(^) METZ
Led Ligue 2 for most of last season
and finished as champions. They’ve lost
no key players and have added some
talented youth. Thierry Ambrose joined
on loan from Manchester City and
Victorien Angban made a loan move
from last season permanent after
leaving Chelsea. Could they be the
surprise package this season?
(^) BREST
In Ligue 2 since 2013, they managed to
grab an automatic promotion spot by
finishing second with 74 points last
season. However, they haven’t made
many personnel changes and this
campaign will be a challenge.
Weah joined Lille (€10m) and midfielder
Grzegorz Krychowiak left for Lokomotiv
Moscow in a permanent deal. The long-
running stand-off between the club and
French international midfielder Adrien
Rabiot also finally came to an end as
the midfielder joined Juventus, where
goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon also made
a surprise return. Brazilian full-back Dani
Alves also departed.
Joining the champions are midfielders
Pablo Sarabia (Sevilla, €19.5m) and
Idrissa Gueye
(Everton, €32m),
along with
defender Abdou
Diallo (Borussia
Dortmund, €32m).
The cutest bit of
business, though,
looks to be the
arrival of midfielder
Ander Herrera
on a free from
Manchester United.
Expectations are
sky high, but can
Tuchel finally get
PSG a place at
Europe’s top table?
It will be
interesting to see
how last season’s surprise package Lille
will fare this season.
After a superb campaign under coach
Christophe Galtier, the northern outfit
finished in a highly creditable second
spot. They had the best defensive record,
conceding just 33 goals in their 38
league matches, while scoring an
impressive 68 goals themselves.
Midfielder Thiago Mendes and
been to deal with Neymar, whose injury
problems meant he made just 17 league
starts in the last campaign.
Neymar returned late for pre-season
training and Tuchel admitted that the
Brazilian has said he wants to return
to former club Barcelona. Word is that
Neymar received a severe dressing down
from Leonardo in front of his team-
mates for his late return, and the
director of sport seems in no mood to
play games. “Neymar can leave PSG if
there’s an offer that suits everyone,” he
says. “But up to now we don’t know if
anyone wants to buy him.”
While that saga rumbles on, PSG have
been busy in the transfer market. There
were reasonably big-money departures
as midfielder Christopher Nkunku went
to RB Leipzig (€15m), striker Timothy
F R A N C E
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Challenge...Brest
PROMOTED SIDES
“Neymar can leave PSG if there’s an
offer that suits everyone. But up to
now we don’t know if anyone wants
to buy him”
PSG sporting director Leonardo
Test...Lyon’s Fernando
Marcal (left) takes on
Arsenal in a friendly
Dream team...Lyon president Jean-Michel
Aulas with new coach Sylvinho (left) and
sporting director Juninho (right)