Paris Saint Germain, a football club based in Central Paris, pulled off arguably one of the greatest transfer hauls of all time. The list included young Moroccan defender Achraf Hakimi, Dutch midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum, Spanish defender Sergio Ramos, Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and the cherry on top was arguably the greatest player of all time, the Argentine Lionel Messi. The team is currently studded with icons of the game, although the most astounding fact is that the Parisians only shed 70 million Euros in fees. The only player bought being Hakimi, the rest left for free with PSG kindling the benefits of four expired contracts!
Let's go back in time to the early 2000s, Real Madrid, as always, being the regal and royal football club of Spain. The team had just won the Champions League at the start of the century. Their chairman, a Spanish businessman, Florentino Perez formulated a genius idea to snub all the world's greatest footballing talent and create a team of celestials hence the name "Galacticos". Money never seemed to be the problem, Perez had pockets like the Mariana trench and the cash never seemed to end. Fast forward three years later, Real Madrid had bagged an arsenal, hosting the likes of Zidane, Figo, Beckham, Ronaldo (R9), and many of the other stars of football. Hence, Real Madrid became the best of the best ready to dominate and conquer every inch of football that stood ahead of them and it looked like it was really going to happen, fans of other clubs were scared and began losing hope!
What really unfolded though was worse than mediocrity. A few measly cup trophies and two league titles were all that came out of the 300 million Euros of signings. That was almost 5 times what PSG had paid, however, history could also repeat. Like in the past, the expectations on the team's shoulders are vast. They may fail but at least they won't have a shameful pricetag.