What a disaster this situation has become. In light of Messi getting SUSPENDED by PSG for an unauthorized trip, reports say he’s now NOT resigning with PSG at the conclusion of the year.
This is why PSG is the biggest joke in all of French football (if not the world).
With PSG losing 3-1 to Lorient this weekend and seeing their lead atop the Ligue 1 table fall to 5 points, PSG have made the shocking decision to suspend Lionel Messi as he left for a prescheduled Saudi Arabian trip immediately after the match. PSG actually taking player discipline and club responsibility seriously? Shocking, right?
Okay, being serious, I fully agree with the decision to suspend Messi as he not only showed a complete disregard for the club by scheduling a trip during the season in the first place, but also went on the trip after directly being told he wasn’t allowed to.
Yes, PSG manager Christophe Galtier flatly told Messi prior to the game that if PSG lost to Lorient, which they obviously did, he’d be barred from going on his ambassador trip to Saudi Arabia, but that obviously didn’t stop Messi from going.
Now, I’d be a little more critical of Messi as this situation is unacceptable at any level of football, let alone one as high as playing for PSG. Messi, who is undoubtably one of the Top-5 best player ever, should not be abandoning his team after a brutal loss, and he should not be taking up ambassador trips in the middle of the French league season. You just don’t do that as someone as talented, beloved, respected, and successful as Messi.
You can be sure he would never leave Barcelona under the same circumstances if he was still playing for them.
But herein lies the problem: Leo Messi doesn’t care about PSG. Neymar doesn’t care about PSG. Kylian Mbappe doesn’t care about PSG. Nobody (apart from the fans) cares about PSG.
That club has been so badly mismanaged by its Qatari ownership group to the point that it’s seen more as a European vacation stay for the high-class players in the world to roam about on ludicrous wages, win a few league titles against teams with 1/10th the transfer budget, spectacularly fizzle out in the Champions League without consequence, and then move back to a serious club once their contract expires.
When great players are flatly pampered and not held to the same standards as the rest of the team, this is the kind of blatant disrespect is the result the Qataris’ should have expected sooner.
To be honest, I’m actually surprised it took this ownership model 12 years to suspend a player for disciplinary reasons as there have been some highly questionable shenanigans going on with the great players of that club (aka: Mbappe practically selling himself to Madrid a few summers ago, numerous managers going on to be successful elsewhere after getting sacked, Neymar supposedly being toxic in the dressing room, fans being overly abusive towards players and coaches, Mauro Icardi being Mauro Icardi, etc.).
You reap what you sow, and PSG have sowed a culture of disrespect, toxicity, laziness, and general apathy to the club and fanbase.
And that’s why Messi, who had reports of him officially parting way with the club come out as soon as his suspension was enacted, is going to leave this summer.
What a disaster this French Galácticos experiment has divulged into.
Images Source: Featured Image:
