WHAT’S GONE WRONG AT PSG? Currently Pointless in the Champions League.

Perhaps their worst start ever in the Champions League is bound to raise questions for one of France’s premier clubs.

Helen M Jerome spoke to two current WSL managers with first-hand knowledge of PSG –previous head coach Jocelyn Prêcheur, and ex-Lyon player and head coach Sonia Bompastor – for their take on what feels like a crisis. And we also get the considered opinion of French football journalist, Sylvain Jamet.

When you look at PSG’s squad and their storied past, it’s a head-scratcher to work out exactly what’s made this season’s Champions League campaign such a disaster. Stellar names – from serial-winners Olga Carmona (above right, v Manchester United) and Sakina Karchaoui (above, left) to Mary Earps in goal – are sprinkled throughout the squad, so you’d think they should be flying.

But with zero points, and languishing at the very bottom of the UWCL going into what could be their last two games, it’s hard to fathom. Are there bigger problems behind this, or is this just a temporary blip, a bump in the road for PSG?

JOCELYN PRÊCHEUR

One of the best placed to answer is previous manager, Jocelyn Prêcheur, who feels the weight of expectations only too well at his current club, London City Lionesses. Perhaps he has a theory as to why they’ve been underperforming so spectacularly?

He jokes that “the first explanation is, because I left,” quickly adding, “Sorry. Don’t quote me on that!”

More seriously he clearly has inside knowledge of their current plight, and he’s had a few chats with some of the PSG players recently, plus of course he follows them carefully, across every game of the Champions League.

Perhaps surprisingly, Prêcheur says he’s not too worried about them. “I was in a similar position, when in my second season in PSG we had to win. If we wanted to keep a chance to qualify, we had to win the last two games before Christmas. And they have the possibility to take these six points and keep their qualification. And after that it’s like a new start, they’ll play better and better and I stay optimistic for them.”

His positivity is genuine, and he sends “the squad, all my former players, all the possible support to qualify because a club like PSG has to qualify. And we want to see this kind of team in the next stage of the Champions League. They have the positive dynamics, they perform well in the [French] league.”

For Prêcheur, it’s important to stay optimistic. “But the strategy is not me,” he adds. “I’m not a good person to talk about the strategy of PSG.”

He does, however, know that they start with a lot of players from the academy. “The group is very young, so of course the adaptation is a little like us, with the young players we have in the league.”

Speaking from experience, Prêcheur says: “As with the WSL, the adaptation to the season and a competition like Champions League cannot be done in one or two months. These players need to adapt to a lot of changes. And also quite similar to London City, they need to learn how to play together, create all these kinds of connections, and be familiar with the game project.”

So it takes time, and for Prêcheur, the most important thing is to keep in the same, positive dynamic. “This is something I mention a lot, also in London City. We need to have this improving, positive dynamic to be better and better. And I am optimistic they will get the six points they need to keep going on this competition.”

Does he agree that part of the problem stems from LCL poaching PSG’s main leader, Grace Geyoro, just as the season started?

“Of course it did. It doesn’t help when you lose some players like Marie-Antoinette Katoto or Tabitha Chawinga, it obviously has a massive impact on the performance. Imagine one moment, [at LCL] I have to play without Kosovare Asllani or Saki Kumagai… or I could mention many other players.”

This basically sums up PSG’s plight. “Obviously it’ll have a massive impact in a shorter term,” says Prêcheur. “But the strategy to avoid this kind of situation is to have a strong base of players, developed in the academy. It’s a smarter choice, to have this stability. And you cannot avoid some players will leave, especially big, big players.”

Bigger picture, he reckons, and the job of the club is “to anticipate these departures and to be sure you have already the solution when this event arrives. So this is where a good academy is very valuable.”

“But of course, the departure of Grace, especially with everything she represented and what she still represents in PSG and the legend. She’s in the women’s PSG history. But the fact she leaves, of course, didn’t help. It has been, for the club, a big change in the summer because a big, historical leader leaves. So it’s a new cycle it started. And of course they need a little time to perform the way they performed before.”

SONIA BOMPASTOR

Having managed and played for PSG’s big rivals, Lyon, for many years, current Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor knows them well.

“I know the club, I know the players, the staff. It’s always difficult as a manager who is not involved in that team to make some comments because I don’t have all the full picture on what is happening over there.”

“But, if you look at that squad,” she says, “the last few years and last few seasons, they lost a lot of players – a lot of quality and talented players – in the squad.”

What makes Bompastor so certain of this? Simple. “I know that really well because when I was the Lyon manager, almost every year we recruited the best players from PSG; they were coming from PSG to Lyon.”

Looking at the bigger picture, she tends to agree with Prêcheur: “I think that’s probably also part of the fact they are struggling now, with getting results and performing in the Champions League.”

Bompastor’s final verdict is: “I think this team is probably in transition. They are trying to fight to find some really good players to help them to perform at the highest level. But the fact they just lost many players with lot of quality, it doesn’t help them perform.”

SYLVAIN JAMET

For French football journalist, Sylvain Jamet, PSG are at the bottom of the Champions League table because they are paying the price for years of transfer window mismanagement.

“They let their core French players go through the years either to Lyon or abroad. And as strange as it is for a team with such a good budget in the top 10 in Europe, they do not seem to be able to have a coherent strategy.”

Just look at the managers, observes Jamet. Olivier Echouafni 2018-2021 won the title and then left the club. Since then they have used one manager per season. Didier Olle-Nicole 2021-22, Gerard Prêcheur 2022-23, Jocelyn Prêcheur 2023-24, Fabrice Abriel 2024-25, and Paulo Cesar who signed for two seasons with a new project based on the youth and the academy. 

Indeed, PSG’s sporting director, Angelo Castelazzi, has not been able to recruit well through the years. And top French players are rarely signed, with Sakina Karchaoui and Griedge M’Bock Bathy the very notable exceptions.

Many others have now left, including Marie Antoinette Katoto, Kadidiatou Diani, Sandy Baltimore, Laurena Fazer, Constance Picaud and Grace Geyoro. And alongside them, many top foreign players also left, including Cristiane Endler, Lieke Martens, Tabitha Chawinga, Ashley Lawrence and Sara Dabritz. 

As Jamet concludes, it does not come as a surprise after many years of stagnation – if not regression – to see PSG struggling in the Champions League.

Photos: UEFA