Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Crisis mode for PSG

Deny it all he will, new manager Antoine Kombouaré takes the reigns of Paris Saint-Germain with the club veiled in crisis mode.

Through a series of mismanaged moves by PSG président Sébastien Bazin, the club is not only dealing with a end of season collapse that dropped the club out of the Europa League, precipitated by the poorly timed decision of announcing Paul Le Guen would not be back and a likely defection of a number of players. The laundry list of talented players either fed-up with the events around the capital since Charles Villeneuve was ousted or simply be sought-after in the transfer market effectively works through their starting eleven. While there is quite obviously a great deal to be settled it is entirely possibly that les Rouge et Bleu lineup by the time August rolls around will no longer include Mickaël Landreau, Guillaume Hoarau, Stéphane Sessegnon, Jérémy Clément, Clément Chantôme and Jérôme Rothen. Add Mamadou Sakho to the delight of Arsène Wenger's wish list and first course of business now that the dog and pony show introduction of Antoine Kombouaré to the public is complete is to stem the crisis.

Unfortunately at this time the club seems more focused on deflecting attention by bringing in Patrick Vieira from Inter Milan, most likely on-loan, then concern over building upon a fine core lineup. Respectfully the addition of a midfielder, albeit one with extraordinary pedigree, who will be thirty-three years of age at the start of the campaign and equally has a poor track record of injuries isn't the precise direction the club needs to take. Most certainly he is a top shelf addition but this is far removed from addition of players moving towards the highlight of their career and lest PSG supporters forget how easily it was to pry David N'Gog from their roster last year.