So, here we go again, then. Another episode in football's longest-running soap opera, starring Kylian Mbappe and Paris Saint-Germain. But surely this is the final season? Surely this can't go on any longer? Surely both parties will realise that they're better off without one another?
The penny finally dropped for Leonardo at the beginning of July - albeit too late to keep him in a job. The Brazilian spent three seasons working with Mbappe at PSG before being sacked as sporting director last summer - and has only recently realised that the forward's ego is too big for Parc des Princes.
"For the good of PSG, I think the time has come for Mbappe to go, no matter what," Leonardo told L'Equipe. "Paris-Saint-Germain existed before Kylian Mbappe and it will exist after him. He's been in Paris for six years and, over those six seasons, five different clubs have won the Champions League (Real Madrid in 2018 and 2022, Liverpool in 2019, Bayern Munich in 2020, Chelsea in 2021 and Manchester City in 2023), none of which had Mbappe in their ranks. That means it's entirely possible to win this competition without him."
The wonder is why it took so long for Leonardo to accept that by ceding to nearly every Mbappe request, PSG effectively created a monster and on July 21 the inevitable was finally confirmed. The Parisians' poster boy is officially up for sale.
Christophe Dugarry called all of this four years ago...