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PSG keen for Xavi Simons to return for next season
A lot has been written about Xavi Simons’ future recently after his fine form on loan at RB Leipzig, and my latest understanding of the situation is that, assuming that Kylian Mbappe is leaving PSG, Simons will probably be under consideration for a place in Luis Enrique’s team for next season.
I find it hard to see another loan for the Dutch midfielder, and certainly a full season loan at Leipzig or anywhere else. Given his success with Leipzig, I also don’t think a loan move to another club would make any sense, so I’d put his future between Paris and Leipzig. Still, as much as Leipzig would want to keep him, I don’t see another full season loan in Germany so I think PSG will be very keen to get him involved in Enrique’s first-team squad next season.
It will be interesting to see if that’s what Enrique wants, but based on what he’s said publicly, he seems very keen on Simons’ profile. There’s been talk of potential offers from the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, and Barcelona, but I think it would have to depend on the offer, because I don’t really see PSG doing business unless there’s an offer that’s deemed too good to turn down.
I expect decisions to be made soon, and PSG’s preparations for next season can even start now, given that they’ve gone out of the Champions League. There’s still a cup final to win, but Ligue 1 has been confirmed, so Enrique can start discussing with the club which positions need reinforcing and how Simons might fit into his plans for next season.
Bernardo Silva looks more of a priority than Victor Osimhen for PSG
Victor Osimhen to PSG is another story making the headlines at the moment, and while I don’t know if he’d be their absolute priority target, he certainly is a name that they’ve looked at, along with Benjamin Sesko.
With Mbappe leaving, there’s a few players PSG have looked at to strengthen in attack, but I think at the same time, as we’ve seen from PSG in the Champions League this season, a new striker is not necessarily a priority. PSG’s main problems are not necessarily through the middle – Goncalo Ramos has shown enough form (despite not being able to find the target against Borussia Dortmund) that he could be the man to be PSG’s number 9. He’s shown he can score goals, netting 14 in all competitions so far this season.
So when you look at what PSG already have in attack, not only with Ramos as the focal point but also with Randal Kolo Muani as an option at central striker, plus Ousmane Dembele, Bradley Barcola and Marco Asensio out wide, I don’t think that a new number 9 like Osimhen solves the issue of replacing Mbappe.
A bigger issue is some of the build-up play. In midfield, I think, and most people are in agreement, one other midfielder to go alongside Vitinha and Warren Zaire-Emery probably makes sense. There’s been long-standing links with Bernardo Silva and I think that kind of profile could be interesting, because even though this relatively young PSG squad was capable of going far in the Champions League this season, a little bit more experience could still be very useful.
So, overall I think names like Bernardo Silva and Bruno Guimaraes, that kind of profile, could come up higher on PSG’s list than someone like Osimhen. Silva and Guimaraes are also two players who know the French league quite well, so while I wouldn’t completely rule PSG out of the race for Osimhen at this moment in time, I wouldn’t necessarily put him at the front of the queue either. I think PSG will feel they have other needs in other positions ahead of the number 9 position.
Renato Sanches to leave PSG – could Saudi be his next move?
Things have not gone brilliantly for Renato Sanches on loan at Roma this season, and it’s not easy to see where he goes next as he’s set to return to PSG. It feels similar to the Georginio Wijnaldum saga, so maybe Sanches could tread a similar path and go somewhere like Saudi Arabia.
Still, at this moment in time it’s difficult to be sure what will happen next with Sanches. One thing that seems likely is that he won’t be part of what Luis Enrique wants to do next season, so it’s logical to assume he’ll be on the move and looking for a transfer, but who might be interested in taking him after a disappointing spell at both PSG and Roma remains to be seen.
I could see Sanches perhaps looking for an opportunity in Saudi Arabia to get his career back on track, and then an opportunity to bounce back in Europe after that. For now, though, his wages at PSG make most moves in Europe difficult for him – any interested teams would probably want him on loan first, so either he goes out on loan again or he ends up making a permanent move away to somewhere like Saudi before then getting picked up by a European team again in a year or two if he’s rebounded sufficiently.
PSG dealt UCL heartbreak again – but this is not like some of their other exits
I thought PSG’s semi-final against Borussia Dortmund was a really absorbing spectacle. It was an unexpected outcome – I think PSG can feel aggrieved as it was a really good opportunity to get to the final and one that was ultimately wasted, but I think there were lessons to be learned as well. They had a really good opportunity to reach the final and possibly win their first title, but, despite showing more in their exit than they have in the past, I think it still shows they’ve got a bit of a way to go.
Partly, they could do with more experience and being a bit sharper in front of goal. Still, this PSG side looks like being on the right path to challenge for Champions League success in the future, perhaps with a few changes. Obviously one of those will be with Mbappe leaving, and this wouldn’t have been the way he wanted to sign off with PSG, but at the end of the day he was fairly ineffectual over the two legs of the semi-final, and for most of the quarter-final as well. It was within his power to decide how PSG went out of the Champions League, and they went out the way they did without him being a major influence, so that’ll be a big disappointment to him, especially in his aim to put together a convincing challenge for the Ballon d’Or.
Having been so quiet when it mattered most for PSG, for most of the latter stages of the Champions League, it hasn’t really gone according to plan for Mbappe, though there’s still the Euros and the Olympics for him later this year, and potentially a big move to Real Madrid to look forward to.
For PSG, as disappointing as it is to lose home and away against Dortmund, it is not going to be as traumatic as some of their previous exits – the Remontada with Barcelona, or that 17-minute hat-trick by Karim Benzema for Real Madrid, or that game against Manchester United with Neymar standing on watching from the side-lines in disbelief. PSG can at least come out of this semi-final with the knowledge that they did their best – if you look at their numbers, they created so many chances that it’s incredible that they didn’t score a single goal over 180 minutes, but that’s football and you don’t always get what you deserve.
PSG probably didn’t deserve a 2-0 aggregate loss, but Dortmund took their chances when they came along and at the end of the day they deserve to be in the Champions League final. It’s not the same crisis that usually surrounds a PSG exit in the Champions League – I think getting to the semi-finals of this competition with a new manager and a big turnover of the squad is a big achievement, and now the question is about what minor tweaks and changes can be made to the group with the idea that Mbappe won’t be there next season.
There’s a lot to be encouraged by, even if that disappointment will linger because it was such a big opportunity to finally make the final and get that trophy that they’ve wanted for so long.