“Anxiogenic climate”… But what is wrong with the young people at PSG?

• Disappointed by his low playing time and his ousting from the group on Sunday against Troyes, Edouard Michut (19) wants to leave his training club.

• The frustration of the U19 international midfielder is far from an isolated case as Xavi Simons, considered the pearl of the centre, has also played little in the first team.

• The nature of the PSG project, based on the recruitment of indestructible stars, partly explains these difficulties.

All that was missing at PSG.

After the atmosphere of Toussaint in the middle of spring despite the tenth title of champion of France, the uncertainties as to the future of Mauricio Pochettino and (especially) Kylian Mbappé, here is the controversy over the low use of young people.

To tell the truth, nothing new, as the question looks like a “chestnut tree”, like the reports on school supplies at each September start.

But the subject suddenly returned to the news in the space of a few hours, via Pochettino and Edouard Michut.

On Sunday, Paris – already officially titled for 15 days – lined up a team of not all very motivated stars in the draw against Troyes (2-2).

If attacking midfielder Ismaël Gharbi (18) made his (stealth) first appearance in L1, in the 89th minute, Xavi Simons (19) and Edouard Michut (19) followed the show from the stands.

This sentence from Michut's entourage

"How does a kid who wanted to spend his whole career at PSG today want to leave as far as possible?"

pic.twitter.com/16FV03gR4l

— Seb Paris in My Blood (@PSGinMyBlood_of) May 9, 2022

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Forgotten, the fine statements on Prime Video by the Argentine technician, on April 17 after the match against OM (2-1), about the launch of a few Titis during a gently sloping end to the season, "for the future of the club and their own future".

“I didn't say they were going to play, I said they might have minutes, nitpicked Pochettino on Sunday night.

The place for young people is not large.

They have to deserve those moments of play.”

As of Monday, the Michut clan let its desires elsewhere filter through.

“Before, the excuse was the group was too large, after that was the change of coach, dropped a relative on France Bleu Paris.

But there, when we see that he is in the stands for the Troyes match… ”

"A sledgehammer"

Former defender trained at PSG, which he left at the age of 21 in 2011 at the dawn of the QSI era, Tripy Makonda fully understands the moods of the blues.

“I am not totally throwing the stone at Pochettino on this subject, but he made a communication error, underlines the consultant for France Bleu Paris, contacted by

.

It's normal that we hear that Michut wants to leave.

You give hope to the players and behind… Psychologically, they take a heavy blow.

I have been in their situation.

Even if we do good training and good games on the lower floor, we want to have some consideration, a reward at the end of the season.

»

This frustration stored up over the months is felt in the clan of Michut where we evoke a “catastrophic treatment” of the international U19, under contract until 2025: “The question to ask is: “how a boy who wanted to spend his entire career at PSG now wants to go as far as possible?

He is 19 years old, he wants to play football.

“With 160 minutes compiled in six games (L1 and Coupe de France), we are far from the mark, necessarily.

21-year-old defensive midfielder Eric Junior Dina-Ebimbe (14 appearances, end of contract in 2023) and Simons (8, free in June) are barely better off.

“It's a pity that young people can't participate, punctually, in certain matches, continues Makonda.

Simons for example, who is ahead of Michut, could have integrated the rotation more.

With the injuries of Herrera and Paredes, the difficulties of Gueye on the return from the CAN and those of Wijnaldum, he could have developed a connection with Verratti.

That would have given him confidence and we would have seen his potential.

»

An illegible policy

Former goalkeeper then sports director of PSG (1991-1998), Jean-Michel Moutier (67) broadens the debate.

“We should ask ourselves the question of what we do with training.

The National 2 team was removed [in 2019].

Now, at 19, young people either sign pro or go.

The club could have had a subsidiary club with a real strategy.

Or else, the FFF should set up a U21 or U23 competition, like in England.

»

Some British clubs, such as Manchester City or Chelsea, also collect the young adults they loan to the four corners of Europe, knowing that the boys in question have about as much chance of making a lasting impression in the first team as of win the lottery.

It's anything but ethical (FIFA has also looked into the subject) but at least there's a logic behind it.

Not like in Paris.

"There is no strategic plan with these young people to enable them to have a long-term vision," laments Makonda.

Moutier, now retired, hits harder: “It has been 11 years since QSI arrived and the project is to win the Champions League.

But apart from piling up the stars, I don't see the long-term sporting vision.

“And who says stars, says ego and special statuses… In order not to lose the support of part of the locker room and trigger a controversy all the way to Ushuaïa, Pochettino cannot afford to release Lionel Messi, even in small form like too often this season.

Coman's Frustration

"We must put the PSG flag above the players, so that there is respect at all levels", argues Tripy Makonda.

If Adrien Rabiot, a few years ago, then Presnel Kimpembe were able to impose themselves at home, many others have found happiness far from the "anxiogenic climate" (according to Makonda) of the Camp des Loges, from Maignan to Diaby in passing by Coman or Nkunku, elected this Tuesday player of the month in the Bundesliga for the fourth time this season, thanks to his performances with RB Leipzig.

"I know Coman a little, and in Paris, he had the feeling that to be considered, you had to come from outside," says Moutier.

If the Parisian management seems to want to review this summer all the functioning of a club only 8th finalist of the C1 and gloomy champion, the future could be written without the Simons, Michut, Dina-Ebimbe nor the defender El Chedaille Bitshiabu ( 16 years old, three games this season, under contract until 2024), also very courted abroad.

Only Gharbi has announced that he wants to stay.

As for the case of striker Arnaud Kalimuendo (20 years old, under contract until 2024), he remains mysterious after two years of successful loan in Artois.

“I often commented on Lens matches, and I think he would have done good in the PSG rotation, assures Makonda.

He is a pure centre-forward, and Icardi has often been injured in addition to his extra-sporting worries, while we feel that Mbappé's preferential position is on the left, and that Messi likes to come down.

»

In short, the future of Kalimuendo is as vague as the short-term horizon of PSG, whose results Leonardo recently boasted about the results of the training center and more broadly the policy in the field: "This year, we launched four young born after 2003, asserted the sports director in

, at the beginning of March.

Only Rennes did better in L1, with five.

The German clubs, on the lookout as soon as a young Frenchman points the end of the shorts, feast on it in advance.

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• Soccer

• Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG)

• Mercato PSG

• Mauricio Pochettino

• Leonardo