Ligue 1 kick-off: Are PSG in crisis? Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang set for Golden Boot battle

Ligue 1 is back!

The self-proclaimed “League of Talents” returns after a very interesting off-season and a change in league structure.

It all gets started on Friday August 11 with Nice v Lille kicking off the new season live on TNT Sports and discovery+. You can watch the Ligue 1 season live on TNT Sports and discovery+ and you won’t want to miss a moment.

Ahead of the new season, let’s run through some of the major talking points so you know exactly what you need to be looking out for when you have the games on.

You can never keep the club from the capital out of the headlines, can you?

The big news at the moment of course is Kylian Mbappe, and where he will be playing this season, and that’s if he plays at all...

PSG want Mbappe to join Real Madrid this summer so they can get a fee for him, however, the player wants to wait until next summer when he can get a massive signing-on fee from his new club (as well as saving them a bit of money in transfer fees). The result is a threat from PSG that if he doesn’t play ball he won’t play at all and they are saying they will leave him in the stands. Don’t forget, next summer is the European Championships that Mbappe will want to be fit for.

Away from that, Lionel Messi has left for South Beach whilst recently Neymar put in a request to leave as well. Sergio Ramos is gone too and Marco Verratti may also join the Saudi Arabia project.

The club couldn’t get Julian Nagelsmann in to replace Christophe Galtier so had to pivot to Luis Enrique, and there are even reports that he is dissatisfied with what he has walked into.

So this is just typical PSG doing typical PSG things, right?

Or is it?

This has been said before, but it feels as if in terms of incomings PSG are really doing things sensibly.

They have added two experienced defenders in Lucas Hernandez and Milan Skriniar, an all-action midfielder in Manuel Ugarte and a host of exciting attacking options. Hugo Ekitike has made his loan permanent whilst Marco Asensio arrives from Real Madrid on a free transfer. Kang-in Lee comes in from Mallorca whilst Goncalo Ramos is the latest arrival on loan from Benfica. Plus Xavi Simons is back with the club after some stellar performances in the Netherlands with PSV.

Oh and Ousmane Dembele still might arrive if they can find an agreement with Barcelona.

There were signs of this in the last couple of years as PSG tried to wrestle themselves away from the pseudo-Galatico policy. Players such as Vitinha, Nuno Mendes and Achraf Hakimi all show that there are people at the club who want the team to use their immense wealth to build a team that is sustainable rather than just constantly chasing the new shiny thing.

We will have to wait and see how it all shapes up, and what happens with Mbappe of course, but don’t think that PSG are simply the same basket case they have been in the past.

Traditionally two of the biggest clubs in France, it’s fair to say that Lyon and Marseille have had mixed fortunes in recent years, struggling to keep up with the might of PSG. But whilst they may not be able to battle for the title, there is one key area where they may go head-to-head, particularly if Mbappe leaves: the Golden Boot.

Marseille have once again changed manager, bringing in Marcelinho to replace Igor Tudor. This feels as if it is finally the appointment that club president Pablo Longoria truly wants and the pair can now start building something off the work done by Tudor and Jorge Sampaoli before him.

There’s been a lot of experience brought in this summer, from Renan Lodi and Geoffrey Kondogbia from Atletico Madrid to Iliman Ndiaye and Ismaila Sarr from clubs in England. Ruslan Malinovsky, Amine Harit and Ruben Blanco have all made their loans permanent.

Then there’s Auba, the real focus of this segment.

Yes, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is back in France for the first time since 2013. Don’t forget that it isn’t that long ago that Aubameyang was having an absolute swansong at Barcelona, before getting trapped in the Chelsea vortex once more. Aged 34, it feels as if he still has a lot left in the tank and his goals could absolutely propel Marseille up the table.

Is an Alexandre Lacazette-esque renaissance on the cards?

Speaking of…

Two years younger than Aubameyang, Lacazette enjoyed an astonishing second swansong after an emotional homecoming to Lyon last summer. He ended last season with 27 goals, just one off Mbappe.

As club captain Lacazette marshalled an extremely young Lyon side to a decent finish, not where they want to be but a good step under manager Laurent Blanc.

