5 worst transfers of the Ligue 1 season: Big stars, hard landings
What a difference a year makes.
Before Monaco took both domestic and continental competition by storm, Paris Saint-Germain was the crown jewel of French football. Four titles on the trot, the last of which by an absurd 31-point margin, and Nasser Al-Khelaifi's pet project could do no wrong.
A year on, and there's talk of an early exit for manager Unai Emery, and questions about Patrick Kluivert's appointment as Leonardo's successor for the director of football position. Even at his most unruffled, it's hard not to detect Al-Khelaifi's dissatisfaction, and much of it stems from recent failings in the transfer market.
Related: 10 best transfers of the Ligue 1 season
PSG is in a position of privilege not afforded to its Ligue 1 brethren. Revenue boosted by worldwide popularity that dwarfs the profits of its peers allows the capital club to spend big while others are forced to opt for more resourceful channels.
Regardless, no club can hide from the reach of the lousy transfer, and with a number of lapses by Les Parisiens looming large among some blunders from the league's lesser sides, here's a look at the worse transfers in Ligue 1 for the 2016-17 season:
5. Eder - Lille
Eder seems like a nice fella who genuinely enjoys his craft, which makes this that much more painful, but here's the thing; he's a bit ordinary for a club that should harbour European ambitions.
When Lille saw enough from a half-year loan with Les Dogues to chuck Swansea City a few million quid, the south Wales side was happy to recoup nearly what it paid to pry the Portuguese Euro 2016 winner from Braga. Lille is strapped for dough, Swansea needed some cash to offset the cost of Garry Monk's premature sacking, and the move worked for both sides in the most prudent fashion possible.
That said, six goals in 31 league appearances isn't going to cut it, and outstanding performances - one of which was a surreal Man of the Match outing against Guingamp in April where Eder ended a near-six-hour goalless streak - are too few and far between.
4. Hatem Ben Arfa - Paris Saint-Germain
French football's merchant of the mercurial, Ben Arfa siphoned the fumes of a bounce-back campaign at Nice into a free transfer to Paris Saint-Germain on a two-year deal where the 15-time-capped France international promptly fastened his bottom to Unai Emery's bench.
For all of Emery's miscues, picking his best XI wasn't one, and Ben Arfa simply did not fit into a 4-3-3 that thrived on ball movement and the work of incisive wingers likes Angel Di Maria. And if the first-half of the season was a hollow gift, the January move for Julian Draxler was like getting coal in your stocking.
With just five starts in the league, Ben Arfa was largely a non-factor, and his three goals in the Coupe de France will do little to inspire a second campaign at the Parc des Princes. Hardly a spring chicken at 30, Ben Arfa's 17 goals in 34 outings at Nice now seem like a distant memory, and its unlikely Emery - or whoever bosses Les Parisiens next season - will find a use for the dribbler.
3. Grzegorz Krychowiak - Paris Saint-Germain
No stranger to France after cutting his first-team teeth with Bordeaux before spells with Nantes and Reims, Krychowiak's return to Ligue 1 wasn't supposed to be like this.
A vital part of the last two of Unai Emery's Europa League treble, the Polish Euro 2016 standout followed the Basque boss to the Parc des Princes for a reported €30 million and immediately appeared a square peg to Emery's preferred 4-3-3. With a midfield trio of Blaise Matuidi, Marco Verratti, and Adrien Rabiot able to move the ball swiftly against largely inferior opponents that didn't necessitate a tough-tackling DM, Krychowiak's stodgy but effective ball-stopping and deliberate movements were without need.
With just seven league starts paired with a quartet in other comps and a scant five 90-minute appearances, Krychowiak's addition is a bizarre one that doesn't appear any more viable next season, even with a certain exit for Thiago Motta and talk of Verratti's return to Italy.
2. Jeremy Menez - Bordeaux
Two-footed, deceivingly quick and technically elegant, Menez has always been on the doorstep of an elite tier just out of reach, and since breaking through with Sochaux, some of the continent's biggest clubs have invested in his upside and not his performances.
Monaco, Roma, PSG, AC Milan, then, Bordeaux, now 30 years old, Menez returns to France with expectations tempered, and minutes into his preseason debut two days after signing with the club, Didier Ndong steps on his head.
Menez would play 26 times in the league for Les Girondins and a handful appearances in the cups, and it's not unfair to say he was really poor. Whether as an attacking mid or pairing up top with Diego Rolan, Menez was a shadow of the player who scored 16 goals in 2014-15 with Milan, and Bordeaux youth movement benefited with him on the bench.
After a first-half sending off against Montpellier in December, Menez's name became a scarcity on the team sheet as the club made a second-half charge, and manager Jocelyn Gourvennec managed well without the Frenchman as rumblings surfaced that the player wasn't buying into the Bordeaux ethos. Another shame on a career where the performances rarely match the potential.
1. Jese - Paris Saint-Germain
It can be a frustrating task trying to crack a front-three of Benzema, Bale, and Ronaldo. Ask any number of Real Madrid's forwards past or present, and ask Isco, who finally has his time to shine in light of Bale's recurring appointments with the treatment table.
One of those players was Jese, who after nearly a decade calling the Spanish capital his home swapped it for the French variety. The €25-million fee bought Florentino Perez a yacht and maybe, just maybe, Jese could help fill the void left by Zlatan Ibrahimovic's departure. Spoiler alert: he didn't.
A start and a goal to go with Al-Khelaifi's admission that Jese's transfer was a "mistake" and the Spaniard, 24, jetted off to join hometown Las Palmas in a loan move where PSG undoubtedly covered more than its share of the wages to persuade the modest La Liga island darlings.
Back to the perpetuity of footballing limbo for the slyly young Jese, who returns to Paris with four years left on a cumbersome deal that PSG desperately wants rid of.
(Photos courtesy: Action Images)