It's FourFourTwo’s Ligue 1 Season Preview: PSG made it a record-breaking 11-in-a-row last season and they’re fancied to make it 12, even without Lionel Messi
(Image credit: FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)
It's our Ligue 1 Season Preview, with the French top division perhaps starting at a leveller playing field than in recent seasons.
Paris Saint-Germain have been ripped apart and start again from a very different base. The PSG project hasn't exactly been a roaring success – despite the obvious dominance domestically – and so next season starts not with other teams cowering in their considerable shadow but actually wondering whether now is the best time to beat the giants from the capital.
But can anyone oust them? Here's James Eastham to explain the situation that French football finds itself in.
So, what’s new in Ligue 1?
For the first time in three years, the French top flight kicks off without Lionel Messi on its roll call – yet you wonder whether the world champion will even be missed.
Messi posted some strong stats with Paris Saint-Germain – 16 goals and 16 assists last season – but his marriage of convenience never developed into a full-blown love affair. Elsewhere, Le Havre and Metz have been promoted, replacing the quartet of Auxerre, Ajaccio, Troyes and Angers – for the first time since 2002, Ligue 1 will contain 18 teams rather than 20 this term.
That’s partly to lighten the domestic workload and keep teams fresher for midweek obligations in Europe.
Major storylines
Kylian Mbappe is still making headlines at PSG (Image credit: Paris Saint-Germain Football/PSG via Getty Images)
Kylian Mbappe will leave PSG some day – the only question is when. Last season’s Ligue 1 top scorer and player of the year insisted in June that he’s staying in the French capital for 2023/24, although his club risk losing him for nothing when his contract expires next summer.
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PSG, Marseille and Monaco all have new managers – l’OM snapped up Marcelino to replace Igor Tudor; their Riviera rivals sent for Adi Hutter. Nice brought in Roberto De Zerbi’s former Benevento and Sassuolo understudy Francesco Farioli, who first linked up with the current Brighton boss after writing a blog about him – impressed, De Zerbi offered him a job.
Toulouse have also freshened up under president Damien Comolli, promoting assistant Carlos Martinez Novell after the club sacked Philippe Montanier. It was an unhappy end for the former Nottingham Forest gaffer, who’d led the club to a first ever Coupe de France triumph by routing Nantes 5-1 in the final.
Star arrivals
Could Lyon be back? (Image credit: Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
PSG have replaced boss Christophe Galtier with Luis Enrique, Barcelona’s former treble-winning coach, who departed the Spain job after the World Cup and was later linked with Chelsea, Tottenham and Napoli.
Lyon, meanwhile, won seven consecutive Ligue 1 titles from 2002-08, and fans hope the glory days will soon return in American billionaire John Textor’s first full season as owner (via Eagle Football Holdings). He may emerge as the club’s most important new face in years – it will take time, but the ultimate ambition is to challenge PSG at the top of the table.
Surprise potential
Patrick Vieira is back managing in French football (Image credit: FREDERICK FLORIN/AFP via Getty Images)
Chelsea’s parent company’s takeover of Strasbourg in June propelled the Alsatians into a brand new era. Strasbourg president Marc Keller has kept his job and insists the Ligue 1 outfit will be a “brother” rather than “feeder” club to their west London partners, although we can’t imagine they’ll be signing Enzo Fernandez any time soon.
They’ve hired Patrick Vieira as their new boss – after narrowly avoiding relegation last term, Le Racing are targeting an immediate improvement, then a medium-term objective of regularly finishing up between fourth and eighth place.
Look out for…
Reims manager Will Still continues to impress (Image credit: Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)
When a video of multilingual Reims boss Will Still cajoling (to put it politely) his players in both French and English went viral earlier this year, Ligue 1’s best-kept secret was out. Aged just 30 and born in Braine-l’Alleud, to Belgium to English parents, Still made Reims a much better side after taking over in October, and is already regarded as one of Europe’s best young bosses.
Amid fierce competition, PSG midfielder Warren Zaire-Emery might be France’s most promising teenager – although he should probably be called Warren Democratic Republic of the Congo-Emery these days... Aged 17, he played 1,115 minutes last season, often outperforming his far more illustrious team-mates. PSG have faced criticism for their failure to tap into the capital’s young talent – if Zaire-Emery becomes a mainstay, perhaps it’s a sign of the club finally beginning to properly value their academy.
More Season Previews
FourFourTwo have season previews for plenty of other leagues too, including the Premier League, where we rate each of England's top 20 clubs in detail.
Our Ligue 1 Season Preview looks at whether Paris Saint-Germain's stranglehold on French football will continue, while our Bundesliga Season Preview poses a similar question of Bayern Munich and German football. In Italy, it’s a wide-open race between the top teams as we delve deep with our Serie A Season Preview and in Spain, we assess whether Barcelona or Real Madrid will come out on top in our La Liga Season Preview.
