Ligue 1 2011-12 season previewCan anyone stop newly rich Paris St Germain from becoming French champions this season?
Marcos Ceara, Jean Eudes Maurice and Guillaume Hoarau of PSG. Will the Paris club be celebrating come the end of the Ligue 1 season? Photograph: Richard Heathcote/Getty ImagesThe best stories in France go all the way to the top, and this one is no different. Paris St Germain, newly under the ownership of Qatari Sports Investments, this summer appointed Leonardo as sports director and in one month spent €83m (£72m) on eight players, including €42m on Javier Pastore, the Argentinian playmaker coveted by Chelsea, Real Madrid and Barcelona, in a deal set to be confirmed before the new season kicks off on Saturday.
Seeing off the likes of Valencia for the striker Kevin Gameiro (€11m), Liverpool for Blaise Matuidi (€10m) and Marseille for Jérémy Ménez (€8m) is one thing, but the Pastore deal is a marquee signing and shatters the previous French transfer record of €22.5m, spent by Lyon on Yoann Gourcuff. Le Parisien suggests Dimitar Berbatov is open to the idea of joining PSG, while Santos's Ganso is still on the radar, which raises the question of how all three may gel in the same dressing room, let alone the team. France Football called the spending spree the July revolution. Le Parisien claimed "PSG has truly entered a new dimension" while L'Equipe's Tuesday front-page splash asked of Pastore: "Is he worth €42m?"
Just as fascinating as the implications on the pitch are the machinations off it, particularly the role of the France president, Nicolas Sarkozy, in helping the QSI deal happen. Libération described Sarkozy, a PSG fan, as "the Qatari team's 12th man" and alleged that he had to be talked out of firing the sports minister, Chantal Jouanno, for saying she wished PSG's new owners had been French.
So Foot investigated the increasing business relationships between France and Qatar, and reported that 10 days after Sarkozy hosted a lunch between the QSI head, Sheikh Tamim al-Thani, and Michel Platini last November, the Uefa president – an outspoken critic of billionaire owners – voted for Qatar's bid to host the 2022 World Cup.
This is the backdrop to what promises to be the most exciting Ligue 1 season for years, with PSG now credible challengers to the vibrant new champions Lille, a regrouped and hungry Marseille, and a Lyon side coming to terms with a new philosophy. PSG's signings, up to now, have been impressive: Gameiro is a proven scorer in this league (22 goals last season), while Matuidi and Ménez represent quality, if inexperienced, replacements for the departed Claude Makelele and Ludovic Giuly.
The other new faces – Milan Bisevac, Momo Sissoko and the goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu (tough on Nicolas Douchez, who drops to the bench within weeks of joining) are all on bigger salaries, worryingly, than the rest of the squad. "We want to do something long term and not buy 10 Messis straight away. That's not how you build a team," Leonardo said. Crucially, PSG have kept the centre-back Mamadou Sakho from the clutches of Arsenal. Sakho, 21, once captained the side at the age of 17 and is club captain this season.
QSI has targeted Champions League qualification for next season – as PSG finished fourth last term, that should be doable – the Ligue 1 title in 2013, and a tilt at winning the Champions League by 2015. What's unlikely is that the coach, Antoine Kombouaré, who has steadied a very rocky ship in recent seasons, will be around to see all that. "Why should I worry about my job?" the coach told Thursday's L'Equipe. "If we win, I stay, and if we lose, I don't. I know how these things work."
"When the Qataris invest, they want to be obeyed," Alain Perrin, Lyon's former double-winning coach now in charge at the Qatari side Al-Khor, has warned. "But I don't see Kombouaré staying very long." Perrin's predecessor at Al-Khor, Bertrand Marchand, agreed: "It's their trademark to appoint a big name. In Qatar, the coach is the star of the team." Carlo Ancelotti has already been linked to the job and Arsène Wenger remains a long-term target.
At least the fixture list has been kind to PSG: only three of their first 12 games are against sides that finished in the top half last season. That's more than can be said for Marseille, last season's runners-up, who play four of the top six in the opening six weeks. No wonder Marseille figures past and present have been queueing up for a pop at PSG. "You can't go out and buy a style of play, a culture and an identity," the former president Bernard Tapie said (and he would know). The Marseille sports director, José Anigo, said: "When you spend almost €100m, you have to win the title." "They should be renamed the Galactiques de Paris," according to the new president, Vincent Labrune.
For once, l'OM should be grateful that they have been able to conduct their summer business in relative serenity. Labrune's appointment has helped the coach, Didier Deschamps, win, temporarily at least, his power battle with Anigo and l'OM have bought the France captain, Alou Diarra (for a bargain €5m from Bordeaux), the talented young defender Nicolas Nkoulou and the Lorient pair of Jérémy Morel and Morgan Amalfitano. Mathieu Valbuena is likely to replace Lucho González as the No10, while Diarra playing just in front of Souleymane Diawara and Stéphane Mbia will give the team a formidable physical presence. Marseille's 5-4 Champions Trophy win over Lille last week showed that the Ayew brothers (André hit a hat-trick, Jordan won two stoppage-time penalties) will be tough to handle this season.
But will Marseille be able to overhaul Lille? Last season's champions sold their spine this summer, with Adil Rami, Yohan Cabaye and Gervinho all moving on, but were quick to replace them. Marko Basa, Benoît Pedretti and Dimitri Payet have come in – at a net profit of €5.5m – while the squad has been boosted for the Champions League with the arrivals of Laurent Bonnart, Vincent Enyeama, Ronny Rodelin and Nicolas Fauvergue. Lille's recruitment is normally spot on – last season's back five cost them nothing to put together – but they were also lucky to avoid any injuries last year: only 14 players made more than five starts all season.
The key to this season rests on the winger and French player of the year Eden Hazard staying fit, and Moussa Sow proving that last season, when he was top scorer with 25 goals, was no one-off – even though it was the first time in seven seasons in France that he hit double figures. "PSG may have the money but as champions we will be the team to beat," the coach, Rudi Garcia, warned.
What of the others? It's an age of austerity at Lyon, whose president, Jean-Michel Aulas, promoted Rémi Garde from youth academy director to first-team coach, and promised "to play the youth card"; in other words, spend no money. As yet, the club's failure to sell Michel Bastos to Juventus (€15m asking-price) and Aly Cissokho to Liverpool (€10m) has prevented any funds coming in. Garde needs Gourcuff to rediscover his form if they are to challenge the top three.
Hot on their heels are Sochaux, looking to improve on a surprising fifth-place finish last season, and Rennes and Toulouse, who have both spent smartly: Chris Mavinga, Benoît Costil and Jonathan Pitroipa should all do well at the former, while big things are expected of Emmanuel Rivière (€6m) at Toulouse.
The new campaign kicks off on Saturday night, when all eyes will be on Parc des Princes to see how PSG get on in their opener against Lorient. A decent home win would be one thing: a glimpse of Sarkozy in the directors' box hugging Sheikh Tamim would be quite another.
