Emirs and Princes: the PSG vs Monaco clash of the titans of Ligue 1 Season 2013-14

Monaco is already snapping players up furiously so might as well get this started already

Gosh we're starting early this year. Fortunately the Confederations Cup has me refreshed and ready to go.

How much of a loss is Martial? I know Lyon wanted to offload Gomis instead but couldn't arrange a deal in time.

What kind of financial problems do they have that they couldn't have waited a week or two to find Gomis a club he wanted to go to?

Aulas said Gomis, who has reportedly rejected moves to Rubin Kazan, Fenerbahce and Fulham over the past year, was now the obstacle to his own sale, adding: "It's becoming more a problem of behaviour."

I think Lyon had a liquidity issue they needed to sort out before some kind of accounting deadline on 30 June.

Not sure how long it will take for all teh new Monaco players to gel but I'm starting to see them as title contenders already for this year. Meanwhile the neverending search for a coach at PSG and Blanc's appointment will surely be a disruptive factor for the interseason period.

were marseille not meant to be broke? 10m for payet is eye-catching

belhanda to kiev is a bit sad

Yeah surprising transfer there - since I didnt think Lille was that desperate to sell, nor does the move seem like astep up for the player. At 10 MEUR it is a good deal though for Marseille

       roma
wolf ismael-mirin carvalho ______
ocampos moutinho _______ rodriguez
          falcao toure

?

Roma?
It seems that they're also snapping up promising leftback Lucas Digne, who so far was tipped to sign with PSG. So they just need a bullying def mid and they're ready.

It's surprising that only 1 month from the start of the season there are almost no transfer rumours for Paris... last year it was non stop !

£50m offer for Cavani doing the rounds today, which is only a little off his buyout clause. If you'd said him and Falcao would be meeting in the league this year, I wouldn't've thought you meant Ligue 1.

So Cavani at PSG seems imminent - curious to see how Laurent Blanc is gonna get all these guys to play together and who will be benched to make space for a second striker - Pastore?

I guess there will be a turnover between pastore, lavezzi and menez.

like :

ibra/cava
lavezzi (pastore) / lucas (menez)
matuidi / motta (verrati)

I really hope they will buy some good right and left wing backs because maxwell, jallet and vdw are the weakspots of the team !

oh, apparently leonardo has gone !

An entertaining look at trouble in Lyon. The opening yarn is insane.

Although their mercato is puny and the Aulas/Gomis clash is embarrassing, Lyon will have a good team this season, it seems.
Definitely at the level of OM or Lille, for instance.
Ligue 1 hasn't been that exciting in a loooong time !

only to be tracked down by police thanks to a carelessly discarded biscuit wrapper

french plod putting us to shame

Lyon will have a good team this season, it seems.

Have they bought anyone?

no they haven't bought anyone special but the team was already good. they have managed to keep grenier somehow (and god knows aulas has done his best to make him want to leave !).
they have also kept gonalons.
but they still haven't found a way to get rid of gourcuff...

so they will have the 3 Gs in the midfield : grenier, gonalons, gourcuff !

ok, les ilxeurs, L1 season starts tonight with a face-off between the last two league champions, PSG vs Montepellier

It's already pretty amazing that Montpellier managed to win the league

1-1. Montpellier are back.

Not really. PSG always screw up their opening games. They should have won this easy

earlier today I received an unsolicited email from Leyton Orient. Since they were sweet enough to reach out I suppose I'll be a Leyton Orient fan from now on.

welp wrong thread.

You could redeem yourself by becoming a massive fan of Lorient instead.

v good

disaster awaits when I accidentally post the same thing in a tennis thread.

Monaco have taken a late, and largely undeserved, lead through Riviere. Falcao has looked off the pace but Ocampos and Carrasco have been good.

Ah, Falcao has just scored!

so interesting first day - all the favourites already seem on form, except PSG - quelle surprise

What's all this talk about Falcao wanting to leave Monaco already? Keep hearing rumors. Is it the French tax system? Monaco felt the need to officially deny this, too.

It's not even allowed to switch clubs twice in one transfer period no?

It's rubbish. Pure speculation. The idea is that they could not compete on wages if the players had to pay income tax, which ignores the fact that they're bankrolled by one of the richest men in Europe.

