SPEND BIG, WIN BIG (SOMETIMES) IS THE LESSON
PSG FAIRYTALE CHATTER IS SO WIDE OF THE MARK
I don't ever want to be an old man banging the table demanding better standards of something called the internet, but here I am. Paris won the Champions League last night - they absolutely brutalized Inter Milan. It was a farcical game that had none of the quality of the semi-finals because the win was so lopsided.
Now, I'm not being a curmudgeon here, but PSG are a monstrous outfit that spend horrendous amounts of capital to try and win trophies like that. They finally did it, one season out of their Galactico era, and they brought home the big one… a trophy that has eluded them for 15 years despite getting pumped by a nation state.
What I can't tolerate is fans falling for the 'beautiful story of a bunch of misfit kids coming together to win the big one for King Lucho.'
The only thing that is beautiful about this story is Enrique winning it because he's had such a rough time in his personal life, losing his beautiful daughter in an accident at 9 years old. The PSG fans creating a tifo to honor that moment was really, really special, and what football is all about.
But… back to the squad.
They spend 658m euros a season on wages according to their last batch of accounts. Their last transfer window saw 243m euros go out the door. The two windows before saw them spend a combined 454m euros.
This is not a plucky upstart story.
No, Doue is not an academy project, he cost them 50m euros.
No, Barcola is not an academy project, he cost them 45m euros.
Don't even get me started on agents' fees. Kvaratskhelia's deal was so covered in third-party fees no one else in Europe would go near him.
Even the coach is on extraordinary wages for Ligue 1, taking home 1m euros a month.
To put all of these figures in perspective, French clubs recently voted to break their TV deal which was €500 million a season. Yes, you read that right, the entire TV deal for French TV, per year, couldn't cover one season's worth of wages from PSG.
So please, less of the, 'what a wonderful tale, what can we learn from this?'
I'll tell you what we can learn… SPEND LOADS OF MONEY over 14 years and see what happens.
What have I taken from the whole affair?
Arsenal are really good. If we'd had our full first team out for that semi-final, we'd be Champions League winners. Yes, if your aunty had balls and all that… but we have to take positives. The path forward is clear for Arsenal.
Keep best players fit
Sign some proper forwards so we have more depth
Start the season with a BIG squad of players to prevent the inevitable
PSG have only just won their first Champions League, with nation state money backing them relentlessly, so if you're upset at the lack of trophies from Arsenal on the UCL front, remember how hard it is even when you have every resource available to you.
And for those that doubt some of the numbers being pushed about because they can't find the number on Google, I'll save you the bother - this is from a UEFA report that all the big clubs have to submit to.
Back to CL.
When it gets down to the final 4, it's about talent over systems, and our talent currently doesn't boast enough bang BANG about it.
It's up to Andrea Berta to address that this summer.
Losing Jason Ayto out of the club so soon after his arrival was kind of predictable and disappointing from Arsenal. We've moved on one of the data thinkers from the hub and let a super agent guy in the back door. My hope is that Ayto did enough to persuade Josh K not to put his money on the Swedish guy, and that most of the plans we have in play are going to go ahead.
The only thing I care about regarding Berta at the moment is getting the job done with squad filler, doing the deals fast and furious, and using his 'connections' tentacles to make something mad happen like Rodrygo from Madrid.
If we end the summer with our key signings filled, there's not a lot of damage that can be done by someone who has a different style to the one that has made us successful… I just hope the club that let a contacts person waste hundreds of millions on dross is sharper to it this time, and there are fail-safes built in to how we operate moving forward.
Letting someone new come in and rip out everything that stood before is the sort of thing you do at a failing business. Arsenal is not that. I hope there's recognition that KSE want Berta to succeed, but not build moats around the setup that make understanding decisions more opaque.
But, we'll see… I'm just a panicún, as they say over here.
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If anything PSG have shown us how to win. By playing fast positive football not slow gormless football. By going to Porto and signing Vitinha not going to Porto and signing Vieira. By signing the likes of Doue and Neves and Pacho and Kvaratskhelia and not being content with just being linked to their signings.
Ultimately the difference between this PSG team and all the others were they lucked out finally getting a manager who could get them over the line in Enrique and a DOF in Luis Campos who just knows how to put together exciting squads. We're still looking for our Enrique and Campos
We were linked to Desire Doue for 20 million or thereabouts, we passed.
We were linked to Fabian Ruiz when he left Napoli for pittance or on a free, and we passed.
Just hearing we turned down a chance to sign Kvara too.
We could have gotten those 3 for the combined fee of Rice. We would have had two monstrous wingers and a playmaker that can teach Odegard how to shoot and be progressive with the ball.
We spend our money so unwisely. There's absolutely no guarantee if Arteta had access to all that cash he would have built that PSG team. We need to stop deluding ourselves.