Luis Enrique, coach of Paris Saint-Germain since summer 2023, spoke at length about the Movistar documentary to be released about him. In a newly-released extract, the Spaniard explained why he signed for PSG to join a specific project.
Luis Enrique “With the previous players, I wouldn’t have come.”
“I have to convince, the president and Campos, that this is the right path. With the previous players, I wouldn’t have come. They didn’t need me for this. I came because the circumstances were what I wanted.
I said: ‘If there are these players, I’ll come’. But I was completely free. In future, we’ll try not to pay exorbitant sums to players who don’t have that kind of price tag. It’s not good for the footballer or for the health of the sport.
Luis Enrique “Total, absolute freedom? Yes ? Well, I’m off.”
When I spoke to Luis Campos for the first time, I told him very clearly that if I came there would be a change of model. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gone to Paris Saint-Germain. Total, absolute freedom? Yes ? Well, I’m going.”
Of course, Luis Enrique wants great players in his squad. But there’s no question of going for a proven “star” just because he’s supposed to be one of the best.
Instead, the Spanish coach is keen to build his squad with talent that can grow and consolidate his idea of a soccer team. An exciting project, even if some observers and fans are unfortunately lacking in patience.
Every slightly less successful match is dramatized, with the added idea of glorifying the previous era. As if, in the case of last weekend’s match in Reims, PSG had never had a bad game in recent years. It would take immense bad faith to say that it wasn’t far more embarrassing and worrying collectively.
At least Paris has a coach with clear ideas and the confidence of the club. It’s been a long time coming. The idea is to let Luis Enrique build things up, and what’s been happening over the last year is far from the disaster some people want to portray. Let’s wait and see what happens next.
The Liverpool and Manchester City teams so admired in recent years have not been built in 1 year.