PSG have been forced to beef up security at the homes of Messi, Neymar and Verrati, as well as at training facilities outside the capital, amid anger from a section of the fans over the drift of the team The measure was taken after the insults against these players uttered on Wednesday by a group of the Collectiu Ultres Paris (CUP), in front of the club’s administrative headquarters, and the concentration of some of them in front of Neymar’s house, who was called to leave.
The feeling of crisis is total in the leading team of the French League, frustrated for another year in their ambition to conquer the Champions League and eliminated from the French Cup. The sanction and the removal of Messi for his unauthorized trip to Saudi Arabia have been the final straw for the patience of many fans, fed up with the behavior of their stars and a sports management that consider bad The coach, Christophe Galtier, also has his days numbered due to some very disappointing performances. The parade of technicians has been constant in recent years.
In a statement, PSG condemned “with great firmness the intolerable and insulting actions of a group of individuals”. Roman Mabille, president of the ultras, distanced himself from the intimidating protest in front of Neymar’s home. The Brazilian reacted with a philosophical text on social networks. “Don’t let people drag you into their storm; drag them to your peaceâ€, the message said.
The CUP, in a manifesto, lamented a policy of signings that has put “golden bridges to mercenaries”, to “overpaid players” and without ambition, to “stars whose careers are over” who are mere “sellers of shirts”. “To get rid of parasitic players, it’s time to clean the dressing room”, added the ultras, in an implicit allusion to Neymar, who provoked a strong rejection.
In the French press, the PSG situation took up a lot of space yesterday. According to Le Parisien, Messi – suspended for two weeks, including two League games – will no longer wear the team’s shirt, despite the fact that he has a contract until the end of June. In its editorial, the newspaper of the capital estimated that the severe reaction of the Qatari property would not have been the same if it had not already been decided, before the last episode, the non-renewal of the Argentine. The owners, therefore, would have confused authority with authoritarianism. According to the editorialist, the management wanted to compensate for the permissiveness of the past with a disproportionate reaction that damages the image of the club. Despite not meeting expectations, Le Parisien thinks that “the best player in the world would have deserved another start”.
L’Équipe, for its part, noted, with irony, that “love stories generally end badly, and so do stories without love”. But the sports club also pointed to an overly harsh reaction and wondered if those in Doha would have acted the same way with Messi before the World Cup in Qatar.
