Football is a simple game, really. Be super-rich, buy all the world’s best players and win every trophy known to man. Many would point to Manchester City, last season’s treble winners, as proof positive that this approach works. What about Real Madrid? Los Blancos won a bundle of Champions Leagues while smashing the world transfer record several times to sign the likes of Kaka, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo. As transfer fees have risen, the clubs who have spent the most have typically been the ones cuddling silverware at season’s end.
But the lines are beginning to blur. As Financial Fair Play looms and tactics become refined, buying the most expensive players you can find and shoehorning them into your team isn’t enough any more. This is not how the richest clubs in football do it any more. City spend and spend, but they do so to Pep Guardiola’s carefully-assembled template. Newcastle United and Paris Saint-Germain, who meet on Wednesday night in the Champions League, have taken note.
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When the Saudi Public Investment Fund took over at St James’ Park, making the Magpies the richest club in the world, a spree was expected. Mock-ups of Kylian Mbappe and Neymar in Newcastle shirts were hurriedly made and circulated. Possible XIs were composed of players with World Cups and multiple Champions League titles behind them. In short, everyone got very carried away.
Don’t get me wrong, Newcastle have spent and spent big. The club have splashed over £400 million on transfers since the PIF took control. But their business has been considered. Rather than build an overnight superclub, they have recruited to a blueprint. Manager Eddie Howe has been allowed to sculpt a team that plays his way, with signings like Sandro Tonali and Alexander Isak skewing younger than the expected influx of superstars. This is a Newcastle team that is being built to develop into a world power, rather than one sculpted from players signed from the existing elite.
Paris Saint-Germain are looking to carry out the same plan, but in reverse. A year ago, the Ligue 1 giants could call upon a front line of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Mbappe. Now only the latter remains, with the large wages and suffocating reputations of the other two now out of the building.
Neymar and Messi weren’t the only big names to leave PSG this summer. Marco Verratti, Giorginio Wijnaldum, Sergio Ramos, Julian Draxler and Leandro Paredes also took their leave of Parc Des Princes. In their place, rather than a wave of superstar names, came a raft of young stars with high potential. Randal Kolo Muani, Xavi Simons, Manuel Ugarte and Kang-in Lee are all younger than 25 and offer plenty of hope for the future. Buttressed by players in their prime like Milan Skriniar, Ousmane Dembele and Lucas Hernandez, PSG are doing things differently from now on.
One wonders how well the resolve of these two mega-rich sides will hold. What if one or both underperform in the Champions League this season? What is Newcastle don’t qualify for next season’s competition? What if PSG cede the league to one of their domestic rivals? What scale of disaster would have to befall these clubs to see them ditch their best-laid plans and recklessly dip into their endless reserves of cash?
With other teams spending wildly, albeit with mixed results (hi, Chelsea), if PSG and Newcastle aren’t immediately successful it will be hard to stay in control. Fans will buy into a philosophy so long as it works. But if these clubs go potless this season, could next summer bring a transfer frenzy? That remains to be seen, but it is an everlong temptation both sides will have to deal with.
Two of the world’s richest clubs play on Wednesday night in a game with high stakes. Not only in the battle for Champions League points at this early stage, but as a proof of concept. Each is fighting for their philosophy as well as their ambitions. Is this really a new era for the superclubs? Or will failure for one or both of these sides signal the return of the Galacticos era?
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject To Change
