Re: Ligue 1 - 11/12
I'm impressed with that last post. You obviously know a lot more about this than i do.
You also make some good points. I agree with the fact that it could be better if several clubs have good players instead of one who has too much (as was the case with Lyon, you definitely make a valid point there).
Still, i'm not entirely convinced that what PSG is doing now is better than what Lyon did. French football would fare if there were several clubs like PSG...maybe this can attract other big investors. Then it would be a good thing.
Nevertheless: very good post.
Thanks for your words. Well this (the bit in bold) is what we can hope for. As others have pointed out, Lyons should in theory be in a good financial situation as they have had constant CL money, and they have sold players to other European leagues for very big profit. Theoretically they should be able to sign strong players from abroad, in a way they did with Lisandro Lopez and Aly Cissokho, as both of these players could have moved to bigger leagues (I think the latter was linked with Milan and maybe Arsenal). Marseilles also have a massive support in southern France, and also they have a very big support outside of France - they might well be taken over next, even if they are not, they could generate a lot more overseas revenue than other French clubs.
I guess it's clubs like Lille, Bordeaux, etc who might be fearfull. But historically these clubs have always been sucessful more because of good management, good player development, and smart transfers, rather than massive/high profile signings. There is no reason why they cannot continue to do these things. Furthermore a league which potentially has players like Kaka, Pato etc in it, will be attractive to other players even if they join different teams. For instance players like Nicolas Lodeiro, James Rodriguez etc might not be "high profile" enough to go to clubs like PSG, but they could go to Lille, Bordeaux etc (instead of going from Latin America to Ajax and Porto), and this will improve the quality of the league. Maybe also promising young French players like Armand Traore, Pogba, Lassana Diarra, might stay in the French league longer and develop their talents there rather than leaving at such an early age.
Also even if PSG spend a huge amount of money it will not, on it's own, be a gaurentee of sucess. There are other big factors, like a stable management structure, balanced on-the-field team, good dressing room spirit. With money alone they might struggle. For instance if you look at Man City it's only now, having given Mancini enough time (and with other personnel like Lombardo and Platt), only having started to stablise the team structure, and only having started to improve the dressing room morale are they starting to win things. Obviously the money was a big factor, but there were also other things they had to improve.
Real Madrid (and to a lesser extent Atletico) used to spend vast sums of money but changed their management so frequently it negated their weath. Currently Chelsea are in a mini-crisis despite spending big on players like Torres, Lukaku, Mata over the last year. Looking at the squad, despite all the big signings, they seem a little suspect at the back and the team balance doesnt look ideal. People always said that Bayern was "FC Hollywood" and there were "too many egos" to manage, I think it's less of a problem for Bayern now, but there is always a risk for a big spending club (like say PSG) that this situation could occur. Money can greatly increase the chances of success, yes it lets you sign big players and improve a team, but without other factors it alone is no guarantee of sucess. I think the French league should improve in terms of standard now, hopefully it will be competitive and we will be able to see lots of players of world class talent playing in it - like in the 1980s and 1990s, where there were players like Rai, Mozer, Francescoli, Johnny Rep, etc.
