PSG board at a crossroads with short-term future of club

After the disappointment in the Champions League, people close to PSG have described the club as one falling "victim of a post-World Cup malaise," also pointing toward an "internal culture change," according to The Athletic.

The club from the French capital is facing a crucial decision: do they want to continue with the project started last summer with Luis Campos at the helm... or will there be a new, entire reconstruction?

PSG's ambitions were shattered by a solid and much better-established Bayern Munich. After a victory in the first leg at the Parc des Princes, the Bavarians buried the hopes of a comeback by the Parisians at the Allianz Arena with PSG getting eliminated in the round of 16 of the Champions League for the fifth time in the last seven seasons.

This ending is more than enough to raise doubts about the Parisian project and what the owners of PSG will be doing next.

Internal members of PSG attribute the failure in Europe to bad post-World Cup management

The brilliant first part of the season is now buried in a very distant past. On Nov. 13, PSG closed the Parc des Princes for just over a month leaving it with a great victory against AJ Auxerre (5-0).

The Parisian internationals were heading to Qatar to play the World Cup. A unique competition and one experienced in a very different way by the Parisian players this winter, especially for its luxurious attacking trident.

Shaken from the start of the competition, Neymar saw his dreams of victory trashed when Brazil lost to Croatia in the quarterfinals. Kylian Mbappe, for his part, touched a second World Cup with his fingertips but finally saw his partner Lionel Messi reach the grail and put the cherry on top of his career.

Returning from Qatar, the spirits of the Parisians quickly turned sour. After 23 games without defeat, PSG suffered their first setback against RC Lens on New Year (3-1).

According to The Athletic, some sources close to PSG's board and to the locker room, describe a malaise growing after the World Cup.

This fragility has little by little affected the Parisians before returning to the European stage... culminating with their elimination in the French Cup against Marseille (2-1) before crashing out of the Champions League.

The Parisian board must decide again what direction the project will take

PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi said in January that “2023 will be our most successful year at PSG,” in comments reported by The Athletic. Three months later, the capital club only remains alive in one tournament, the only one in which they cannot be eliminated: Ligue 1. For the second consecutive year, they were eliminated in the round of 16 of the French Cup and the Champions League.

Now the Parisian owners are at a crossroads. They will have to decide if they continue on the path they took last summer, handing over the controls to Luis Campos, or if they press the reset button again.

Many of the people contacted by The Athletic do not believe that Christophe Galtier could continue on the Parisian bench, although he has a good chance of ending the season there.

Luis Campos wants to stay and continue with his mission at PSG, according to the aforementioned media outlet. But the summer promises to be very eventful for the Portuguese sports adviser if he wants to right his wrongs.

First, the situation of Mbappe needs to be clarified. Committed to PSG until 2024 (with an option to extend his deal by one more season by mutual consent with the club) according to this outlet, the Frenchman will see how his future is once again the central subject this summer.

In addition to the case of the Parisian no. 7, the cases of Lionel Messi and Sergio Ramos will also have to be studied, since the contracts of the two players end in June.

To respect the Financial Fair Play imposed by UEFA, PSG must also balance its wage bill. All of those parameters will define how the Parisian organization intends to take the next turn that comes its way.