Thanks for clearing that up. Is the 75% tax on highest incomes already effective?

I think so. It crops up in a lot of pieces about Ibrahimovic's wages.

Oh yeah and it was why Depardieu fled into Putin's arms right?

Anyway, thanks for clearing up the Falcao nonsense.

Ooof aliadiere fk pounded in through gk hands in lorient v nantes

Free on setanta lol

Monaco is tax free iirc

Ronald Zubar currently keeping Cavani and Ibrahimovic at bay.

PSG have had 27 shots on goal, 13 on target. Ajaccio have had one. Beautiful strike from Pedretti though.

Cavani 1-1!

ibespaws

Unbelievable match. Ochoa was superb.

there were stories about manchester united and barcelona buying ochoa circa 2007

the last ten minutes were excellent, i don't know exactly how they are going to play cavani and ibes together but in lieu of coherence there was at least spirit

also nice to see ravanelli's enthusiasm for ibes at the end, even if it didn't seem to be entirely reciprocated

so I was at Parc des Princes yesterday. it was pretty fun.
I think the team is not ready yet but mainly they clearly weren't lucky (especially in the last 15min). Ajaccio had like one chance (and they scored) but the rest of the game they were all in defence. I mean, during most of the game, T. Silva and Alex were playing at 30 meters... of Ajaccio's goal ! (and Silva almost scored 2 times !).
again, like last year, against Paris, most of the teams (and goals) of league 1 play the game of their life !
Cava's goal was great. and there were some brilliants dribbles from Lavezzi and Verratti.
Pastore was awful (and I like him in general!).

Alex o.g makes it 1-1. Could be another exciting finish in the PSG match.

Jesus, Rabiot goal in the 92nd minute to give PSG the lead vs Guingamp. Zlatan makes it 2-0 in the 94th. Blanc is living dangerously.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/06/marseille-gangland-murders-crisis-talks/print

as monaco 1-0 down to 50s throwbacks reims

kondogbia and james benched but all the other famouse names are playing

including nu-crissy ron lucas ocampos

fiendish near post fk from moutinho 1-1

Monaco still on top of the league, which is quite impressive, but Paris is coming closer... and will play OM at Marseille, who are 3rd, on sunday : exciting ligue 1 !

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/9430/f4tp.jpg

This story has everything. You're in Paris, you know what you have to do. Post review here please: Toad, in the hole: rolling-you-home football catering thread

ahah !
maybe I'll give it a try... if Paris wins the CL !

zlatan with a very ibra goal last night as psg beat bastia 4-0. cavani with a nice goal of his too, as both guys scored a brace. take a minute to soak in the disguting horror that is bastia's kit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqayII75nyk

also, as soon as i'm back in paris (which shouldn't be too long now) i'm def trying to get some friends out to boulogne for that zlatan burger.

http://i.imgur.com/292frVu.png

has solomon kalou suddenly turned into garrincha or are the ligue un marketing team getting ahead of themselves

tbh i find ochoa's presence on there far more surprising. as for kalou, they're banking on the fact that he's an ex-chelsea player and that he's been quite good for a few months now. it could also be that they wanted at least one player from an african country, seeing as there are probably quite a few viewers in french speaking african countries (this is a guess based on absolutely no facts, so could be completely off the mark)

Yeah that sounds about right. Indeed having Ochoa is kinda weird but why not, it's fun to have him in Ligue 1

zlatan's league record is ridic

2002 - eredivisie - ajax - champions
2003 - eredivisie - ajax - 2nd
2004 - eredivisie - ajax - champions
2005 - serie A - juventus - champions
2006 - serie A - juventus - champions
2007 - serie A - inter - champions
2008 - serie A - inter - champions
2009 - serie A - inter - champions
2010 - liga - barcelona - champions
2011 - serie A - AC milan - champions
2012 - serie A - AC milan - 2nd
2013 - ligue 1 - PSG - champions

the ultimate chancer

meh those teams all won by a nose

so sweet 4-0 for Paris against Lyon with a panenka from Ibra and some juggling in the middle of the game, FIFA style, that made me lol irl... he's so crazy !
PSG's latest ligue 1 results at home are quite impressive : 4-0, 3-1, 4-0, 4-0 !
November crisis.

