After the opening-day mishap regarding the scheduled home game against Rennes—which ended up being switched to an away fixture at Roazhon Park—Paris Saint-Germain is ready to host Monaco this Friday for Matchday 3 of Ligue 1. The Parc des Princes now boasts a new pitch, following a change in approach by PSG—a move detailed by Ici Paris.
This change was far from random.
“Since the arrival of the club’s head groundsman, Jonathan Calderwood, in 2011, PSG had made a habit of growing its pitch from seed during the summer. However, for the past two seasons, these seeds have suffered from extreme heat, causing difficulties for PSG during its opening matches in August.
After the match against Rennes was swapped, the club had the damaged turf stripped away and, on August 26, installed rolls of new turf. These 700 rolls were transported by truck after PSG sourced and purchased them in Ireland. Subsequently, the club laid the turf, adjusted the irrigation system, conducted tests both with and without the ball, and has been monitoring the pitch closely since August 28.”
While it would be easy to criticize PSG and mock the poor state of its pitch given the club’s vast resources, it is more worthwhile to look at the finer details. Of course, the capital club could have secured a better pitch sooner. However, they chose to stick with the methods of their groundsman, Jonathan Calderwood—who has long since proven himself to be among the best in the business.
An exceptionally difficult summer eventually prompted the Northern Irishman and his team to opt for a radical change—though without rushing the process. Pitch quality is paramount, so the choice was made with precision; following extensive research, PSG sourced its new turf all the way from Ireland. Now, everything should be ready to go. Let us hope the rest of the season makes everyone forget that false start. Calderwood can be trusted with that.
