PSG Transfer, Champions League & Ligue 1 Odds Under Mauricio Pochettino

On 2nd January, Paris Saint-Germain appointed former player Mauricio Pochettino as manager of the club following the sacking of Thomas Tuchel.

Tuchel lost his job following a fall out with PSG’s hierarchy after stating that he felt “more like a politician than a coach” and also criticised the club’s transfer strategy, as he requested sporting director Leonardo to find him a centre back replacement for Thiago Silva, who left on a free transfer to join Chelsea in the summer.

Instead, the club signed FC Porto’s defensive midfielder Danilo Pereira, who Tuchel often played at centre-back to prove a point to the PSG board. When sacked, the German had the best win percentage of any manager in Ligue 1 history with 75.6%, but also found the club in third place and way below what is expected of any PSG manager.

We take a look at Pochettino's odds at PSG, and see whether or not he can bring in the likes of Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli.

Pochettino who managed Spurs for five years has been linked to many of his former players of late, such as Eriksen, who was already at Tottenham prior to the Argentine's arrival. Eriksen was instrumental to his play throughout his time at the club, especially in the 2015/16 season where the Denmark international managed to get 21 goal contributions in 35 matches, as Pochettino’s side fell just short in the race for the Premier League title to eventual champions Leicester City

Eriksen to PSG is priced at 5/4, as the former Ajax man moved to Italian giants Inter Milan last January in what has turned out to be a bad career move, as he has fallen out of favour under Antonio Conte having underperformed since his move to the San Siro. Inter Milan director Giuseppe Marotta has also recently confirmed that Eriksen has been transfer-listed by the club.

Dele Alli is another out of favour attacking midfielder who looks as though his time might be up at his current club, as he has come under a lot of criticism from Spurs manager, Jose Mourinho. Alli, who was signed by Pochettino at Tottenham in 2015 from MK Dons was a revelation when he burst onto the Premier League scene, as in his first two seasons he managed an incredible 46 goal contributions in 70 league games by the age of 21 years old. Since the start of the 2018/19 season, the England international has struggled to regain his form for Tottenham, and so far this season, he has played just 74 minutes in 17 league games under Mourinho, signalling that it may be time for the 24-year-old to move on from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Alli is priced at 4/7 to move to PSG to reignite the relationship he had with Pochettino and could be available to leave Spurs either on loan or on a permanent deal, however, it is unlikely that Daniel Levy will allow Alli to depart for a cut-price fee as he has a contract at the club till 2024.

PSG have a huge fight on their hands to keep star players Kylian Mbappe and Neymar, as they both have contracts that run out in the summer of 2022. Mbappe has been linked to a move to Real Madrid ever since he joined the club from AS Monaco for €180m in 2017, with many photos emerging of the Frenchman on social media accounts claiming that he is a Los Blancos fan. With Real struggling to find a natural replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo since the Portuguese man’s departure to Juventus in the summer of 2018, and the fact that Mbappe doesn’t have long left on his deal in Paris, within the next 18 months would be the best chance to lure the 22-year-old away from the Ligue 1 side to the Santiago Bernabeu - Mbappe is priced at 7/1 for a move to Real.

Both Liverpool and Barcelona have been linked with Mbappe this transfer window and have been priced at 9/1 and 12/1, however, it looks as though the Anfield club will be looking for a centre-back this January rather than a striker, as long-term injuries to the likes of Virgil Van Dijk and Joe Gomez have caused the Reds to falter of late in the league.

Meanwhile, Barcelona have looked cash strapped under the current financial climate, as they were unable to sign Memphis Depay from Olympique Lyon for £35m in the summer. However, Lionel Messi has been linked to PSG and has the odds of 6/1 to join the French champions, with the Argentinian looking very unsettled at the Catalan club.

Neymar has been linked to leaving PSG too, with Barcelona captain Messi hinting that he would like to play in the same side as Neymar again one day, who he won the treble with back in 2015. The Brazilian’s contract runs out in the summer of 2022, meaning that the Parisians are under severe threat of losing the man who they paid a world-record fee of £198m for back in 2017.

At present, PSG currently sit third in Ligue 1, just a point behind both Lille and Lyon, with all three sides playing 17 matches. Despite this, the champions are priced at 1/6 to win the league, due to the quality in their squad, as well as their superior financial muscle, as plenty of French clubs are set to struggle financially due to Spanish TV company Mediapro’s £2.75bn broadcasting deal collapsing last month.

The last time PSG failed to win Ligue 1 was back in 2016/17 under former Arsenal manager Unai Emery, as they fell short to a star-studded AS Monaco side that had the likes of Mbappe and Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva. Apart from this, they have won every other league title since the start of the 2012/13 season when their financial takeover really got moving.

In the 2019/20 season, the French giants won the league title by 12 points ahead of Olympique Marseille after 27 matches following the curtailment of the league. If Pochettino manages to win Ligue 1 as he is expected to do so, then it would be his first-ever league title as a manager.

PSG are the fifth favourites to win the Champions League at 12/1, despite reaching the final of the competition for the first time in the club’s history last season, where they were beaten by eventual champions and treble winners Bayern Munich 1-0 in Lisbon.

The French side scraped through their qualifying group ahead of RB Leipzig in second and condemned Manchester United to a place in the Europa League, having taken pole position in the group when they beat them on matchday five 3-1 at Old Trafford.

Pochettino will be desperate to try and win the biggest prize in club football, having taken Spurs to the final in Madrid in 2019, where his sides fell short against six-time winners Liverpool, losing 2-0 on the night. It is no secret that PSG are desperate to win the tournament, having spent heavily on the likes of Neymar and Mbappe as mentioned above in their pursuit to do so.