they are definitely on another level. and ibra is def awesome, even if the clowning came at the expense of the team i support.
tough week aheead for lille who play marseille and then psg. lille is the best defending side in all europe with only 4 goals allowed in 15 games. they share the honor with roma, who also allowed only 4 goals so far. which is an interesting coincidence, considering that rudi garcia coached lille before leaving for roma this summer.

yeah I look forward to the game against Lille and hope they will be a good opposition because OM, Lyon and Monaco (even Reims who were the last team to beat us... last march !) have all been quite disappointing...
Ibra was clearly a bit off limits in terms of respect to the opponent... but he might be the only player in the world who can get away with that !
also, it could be seen as a way to spice up the game and wake Lyon up since they were kinda knocked off at this point.
Vercoutre seemed happy anyway in the end!

iirc you're on a 30 something unbeaten streak between ligue 1 and CL.
didn't watch the game so no idea how off-limits ibra was but agree with your assessment that he's one of very few players who can do that and get away with it.
of all these opponents i only saw the game against monaco and you could tell one team had trained with its stars for a longer period of time. it was kind of underwhelming. you might soon be in the situation that lyon was during their dominant era (god that seems so long ago now) where you'd have such a massive lead points-wise that the players lose focus (and losing in the champions league makes them even more unfocused).
game against lille should be fun though, i'm really curious to see if they'll manage to thwart your fear-inducing strike force.

yeah, that's the risk (having no worth opponent and outrageously dominating the league... yeah, it seems so long ago for Lyon !).
that's why I was glad that Monaco got in the big game. but they're not very impressive so far.

http://nsa33.casimages.com/img/2013/12/01/131201104131964004.gif

disappointed by zlatan's juggling i have to say

ahah, yeah, as many have said, he did less than pierre menez (the journalist who was in a clash with patrice evra) !
but doing in during a game is quite fun anyway.

Amazing win for Evian vs PSG tonight.

fuck - paris only one point ahead now

damn it evian ! that's the second time they beat us ! it was a nice game though. they played it well and were so happy at the end. it was like they won the world cup or something !
anyway, after 36 games, defeat had to come at some point... I prefer Paris to lose to Evian than to Lille, Lyon, OM, etc.
I still can't understand of Menez and Pastore didn't manage to score though.

can't understand how

gotta love dupraz in an interview after the game saying he's annoyed cause he wished his players would play like that all the time.

eheh, yeah, that was pretty cool.
the pitch seemed quite hostile. un champs de patates !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsY8dMELhlY

this angle

Enyeama has been amazing this season for Lille. 14 clean sheets in 16 games!

Paris back in the game after evian : 5-0 at home.
2 goals and 2 assists for Zlatan which put him at the top of the ligue for goals (13) and assists (6).

Enyeama Vs zlatan will be grand !

It's over for enyeama against bordeaux !
And Lille now 4 points behind Paris.

Good this, so far. Short passing from psg poor so far but motta just cracked in an absolute pearler.

Ha! Mavuba just got lucky to avoid a red card for shoving Zlatan in the face, went up the other end and equalised.

Lille 2-1 up after a penalty.

Caught a bit of this earlier, Lille looked very good

It's crazy. All PSG but Lille were holding them off until a second ago. Own goal from a corner.

I've got the telly back for the last ten minutes, looks end-to-end

ooh, has to score that

PSG 19 44
Monaco 19 41
Lille 19 40
Bordeaux 19 31
St Etienne 18 30

How it stands at winter break. I've only seen 7 or 8 full games and an hour highlights package each week. But what the heck this is an eleven of players who have impressed me so far

--------------------------- ENYEAMA (Lille) ----------------------

-- BERIA (Lille)-DJILOBODJI(Nantes)-SALL(St Etienne)--BEDIMO(Lyon)

-----------------------VERRATTI(PSG)---DIDOT (Toulouse)-----------

-JOUFFRE(Lorient)------------RODRIGUEZ(Monaco)-------PAYET(Marseille)

-----------------------------LACAZETTE(Lyon)-----------------------

Unlucky to miss out- Sane,Aurier, Mountinho,Souare, Rivieri, and a couple of fellas who play up top for PSG.

falcao injured and out for the rest of the season, might not even be able to take part in the world cup. sucks

