Was there a moment, back in August, when Christophe Galtier wondered what the fuss had been? Did he watch his Paris Saint-Germain team smacking in 21 goals in their first four games of the season and think how easy this all was? Take what is probably the starriest forward line in the history of the game, let them play and watch the brilliant goals stack up. Lionel Messi, after a disappointing first season in Paris, was re-energised. Neymar, playing alongside his mate, was thriving. And Kylian Mbappé …
Well, what was Mbappé? He was still impossibly quick. He scored four goals in those first four games of the season, but the signs of discontent were already there. Of course they were, for this is PSG, where discontent is ever-present, a club described by a recent former manager as “a nest of vipers”. Mbappé may have just, thanks in part to the intervention of the president of the republic, Emmanuel Macron, snubbed Real Madrid to sign a three-year contract extension worth around £50m a year and with a £100m signing-on bonus, but he wasn’t happy.
