where in raptures, baguettes were flying high as the team strutted not just to guaranteed promotion but thanks to other results the title was clinched with 3 games to spare as we now had a 10 point cushion.
This meant the previous worries around our run in which disappeared as rhe next 2 games were vs 2nd at the time Milan and 3rd at the time Leverkusen.
The 3 game victory parade only yielded 4 more points. Which leads me back to a line from my last blog post
“a lovely article on the blog suggests around 76 points gives you a chance at the D2 title”
How many points did we finish with …. 76
So there it is. 1 season in charge of PSG, 1 D2 title delivered. We were forecasted pre season to finish second so to have lost points to player reviews and actually improve on where we should have finished was a great result.
There are challenges ahead for PSG. Most immediately will be D1 and the level of teams we will face. But longer term is dealing with the age of the squad. A number of our top performers have now passed 30. While still many years younger than their gaffer the squad will need some updates.
Yesterday we waved good bye to top player Mahrez but welcomed Inaki Williams who rarely misses a game IRL and fives us cover for Vardy and Carrasco who now hes back at Atletico is playing regularly and should have a shout at regaining his 91 rating in the future.
Anyway that all from me as we bask short term in some glory.
I’m off for a glass of red and to read up on what this Moulin Rouge place is the players keep talking about.
Merci d'avoir lu.
Seats
World Club Cup & Shield Finals
WCC Final
Dan Wallace's much improved D2 side came out on top in a two-legged affair with D1 PSG in what could hardly have been a tighter couple of games.
1st leg
PSG manager Malcolm must have thought he had come away with a great result with a 0-0 draw in Berlin, but the lack of an away goal proved costly in the end.
2nd leg
And it was Hertha who duly scored that crucial away goal, Mario Mandzukic equalising Julian Weigl's opener with just under an hour played.
Man of the Match Marco Reus provided the match-winning performance and assist.
A fantastic win for Hertha, who wrote their name into the record books by becoming the first non-D1 team to win the World Club Cup (although the new tournament format helped with that somewhat).
Hertha rounded off the season with a stunning playoff victory in the league to secure D1 football for the first time in the club's history to cap a magnificent campaign.
PSG manager Malcolm finished in a club record third place in D1, before switching to a new challenge with World Club Shield finalists D5 Augsburg for next season.
WCS Final
D5 Augsburg contested the Shield Final in the absence of a winner from the D4 Divisional tournament.
1st leg
Attack heavy Augsburg dominated the 1st leg in Bavaria with three first half goals.
They ran out of steam, though, and conceded what proved to be a fatal late second goal to give Gladbach two precious away goals.
2nd leg
Incredibly, Augsburg boss Johns quit the club prior to the second leg declaring in a statement issued by the club that:
When I joined the club I was excited to develop the strong youth setup that previous manager Ivan Anic had built, and also to bring in some quality and experience to take us up the table. Unfortunately, I didn't read the small print in the contract which said that I had to wear the manager's special lederhosen that turned out to be a couple of sizes too small for me. They created all kinds of problems for me. I hope to be back in six months....
Under caretaker manager Steve Coppell, Augsburg's players looked completely demoralised and outplayed, and a 1-0 defeat flattered them.
Another away goals victory, and another World Club winner who went on to win their playoff final in the league, securing D2 football next season.
Manager Attila Olah has since joined Internacional in D1, while former Swansea, PSV, Fiorentina and CSKA Moscow boss Lee Adams takes the reigns at Gladbach.
Last Tango In Paris
It's that time of the season - squeaky bum time for managers who have slipped down a greasy pole into the abyss, and are hoping for a leg up and way out.
Harry Kane Paris Saint-Germain is the prize that Mike Scallotti everyone has been waiting for!
Sadly for beleaguered PSG gaffer Gary Naylor, who desperately wants one last dance in D2 with his only Top 100 team next season, the French club's board have fallen out of love with him, and are keen to find a new man to make their fans happy again.
Naylor said:
The owners appreciate the work I have done in building a young squad with potential so give me a chance to put things right. Promotion is a must!
Gary Naylor, outgoing PSG boss
Today, Bayern boss Mike Scallotti scotched rumours he would move to Paris in order to be with Harry Kane, issuing the following battle cry after the Bavarian giants failed to retain their D1 title in Scallotti's first season in charge:
I am looking to strengthen now ready for next season. Looking to strengthen the overall team, majority of youth can also go.
Mike Scallotti, looking to make some deals
Schalke will also issue a P45 to their enigmatic coach IanD, who responded by issuing a statement through his legal team: 'No comment'.