PSG's future could follow a cycle of developing young players, turning them into stars, and selling them when they ask for more minutes. Here's why that is not necessarily bad.
It is very complicated to predict the future for this PSG. After winning two consecutive UEFA Champions League titles, the Parisian team is already beginning to feel major changes as it looks ahead, and after three years under Luis Enrique, it is natural to have doubts about what comes next for this great European soccer powerhouse.
Luis Enrique has always defended the idea that there are not just 11 starters, but that he considers his entire squad to be key players in the project. That is why, when a player doesn't feel comfortable, the club opens the door for him and lets him leave if he asks, as was the case with Brandi Barcola.
Now, that is precisely the point that needs to be emphasized to understand how the PSG project could work for at least the next five years.
Barcola was a key piece. Yes, he was an impact substitute, but he played, accumulated minutes, and generally did well when he played. He appeared in key moments and was just as important as other players like Doué, Kvaratskhelia, Dembélé, and Ramos in winning those two UEFA Champions League titles.
However, when players reach that level of relevance, when they reach that status as stars, they want prominence, they want to play every match, and they want more and more. And that will be very difficult for the young players who join the Parisian project from now on, with superstars such as Vitinha, João Neves, Dembélé, Kvaratskhelia, and Doué ahead of them.
For example, what happens next year if Mika Godts breaks out this season and scores more than 20 goals, and the Parisian team goes far in the Champions League or wins it again? Godts is going to start having that star status, because what he is showing is no longer being shown at Ajax. Now he'll show it in Paris, at PSG.
So, if Godts takes a stand and asks for a starting spot, what will Luis Enrique do? The coach who defends the philosophy that all players are one and the same piece of the team and that nobody is above anybody else.
If Enrique probably continues to prefer Kvaratskhelia and Doué in the most important matches, Godts will ask to leave the club within one, two, or three years, and the cycle would repeat itself.
If Kvaratskhelia were retained and Godts were sold, PSG would sign another young player with potential who is shining in another league or team at the time.
So that is the future awaiting Paris Saint-Germain: a cycle in which they develop players, turn them into stars, then sell them because they have other stars they are unwilling to bench or sell to preserve the rest.
It may sound negative, but in reality, it is not a bad thing in any way. At the end of the day, if that happens, it means the team will keep succeeding, keep adding titles, and keep winning, winning, and winning.
Therefore, if the team found itself in that situation, it would be a good sign that it is achieving its collective objectives. It would be part of the process.
Furthermore, Kvaratskhelia, Doué, Dembélé, and the rest of the team’s stars will not be young forever, and at some point, that transition process will arrive, when they begin to drop their level, and the rest of the young players begin to step forward to replace them in the long term.
