Laurent Blanc stated earlier in the summer that any future departures from Paris would be replaced. With the news that Lucas Digne has moved closer to joining AS Roma on loan, it’s no surprise that the Ligue 1 champions have been rumoured to be interested in an array of left-backs.
One surprise, on Wednesday afternoon, was the breaking rumour that AS Monaco’s Layvin Kurzawa was on the brink of joining the capital club.
L'accord définitif pour @layvinkurzawa entre les différents parties est très proche. Question d'heures.
— Nicolas Hortus (@NicolasHortus) August 12, 2015
Digne is set to follow Yohan Cabaye’s lead, ending his Parisian purgatory with a move to the Eternal City. Unhappy with his role playing Maxwell’s understudy, he has pushed for a move to try to rescue his chances of playing at Euro 2016. Not satisfied with taking the former Lille player’s place in the France squad, Kurzawa is obviously eager to replace him on the Parc des Princes bench.
It is a move that could do damage to Ligue 1’s reputation – and one that all but rules out any level of competition.
PSG are a huge team. He'll be a great signing…but why? Monaco need to have a bit of respect for themselves. Everyone has a price…
— Andrew Gibney (@Gibney_A) August 12, 2015
Let’s get the PSG bit out of the way first. They have silly-money, they can buy whomever they like with only Manchester City in any way able to compete. That being the case, Kurzawa is a potentially world-class left back so why not break the bank to have someone of that quality as a back up to the ever-green and -excellent Maxwell. The deal makes entire sense to them – as most things do when you have the riches of Croesus.
So what of Monaco? Well more money in the bank is always nice. And the club has clearly shown over the last two years that they enjoy making big profits on players – since Kurzawa has been with Monaco all his pro career, every euro they get will be a bonus. However, now that owner Rybolovlev has sorted his divorce proceedings and the club has been let off its €50 million tax-substitute dues, Monaco are hardly in urgent need of fire sales. They have built an extremely exciting squad of young talents who are through to the final round of Champions League qualifying, are some people’s dark (albeit jet black) horses for a Ligue 1 title tilt and have three wins in three competitive matches so far this season. And Layvin Kurzawa – scorer in all three of those matches – was seen by all as a central part of the coming campaign.
If Monaco want to indulge their fetish for profit then it is hard to begrudge them – they have done it numerous times over the last two summers and have rarely come to regret any of those moves thus far. However, barely any of those sales have been to other French clubs. Lucas Ocampos to Marseille hardly seems worth a mention; Valère Germain’s loan move to Nice is the other that springs immediately to mind – and look how that worked out – Monaco falling behind to Germain’s opener minutes into the Ligue 1 season.
Monaco sanctioning Kurzawa’s move to PSG seems out of character and self-defeating. It is not as if Kurzawa doesn’t have a list of clubs overseas keen to court him. Why strengthen an immediate opponent? Is this an admission that Monaco don’t see themselves as able to compete with PSG? What is Monaco’s end-game here? Last summer there was clear logic in selling James Rodriguez for a huge profit and for trying to do the same with busted flush Falcao. This summer’s sales of Ferreira Carrasco and Kondogbia were slightly more perplexing but, again, they brought in the cash to potentially more than compensate for the losses, whilst ensuring that the players went abroad. The sale of Kurzawa, weakening their team while strengthening a direct rival’s, is beyond comprehension.
How about Kurzawa himself? In his defence, although still only 22, he is now Monaco’s longest-serving player, has been part of the first team for five years and has experienced ups and downs with the club, including their short spell in Ligue 2, so he may feel he is ready for a change. However, this is a potentially huge year for the left back.
He hit the headlines in 2013/14 with some excellent displays and, as Digne rotted on the PSG bench, he looked like the new favourite to take over from Patrice Evra as France’s number 3. However, last year Kurzawa failed to push on. Injuries affected his form, he was far less assured in defence and nowhere near as productive on the offensive side; and he lost some public goodwill with the foolhardy taunting of Sweden’s U21 players in the Euro play-off, which came back to bite him sharply.
This year was always going to be huge for Kurzawa (and Digne). Evra can’t go on forever. Tremoulinas has failed to impress when picked for France. If Kurzawa could rediscover his best form, a place in France’s Euro 2016 squad was his for the taking. And he began this season like a train, scoring three in three, looking back to his best in defence, and showing signs of a frighteningly good understanding with Cavaleiro and El-Shaarawy on Monaco’s left.
Fitness-permitting, he is the indisputable Monaco starting left back. Play well all season, arguably force his way into France’s starting XI, have a good Euros – next summer Kurzawa could name his club and his price.
Instead, he is risking it all to move to PSG. To more likely than not be the club’s second choice left back, with even more pressure piled on him to perform when given an opportunity (something with which Digne has notably struggled to deal). Fail to get sufficient game time and he could easily fall behind Evra, Digne, Amavi and Tremoulinas in the France set-up and therefore miss the Euros entirely. And things may not improve next season.
If Digne only goes out on loan, he could come back to the capital and leapfrog Kurzawa in the queue. If Kurzawa wants out, will PSG be prepared to sell him for a big loss or expect someone else to pay the high fees that they paid, for a player whose stock will have fallen?
In a league dominated financially by one club, it is inevitable that moves take place which dismay the neutrals as the balance shifts even further in one direction. However, one can usually see the benefit to the seller and the player in question. There is no doubt that neutrals will be dismayed should the Kurzawa move be completed. But this one would hurt all the more because it is very hard to see how anyone, except PSG, benefits.