Yeah what a bummer. Was keen to see how Monaco would do in the season' s crunch time

let's be honest the title this year was always going to be psg's but with falcao there was a glimmer of hope that someone could go toe-to-toe with them. tbh i'm really more bummed about him potentially missing the world cup.

sounds like a dangerous tackle by some worthless lower league hack trying to get a reputation

some Colombian drug lord might have him assasinated, a la Escobar

Zlatan with a very zlatan goal in the cup semifinal at Nantes.

so the big game ended up pretty even - fair results for both teams

yeah. although, like for the first game, Paris was above. in a way, I'm glad Paris didn't win because with 8 points over Monaco, the league would have been over.
with 5, there's still some tension !

and Zlatan's final chance was crazy, how he controlled the ball. Monaco's GK was very good.

Been v impressed with Toulouse's Martin Braithwaite this season.

very nice goal from lyon to tie it 1-1 in the derby against st étienne.

wow, bielsa at marseille

i guess he just enjoys coaching teams playing in leagues dominated by two teams
but yeah the rumors were around for the past week but most marseille fans seemed to aboid talking about it so as not to jinx it. bielsa in ligue 1! this is awesome, can't wait to see what he does with marseille. curious to see which palyers will stay and go this summer considering what a great coach they'll be playing for.

surprised to see gignac continued and even improved his goalscoring from last year

still looks ridiculously out of shape and might struggle if he is asked to press relentlessly by bielsa

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/OM_-_FC_Porto_-_Valais_Cup_2013_-_Andr%C3%A9-Pierre_Gignac.jpg

if you asked marseille fans, most would probably tell you that he's had a shitty season. it's kind of surprising that he's actually scoring, though still far from the season that brought him to marseille from toulouse (24 goals iirc) yeah he always looks out of shape, bordeaux fans made fun of him at a game some time back by singing "un big mac pour gignac" ("a big mac for gignac"). actually, i think i might have already told that story here.

im a fan of any player who manages to sustain a high level career despite being borderline obese, however he achieves it

what of the younger players at monaco like ocampos? also read that james is getting back into form after starting slowly

and the whole cavani issue, he doesnt seem happy

dunno too much how it's going for ocampos. james has been doing quite well lately, scored a few goals and had a few assists.
cavani may not seem happy and considering the noise that's been made after his poor performance against chelsea, in his position of choice, he's not likely to feel any better

btw nakh when you posted about bielsa i thought it was a done deal. but it's not confirmed, even though it made front page of l'équipe today so this could still go the way of other classic marseille done deals like jardel coming

Really good win for Lyon. PSG mostly threatened from set pieces - look a shadow of their best when Zlatan's out. Ferri was excellent for Lyon.

coming back to gignac, burger king got in on the fun and is mocking him too. see their twitter account, announcing the opening of a new BK in marseille :
https://twitter.com/BurgerKingFR/status/456688901378162688
their message says: we've never been good with rhymes, our thing is burgers.

Berbatov just out-Berbatoved himself with the most nonchalant lob I've seen in ages.

It was exceedingly Berbatov
http://31.media.tumblr.com/c583aa46e2feb20afdf7191eac4b2d61/tumblr_n4c11hNuUM1rm4zado2_r1_400.gif
http://24.media.tumblr.com/e1df17a9823f21cf1140ef01b0da5627/tumblr_n4c11hNuUM1rm4zado1_400.gif

Helene Costa, first female manager to be appointed for a french professional club!

Helene Costa quit on her first day?

yup - Club president commented "oh you know how women are..."

Five red cards in Marseille vs PSG, including Neymar who left the field claiming he’d been racially abused.

Nice vs Marseille has descended into chaos. Fans throw bottles at Payet, Payet throws one back, dozens of Nice supporters pile on to the pitch to chase after him and brawl with Marseille players.

This is the second match in two weeks suspended because home fans couldn’t stop chucking stuff at visiting Marseille players and it’s crazy that the ref didn’t stop this one sooner.

Marseille players didn’t want to resume the game. Nice players were waiting on the pitch with the referees, Marseille never came back out and will lose the game 3-0.

— Julien Laurens (@LaurensJulien) August 22, 2021

Thats shameful if its carried through tbh

Is this the third or fourth Marseille march this season that has been suspended after their players were assaulted by opposing fans? I’m losing track.

Lyon / Marseille stopped after four minutes when Payet got hit by a bottle (again).