What really grinds my gears #9 – Is PSG’s offense overhyped?

In this format I will, once per week, polemically write about things that disturb me in the world of sports. Things that, in my opinion, either are hilariously disgusting or just proper embarrassing. You decide.

First of all, sorry that I couldn’t write this week’s “What really grinds my gears” on time. I was really busy with my army service (yes, we have to do that mandatory in Switzerland for a few weeks per year) and could only get it done now. I beg your pardon.

Anyway, this week I’m gonna write about a topic that annoyed me since a couple of years now – however due to this summer’s transfer window the whole thing culminated into a smoggy cloud of annoyance in my head that appears whenever I hear a combination of three letters: P, S and G.

Source: Twitter

I never liked the football club from Paris since they got taken over by a group called Qatar Sports Investments in 2011. The time before that, back when Ronaldinho played for the team, is hereby excluded of my feeling of despise for this club.

I just can’t stand oil billionaires throwing around with money and turning the beautiful game into their toy. Yet, that’s how football works nowadays, behind every big club there’s a big company or a patron. I needed to understand that too. But if you look closely into it, you’ll see teams like RB Leipzig maybe getting sponsored by huge companies but still managing to develop a sustainable football project. Can’t really hate that, can you?

Source: Twitter

Yet, some hate’s always necessary for a football fan, even if the reasons for it might seem a bit unclear to others. It’s just part of the game. And I decided mine to be aimed – among others – to this equipe. Mainly because I feel that in Paris, vast amounts of money are being pumped into an ensemble of superstars just for some Qataris to have their fun – financial fairplay or sustainability however get widely ignored. So you can probably imagine how excited I was when Barca smashed them out of the CL last year with that incredible comeback.

The full highlights of Barca’s 6-1 victory over PSG:

This comeback was the reason why once again the hopes of PSG to win the CL got shattered despite them being hyped before the season and being – to be fair, that was absolutely deserved – commonly nominated as a possible CL winner after the first leg against Barcelona, where they played splendid football.

Now, after quite a bit of spending this summer (with making a joke out of UEFA’s financial fairplay) and the arrival of Neymar and Mbappé, who were bought to assist Edinson Cavani up front, new Champions League hopes have started to rise in France. Some bookies even give them the lowest odds to win it alongside Real Madrid and Barcelona. And just from looking at the squad, these hopes could become true.

But looking at Sunday’s match against Lyon (2:0), it became obvious that PSG’s new offensive trio is yet to find a harmony that makes them a serious competitor for the European crown.

Watch Neymar and Cavani fight over a free-kick and a penalty:

Players arguing like kids on the local football ground over who’s allowed to take a free kick or a penalty, and then eventually both being missed, players trying to show off with dribbles and then getting ridiculously denied by the opposing defenders showed: When it comes to team-spirit, professionality and humbleness, this PSG offense seems overhyped.

Luckily for them, the Lyon players did their job and scored two own goals, one might think. But actually, it’s not like that. Even I must admit that. Having started flawless into the season with 18 points out of 6 league games and scoring 21 goals in this period, the 5:0-win against Celtic in the CL being excluded here, we must acknowledge that PSG is on fire. And more than just a likely candidate for this year’s CL title.

Watch Kenny Tete making a fool out of Neymar:

I would really make a fool out of myself, if I said that the lacking quality in PSG’s offense is grinding my gears. Because it can’t. There’s just too much of it there with Neymar, Mbappé, Cavani, Verrati, Di Maria and so on. Yet, what I really found to be grinding my gears was a behavior of professionals acting like kids and arguing over who’s to take a penalty and who’s to score the most goals. Individual stats and trophies do matter after all, especially if you’ve been transferred for such a huge amount of money. But what I interpret as arrogance might be interpreted as internal competition, ambition and hunger by others.

So maybe, after all, the thing that really grinded my gears was that PSG this year absolutely has a talented, fierce and hungry team with high-class players that might very well compete for European glory. Now I can just hope that Barca’s ready to provide another football miracle and stop them.

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FC Basel – The team that got fined 15‘000 for a farewell

As you may know by now, I’m from Switzerland. Hence, Swiss sports and sports leagues are of importance to me, whereas most of you couldn’t be bothered about what we alps people do in our national leagues. Fair enough.

This time, however, there’s a story I felt to be important enough to share it with you. Especially because I want to hear your views on it. So make sure to hit the comment section after reading this blogpost!

At the end of the last season in the Swiss Super League the entire board of the eight-times-in-a-row champion FC Basel retired. Not because they were unsuccessful or unwanted but because they felt it was time. Time for the club to evolve and they felt it would be the right time for them to let someone else take over. To them, the club was an affair of the heart. That’s what made them so successful. Eventually, they ended their project at its peak.

Under president Bernhard Heusler and sports director Georg Heitz the club emerged as Switzerland’s strongest football team, which dominated the national championship for almost a decade straight and which managed to surprise in Europe as well. Also talents like Breel Embolo, Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka started their careers in Basel during this period which was one of the reasons, the club hit the milestone of a turnover of over 100 Million Euros per year.

As this era came to an end last spring, the fans of Basel decided to give them the farewell they deserved. During the last game against St. Gallen they started a pitch invasion that lead to an interruption of the game. Holding a banner that was saying “Chapeau Bärni”, which means as much as “Respect, Bernie”, thousands of fans floated the pitch peacefully.

Watch the pitch invasion here:

Heusler went down to them, swung a flag of the club and listened to the fans cheering for him. After a few minutes, the pitch invaders left the field absolutely peaceful (ok, one guy stole the corner flag) and the game could go on. Everything stayed peaceful, which can’t always be taken for granted in Basel.

For example, on the 13^th of May in 2006, the darkest day in the history of the club, the “Disgrace of Basel” took place. After losing the championship to FC Zürich in the last minutes of the game, there was a violent pitch invasion from Basel fans which had to be dissolved by police. Over 100 people were injured and damage was made. Basel was fined 80000 Swiss Francs and had to play a few ghost games as well. The game against Zurich was the last one, before Heusler, Heitz and their board took over and lead Basel into a new era.

The pitch invasion back in 2006:

What makes this pitch invasion extraordinary is, of course, the fine. The league now decided to sentence a fine of 15000 Swiss Francs for the game interruption. Not too much money for a professional football club. Still, it’s a message. Even if everything went peaceful: A great farewell-story doesn’t void the law.

The question is, should it? Tell us your opinion in the comments below!

What needs to be said as well is that only hours after the fine was sanctionned, fans started to crowdfund in order to pay the fine for the club. FC Basel later thanked their fans for their commitment but insisted on paying it by itself. Only in Switzerland you think? Probably you’re right.

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