Is it time to rip up the Paris Saint-Germain masterplan and start again? Well, they're arguably already half way there – because the entire project is already in tatters after Wednesday's last-16 loss to Bayern Munich.
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This year, PSG's campaign ended with a whimper. There was no excuse for Nasser Al-Khelaifi to go looking for the referee. There had been no contentious call. There hadn't even been a characteristic capitulation.
PSG had simply been beaten by the better team – with an emphasis on the word 'team' – meaning another painful inquest is now inevitable. Because make no mistake about it, things were meant to be different this year.
Earlier this season, coach Christophe Galtier argued that PSG's new project shouldn't be judged solely by Champions League results. But how could it not be? It was Al-Khelaifi himself who told L'Equipe that they had to win the European Cup within four years – back in 2014.
By their own metric, then, the sporting project at the Parc des Princes cannot be viewed as anything but a humiliating failure.