Football Season Guide

Paris FC’s first season in the top flight might not have been the roaring success that the club wished, yet they were never in any danger of the drop and powered impressively at the end of the season, rounding it out with a famous win over PSG. On the whole, it was a clear success. Despite a strong run under Antoine Kombouare at the end of the campaign, they made an ambitious change of management, opting to appoint former Strasbourg and Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior. It underlines their desires to compete at the top level. They are also one of the most financially powerful teams in the league, underlining this with a net spend of €70m as of the time of writing. They have invested in promising young players, while the purchase of Lassine Sinayoko from Auxerre looks an interesting value purchase. Pablo Pagis may prove to be their best signing, though. Some transfers are still likely to come, with several fringe players still linked with a move away while there are doubts over who will hold down the right-back role on a permanent basis. On the park, meanwhile, a 4-0 loss to Mainz raises questions of how they are settling under their new boss. Paris took a bit of time to settle last season but once they got going, they were an impressive force, eventually finding their feet in front of goal to net 47 times – similar to Champions League qualifiers Lille and Lyon. The potential going forward remains, particularly as players like Jonathan Ikone and Moses Simon were nowhere near their best last term. They now promise more. There is a sense that Paris are still being held back a little by having an enormous squad that makes it difficult for the manager to retain a settled team while keeping everyone happy. This was perhaps illustrated in goal last season, when there was a chopping and changing between Obed Nkambadio and Kevin Trapp. It bred a lack of consistency.