Christophe Galtier is on the verge of being announced as the new head coach of Paris Saint-Germain having left his job at Nice after just a season in charge.
The Ligue 1 champions have reached an agreement to terminate the employment of current boss Mauricio Pochettino, who still has a year left on his contract, with a redundancy payout of up to €15-M according to the French media. With the PSG players returning to training next week, the club is keen to get their new man in and they will have to pay his old club for his services.
PSG have paid Nice a reported €8-M for the services of Galtier, who had two years left on his contract, and the 55-year-old is set to move to the most ambitious club in France with all the pressure that brings.
But he is the man who led Lille to the 2021 League title, stunning the Parisiens in the process; so he doesn’t need to do anything to earn their respect.
One way of moving the deal forward quickly would be for PSG to offer Nice some players in return as the champions do need to trim down their squad before they can strengthen, but Nice will be asked to play ball and that is by no means certain.
Either way it’s all but a done deal.
As soon as PSG’s pursuit of Zinedine Zidane came to an end, PSG moved quickly to lure Galtier, who had made a name for himself taking St. Etienne to their first trophy win in over three decades when they won the 2013 Coup de la Ligue in 2013.
But his greatest achievement was the Ligue 1 win with Lille just a year ago and it was there that he worked with Luis Campos, the current PSG director of football. Galtier’s move to Nice meant he was only apart from Campos for a season as the two have now reunited in the capital city.
As well as recruiting at the top of the club, Campos is overseeing the Parisien’s transfer business and there are reports circulating in the French media that the club is working to bring Inter Milan’s Milan Skriniar to Paris.
PSG want to include Julian Draxler in the deal but Inter want cash and the expected price is around €80-M. Campos, and Galtier will have work to do to get this deal over the line after their first offer of €60-M was knocked back, and Premier League giants Chelsea are also keen on the player, having lost their centre-back Anton Rudiger.
The London club has some leverage with I Nerazzurri as they have just allowed Romelu Lukaku to return to the San Siro.
Last week, the SBOTOP research team took a look at the prospect of Lens centre-back Jonathan Clauss moving to Chelsea, but that won’t affect the Skriniar situation as the Blues need at least two new defenders.
Saliba heading back to Arsenal
In other Ligue 1 2022 news, William Saliba will return to Arsenal for the 2022/23 campaign after a superb season as centre-back at Olympique Marseilles.
The 21-year-old centre back signed for Arsenal for £27-M back in 2019 and has been loaned out since. After a series of dominant displays for OM, Saliba earned five caps for France this year and Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is now ready to give him a chance in the Premier League.
Olympique Marseilles have made some preparations for the departure of their loan man with the signing of centre-back Samuel Gigot from Spartak Moscow. The 28-year-old defender is known for his passion and all action displays and his willingness to join the attack.
OM are joint second favourites to win the 2022/23 title at a price of around 14.00 according to the latest Ligue 1 2022 betting odds, and the other team fancied to push PSG the hardest is Lyon, who have welcomed striker Alexandre Lacazette after five seasons at Arsenal.
He’s a fan-favourite in Lyon, born in the city and having scored 100 goals in 203 games for them between 2010 and 2017. Lacazette will now link up with Cameroon striker Karl Toko Ekambi and that is a mouthwatering prospect for OL fans.
Up in Lille, Portuguese attacking midfielder Renato Sanches is the subject of speculation around a move to AC Milan. PSG have been sniffing around, but Milan officials are confident they’ll get their man.
And Lille are also looking for reinforcements at centre-back as the highly-rated Sven Botman has been signed by Premier League big spenders Newcastle United.
With Galtier heading off to Paris, Lucien Favre is back in Nice as head coach. And Favre is heading off a bid from Galtier to take Kephren Thuram, the son of Les Bleus legend Lilian to Paris. The Nice board has said “Galtier can leave without the players”.
That’s him told!
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