If it was over ten years ago, the likes of PSG and Manchester United would be dominating the worldwide game.
For more than a decade, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated football, but the power of the team is now the key to greater success.
At the Parc des Princes last weekend, the sound of Paris Saint-Germain fans booing their great players, Neymar and Lionel Messi, was shocking.
It was an unparalleled degree of venom directed at the league leaders, who had just been knocked out of the Champions League by 13-time champions Real Madrid.
These supporters were not motivated by entitlement, nor was it a reaction to the way in which they were defeated at the Santiago Bernabeu.
It was more than likely capturing something deeper: a rising sense of their club's hollowness and meaninglessness.
PSG and Man United need to abadon the superstar model
For Parisians, this is a period of existential crisis. They're stuck in a purgatory created by their Qatari owners, whose excessive riches have made Ligue 1 uncompetitive.
PSG have ensured that only ready-made superstars – overpaid and overindulged – will play for them. They won't be able to create a collective that is greater than the sum of its parts since these players won't be able to produce enough internal motivation in these circumstances.
It's ridiculous to expect someone to sweat blood for months on end for a chance to win a few knockout matches in March and April. Player autonomy and independence are at an all-time high, and not even Mauricio Pochettino, the project manager and modern coach, can make a difference.
He, like Thomas Tuchel before him, has been compelled to let PSG go domestically before playing a deep-lying counterattacking system in the Champions League. PSG have over the years become a lesson in how not to run a football club.
How to hollow out the very essence of a team sport by pumping unlimited funds into celebrity and glitz, into style over substance. They are a cautionary tale for the rest of the super-clubs – most notably for Manchester United, who are at risk of falling into a similar pattern.
United are not there yet, and have indeed shown an eagerness recently to put in place the right structures for organic growth and modernisation. Ralf Rangnick may be a failed experiment, but the goal – from interim manager to 'consultant' – shows that there is a hazy strategy to develop a long-term identity.
Nonetheless, they have a lot in common with PSG in terms of their constant unraveling and unclear future. The most apparent example is the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, but he is the only symptom of a dressing room that appears toxic and unduly dominant.
What emerges, predictably, is a lack of tactical framework. A group of disjointed individuals strolling around the ground, hoping to win 'moments.'
That might have worked a few years ago. However, European football has seen a massive tactical and strategic revolution in the last five seasons. The individual era, marked by the Messi-Ronaldo rivalry and Zinedine Zidane's four consecutive Champions League victories as Madrid coach, is over.
There is evidence of this re-calibration all over the place. Manchester City and Liverpool are the best in England thanks to their extremely complex and demanding tactical systems.
They have attacking structures that are almost robotically practiced like American Football plays, requiring a different level of hard work and self-sacrifice. Since the conclusion of Zidane's broad-brush period, the three Champions League winners (Jurgen Klopp, Hansi Flick, and Thomas Tuchel) have all reflected contemporary tactics.
Tactics that emphasize careful detail in positioning, shape, and movement. Each winning squad featured stars, but they were all part of a larger system. The pattern is more apparent than ever in this season's iteration.
Carlo Ancelotti of Real Madrid is the only remaining super-club manager in the Champions League who does not adhere to that level of tactical expertise. Few believe his team has a chance of progressing any further. More importantly, their 4-0 loss to Barcelona in Sunday's El Clasico served as a wake-up call.
It was the kind of thrashing that felt historic, like the start of a novel. Xavi, a Pep Guardiola disciple, has shifted Barcelona's focus away from their own individualistic and hands-off management.
Barcelona's victory indicates that Spanish football will follow England and Germany in moving away from individualism and towards a collective approach.
In terms of French football, PSG have nowhere else to go, and therefore their next step is likely to be another push for a laissez-faire approach to ego management.
This time with Zidane in charge.
Given his status as a France great and his mastery of a similar position at Real, it's possible Zidane will buck the pattern and guide PSG further than his predecessors. It's possible, but don't put your money on it. Since his last Champions League victory in 2018, football has changed dramatically.
Look throughout Europe, from Julien Nagelsmann to Erik ten Hag, and you'll notice that just a few top-level managers are still focusing on the psychological side of management.
Ancelotti and Zidane are the last of these types of managers.
Manchester United have been flirting with the PSG model in recent years, signing big-name players and managers.
Their interest in Pochettino and Ten Hag as their preferred choices for the vacant permanent manager's seat at Old Trafford does not imply they will reverse course.
Tuchel was tested by PSG, but he was dissatisfied with the politics and celebrity culture. Rangnick appears to have similar feelings about what is going on at Old Trafford.
It's possible they'll gobble up Pochettino as PSG did.
It's an intriguing point of contrast. Pochettino or Ten Hag's appointment (the two are favorites to take over the managerial role at United this summer) will be a test of whether United can decisively move away from their propensity to glorify a past that no longer resonates.
Or whether they, too, are stuck in a limbo of their own creation, unfit to host a modern tactician and unwilling to change their egotistical mentality.
mgbare
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manU jus got into it because of fans' pressure and lack of trophies.. so this isn't a ManU syndrome no not really.. but not the same can be said of PSG. for years psg's philosophy has been about getting the best at whatever cost then sit back and watch.. they think throwing money is a solution on it's own.. but it hasn't worked for them has it, not in the manner they want. they havent really put much forcus on a real sporting project. They do not empower their coaches with enough authority and support to manage the players and build a team.. instead they undermine the coach's authority whilst giving special attention to some individual players they consider their prize jewel.. the previous coaches had the same issues in commanding the dressing room, from Unai Emery, Tuchel and now Potch. Edison Cavani was more of an outcast in his last days coz of dressing room differences.. money is a great tool but has to be incorporated with hard work and discipline to produce results..