It’s been a tough window, with Houssem Aouar bidding farewell to his boyhood club and concerns remain about the future of Bradley Barcola. The headline arrival from an English perspective is another former Arsenal player, this time Ainsley Maitland-Niles.

The big change has been in the boardroom, with John Textor completing his takeover from long-standing owner Jean-Michel Aulas. This has not been a smooth process with a lot of quite nasty sniping in the press from both sides. As a result the club does feel as if it is stagnating a bit. Marseille are hardly the most coherent club in the world but they are at least doing things, Lyon are almost becoming a forgotten entity.

Last year Lens produced a remarkable performance to finish second in the league, just a point behind PSG. Their reward for such a performance? Having Seko Fofana and Lois Openda ripped away from them. The good news is that they were able to keep Manager of the Year Franck Haise as well as central defensive lynchpin Kevin Danso.

Hugely talented central midfielder Andy Diouf comes in from FC Basel via Rennes whilst a lot of people are starting to get very excited about 19-year-old winger Oscar Cortes, who comes in from Millonarios in his native Colombia. Can Haise and co repeat the trick? With extra football thanks to the Champions League that feels tricky.

One team you are going to want to watch most weeks are Rennes. Owned by one of the richest men in Europe (Francois Pinault), the club are known for their incredible youth academy (new Chelsea signing Lesley Ugochukwu the latest graduate) but under technical director Florian Maurice and head coach Bruno Genesio they have become one of the best run clubs in France, and an utter joy to watch.

In come Enzo Le Fee and Ludovic Blas from FC Lorient and FC Nantes respectively, two very exciting and attacking additions. Lovro Majer may depart to Germany and Martin Terrier will miss the start of the season with injury but tuning in to watch Rennes feels like a guaranteed good time.

The other two contenders will be Lille and Monaco, the two teams who finished directly behind Rennes in fourth last season. Lille have been interesting in the window, bringing in Samuel Umtiti on a free transfer as well as a pair of 20-year-olds in Hakon Arnar Haraldsson and Tiago Santos. They’re also still waiting to see what happens with their Golden Boot candidate, Jonathan David.

Monaco have brought in Mohammed Salisu from Southampton and Philipp Kohn as a replacement for Alexander Nubel in goal but not a lot else.

Both sides feel a far-cry from the 2021 and 2017 title-winning sides and it feels as if more investment is required for each to take a bigger step.

For an anglo-orientated audience, the rise of Will Still was undoubtedly one of the most interesting things from last season in Ligue 1. At one point Still, who did not have a UEFA Pro License, had Stade de Reims fans dreaming of an unlikely return to Europe thanks to an astonishing 14-match unbeaten run to begin his time with the club but in the end they had to settle for a very respectable 11th.

His reward was a new contract until 2025 and he was allowed to bring younger brother Nicolas in as an assistant.

Still, whose other brother Edward is managing in Belgium, had to watch last season’s top scorer Folarin Balogun return to Arsenal after a brilliant loan spell and rising midfield star Dion Lopy has moved to Almeria.

He’s certainly leant into his past in Belgium in terms of reinforcements with centre-back Joseph Okumu coming in from KAA Gent and Teddy Teuma arriving from Union Saint-Gilloise.

Two strikers arrive to replace Balogun’s goals. 22-year-old Amine Salama from Angers and 19-year-old Oumar Diakite from RB Salzburg.

The key for Still is to prove that he isn’t a one-season wonder and is actually what he looks like he is, one of the most exciting young managers in world football. If the 30-year-old can prove that then perhaps it won’t be too long before Championship or even Premier League clubs come knocking.

One final interesting point to note is that Ligue 1 has emulated the Bundesliga in moving to 18 teams, with four teams getting relegated last season and just two being promoted from Ligue 2.

The organisers have said that this should help reduce fixture congestion to ease the load on players as well as allowing teams slightly more money from the TV pool. Plus it has the added benefit of helping those teams in Europe, an area where French teams have underperformed for so long.

This feels like a really smart move. Yes, it’s tough for fans of clubs who may not get into the top flight, but Ligue 1 had to act as they come under increasing pressure from the top leagues in Portugal and the Netherlands (who both have 18 teams).

Streamlining the league should help lead to a better product both at home and abroad and could be a key factor in the growth of the league moving forward.

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