PSG rejecting €200m Mbappe offer is one of the worst pieces of business ever
Robin Bairner
- 26 Nov 2021 15:34 GMT
- 3 min read
Paris Saint-Germain’s decision to reject a €200 million bid from Real Madrid for Kylian Mbappe in the summer was a decision based purely around the ego of the club.
The lack of footballing thought behind the call is now coming back to bite PSG, who were thoroughly outplayed by Manchester City in a 2-1 Champions League defeat on Wednesday.
It may also cost the club head coach Mauricio Pochettino, who appears destined to move to Manchester United in the summer as he struggles to gain a handle on an unbalanced an ill-conceived squad.
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Mbappe alone is not PSG’s problem. Indeed, he has carried this group to some extent in the early part of the season, scoring nine goals in all competitions and producing a whopping 12 assists. In 18 matches, this is a more than decent return.
Three months into the Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar experiment, though, it is becoming increasingly apparent that it does not work.
Sure, it was fun to see if it worked, but given that PSG’s front three now consists of one player whose heart is in Madrid, another whose is in Barcelona and a third who looks entirely out of sorts, the Parisian side must be getting to the stage where they must admit it is not working as they would have hoped.
The issue was magnified against City, when they were deprived of lynchpin midfielder Marco Verratti, though he too is providing cause for concern due to his injury issues.
Selling Mbappe, of course, would not be a silver bullet to PSG’s problems. He is, after all, one of the greatest players in the world.
Equally, though, he is part of the reason that Pochettino is dealing with an unbalanced squad. If he had been allowed to go, PSG could have found a player better suited to the coach’s favoured pressing style.
To make matters worse, Mbappe appears destined to leave for Real Madrid for nothing come July in any case under the freedom of contract laws.
PSG appear to have rejected Madrid’s €200m offer to prove just one point: that they can.
It makes no sense from a financial perspective given they may well will lose Mbappe to Real Madrid in any case and little from a footballing angle given how the season has panned out.
No player has produced a single season worth €200m, and this campaign from the World Cup winner is not panning out to be one.
In rejecting Real Madrid’s offer, PSG proved their financial strength but also their rank mismanagement.
